Michael Olakigbe Joins WSG Tirol on Loan from Brentford

Brentford winger Michael Olakigbe will spend the coming season in the Austrian Bundesliga after completing a loan move to WSG Tirol, the latest stop in a career already defined by constant movement and fresh tests.

The 20-year-old, part of Brentford’s B setup, heads to the Alps on the back of a busy spell in the English lower leagues. He spent the second half of last season with Swindon Town in Sky Bet League Two, where he finally put together a consistent run of games and showed flashes of why Brentford tied him down to a long-term deal.

Arriving at Swindon in January, Olakigbe made 18 appearances in all competitions. He started six of those, scored once, and added three assists. Not headline-grabbing numbers, but enough to underline his ability to affect games when given responsibility and rhythm.

Now comes a different kind of examination: a new country, a new league, and a club that spent last season walking a tightrope.

WSG Tirol finished seventh before the Austrian Bundesliga’s league split and then had to scrap to stay clear of the relegation group, eventually surviving by just three points. It is the sort of environment where intensity rarely drops and where a young winger willing to run, press, and commit defenders can quickly become valuable.

“It’s a good opportunity for Michael to go and test himself again in men’s football, but this time abroad and showcase what he can do,” he said, framing the switch as the next logical step in a carefully managed development plan.

From Saunders’ perspective, the pattern is clear. Olakigbe has sampled the Football League. Now he has to prove he can adapt his game to a different style and tempo.

“From his loans in the Football League, it’ll be interesting to see how he goes and expresses himself abroad,” Saunders added. “I’m sure that he’ll get some great exposure and some good learnings, and we look forward to seeing him when he gets back.”

Brentford have invested in him. They handed Olakigbe a long-term contract in November 2023, during a season in which he broke into the first team and made eight Premier League appearances. That taste of top-flight football arrived early, but what followed has been more rugged and more real: a series of loans where nothing is guaranteed and every game matters.

The carousel started turning quickly. In January 2024, he joined Peterborough United on loan, featuring in five league games as Posh pushed for promotion. That campaign ended in frustration, with Peterborough falling in the League One play-off semi-final.

The setback did not slow the schedule. By May 2024, Olakigbe was on the move again, this time to Wigan Athletic. He played 18 times there before Brentford recalled him mid-season and sent him straight back out, this time to Chesterfield Town in January 2025.

At Chesterfield, he walked into another high-stakes environment and another promotion chase. Once again, the journey stopped at the semi-final stage, with the Spireites bowing out in the League Two play-offs.

Two play-off near-misses. Four different loan clubs in three seasons. A handful of Premier League outings with Brentford. Now Austria.

This is not the smooth, linear rise of a prodigy. It is the grind of a modern winger trying to turn potential into permanence. Brentford clearly believe the next phase of that journey is best served away from England, in a league where technical quality is high and tactical demands are different.

For WSG Tirol, the deal brings in a young wide player with experience of pressure situations and the physical edge of English football. For Olakigbe, it offers something harder to measure but just as important: a chance to step out of the familiar loan circuit and prove he can shape games in a new setting.

If he does, the road back to Brentford’s first team suddenly looks a lot shorter.