Inside Brentford: The hotbed of talent development with a valid claim for best club in the country

You are running a Championship club with hopes of promotion, and your best striker, the second top scorer in the division, has just been sold to a Premier League side for £16 million. What do you do next?

The obvious response is the one most clubs would make: gather up the money, buy a replacement, go again. Most clubs are not like Brentford, though, and in this part of west London the obvious answer is not always what the wider world might expect.

When Neal Maupay left for Brighton in August, Brentford did not panic. The long-term vision had been mapped out, and the natural step was for Ollie Watkins, previously a winger, to be converted into their new centre-forward. “We had a big belief that he could develop into a top striker,” says Thomas Frank, Brentford’s head coach. 

Five months later, Watkins is the joint-leading scorer in the Championship, where Brentford are firmly ensconced in the play-off places. “He stepped up,” says Frank. “He is now the best striker in the division.”

The transformation of Watkins, now worth at least £20m, is but one small example of Brentford’s way of operating. He makes for a good poster boy for their methods ⁠— signed from lowly Exeter City at 21, then developed with care and attention — but he is far from the only one.

These stories can be found all across Brentford’s training ground and, increasingly, at the training grounds of bigger clubs, too. Bournemouth’s Chris Mepham was developed by Brentford after being rejected by Chelsea and Queens Park Rangers. Ezri Konsa arrived from Charlton as a £2.5m player, then left a year later to join Aston Villa for £12m. Maupay cost £1.6m when he joined from Saint-Etienne in 2017.

And those are just the deals that Brentford, who face Leicester City in the FA Cup on Saturday, have made in the last 12 months. Their extraordinary success in the transfer market dates back years now, with Brentford laying claim to being one of the best run clubs in the country as the excitement builds ahead of their move into a new stadium this summer.

In the scramble to find out how they have done it, the attention has largely centred on their innovative use of analytics. The role of owner Matthew Benham, and his statistical-analysis company Smartodds, has resulted in the club being lumbered with the ‘Moneyball’ tag, which they strongly dislike.

Of course, they are underpinned by an analytical approach — “we are a data-driven club,” says Frank — but the story of Brentford’s rise is also one of teamwork, relationships, innovation, risk and, alongside everything else, the unexpected grief that came with the sudden death of technical director Robert Rowan in November 2018. Yes, the numbers matter at Brentford. But so do the people.

Fundamental to Brentford’s success, as with any club, is recruitment. Yet the model of buying low and selling high only works if they are able to improve their players, to increase their value. It is here, as much as in the analytics department, where Brentford have their edge.

It starts with having a genuine and demonstrable faith in youth, and accepting there will be times when this leads to failure. “We play a lot of young players,” says Phil Giles, the co-director of football. “That has been absolutely key because it allows us to demonstrate the pathway when we speak to the next young player.

“Last summer, when we sold Romaine Sawyers [to West Bromwich Albion], we already had Josh Dasilva. His progression had been a focus for 12 months. Josh came here [from Arsenal] because he looked at our historic record. So the club, having stuck to our principles, starts to sell itself to players.”

The more they trust in youth, the more attractive Brentford are to the next Maupay, Konsa or Watkins. “The most important thing in any conversation, from my point of view, is what players and agents think of Brentford,” says Giles, sitting in his unashamedly dingy office at the club’s training ground, which is set for heavy investment. “If they have got a young player and they need a pathway for them, I want the first call to be to Brentford.”

This will often mean sacrificing short-term results for long-term gain. After head coach Dean Smith left for Villa last season, and following Rowan’s sudden death of heart failure, Brentford endured a dreadful run of results. But where most clubs would turn to experienced players, they stuck with Konsa and Mepham, both aged 21, in defence.

For the club, it all comes back to the individual development of the player. “The idea is to focus on our best young players and say, 'we need to be certain that he comes through',” says Giles. In practice, that means investment in coaching — Brentford hired a head of individual development in September —  and identifying players with the right mental qualities. Frank has a “no dickheads” policy.

“We are designed to make players better,” says Frank. “A lot of clubs have data, but it is about how you use it. We try to get around every single player. Ollie, for example, will watch video clips with a coach every week. Some weeks it will be 10, some weeks it will be two.”

The scrapping of their academy in favour of a B team was a bold move, but one that allowed Brentford to focus their resources on developing their brightest talents. Having two directors of football (Giles is flanked by Rasmus Ankersen) is also unique. Other clubs increasingly like what they see, and it speaks volumes of Brentford’s progress that Manchester City recently poached their set-pieces coach, Nicolas Jover, and Arsenal took their goalkeeping coach, Inaki Cana Pavon.

The cynical, critical question is whether Brentford are too eager to sell, rather than looking to build a team capable of winning the Championship. It is an assertion they reject, pointing out that Watkins is not available this month, for example, and that they did not cash in on Mepham at the first hint of Premier League interest.

Within the squad, too, there has been a change of attitude this season. “Brentford is turning into a club that is more than a stepping stone,” says Christian Norgaard, who joined from Fiorentina last summer. “We are on our way to being at a point where you don’t have to move away.”

At its most basic level, the improved form can be put down to their newfound solidity at the back. Pontus Jansson was the most un-Brentford of signings when he arrived from Leeds United in the summer, aged 28, yet his experience has proved crucial. “Pontus was as much coming to us as we were trying to persuade him,” says Giles. “At the minute it is not a big sales pitch for me and Rasmus to go out and buy players.”

Seen as defensively weak for so long, Brentford currently have the best defensive record in the Championship. Frank and his coaching staff have specific details for every defensive situation, from open play and set pieces, and the players have learned to fight as a team.

“It has changed,” says Henrik Dalsgaard, who has been at the club since 2017. “We have that desire to defend. We have more players thinking defensively so the attacking players can shine.”

Watkins is the star man, but he has been supported in attack by the gifted Said Benrahma and another new signing, Bryan Mbeumo. Together they are known as ‘BMW’ and the excitement within the fanbase is reflected in the fact that Brentford have seen record sales of replica kits this season.

That provides a welcome revenue boost, although it is nothing compared to what they will earn from their new stadium at Lionel Road. The move from Griffin Park will increase Brentford’s capacity from 12,500 to 17,000 and, crucially, up the number of premium seats from 60 to 2,900.

In the short-term, both Giles and Frank do not expect the stadium move to drastically alter their day-to-day work. Over a longer period, though, the increased financial power will allow Brentford to dream bigger. Their current strategy is a result, in part, of their financial limitations. If those shackles can be loosened, even a little, then Brentford will be more capable of holding onto these players they continue to produce.

“We are currently in the relegation zone in the Championship in terms of commercial income,” says Jon Varney, the chief executive. “We are confident that by the time we have finished our first season at the new stadium, we will be in the top six.

“We want to be Premier League-ready, as an off-field entity. The more sustainable we can make the off-field activities, the more we can drive the income and the revenue, the more money we can put into the playing department.”

Finding players, developing players and selling players. Brentford do it, arguably, better than anyone else. If they are soon able to find, develop and keep those players, then who knows how high they could climb?