Alan Walsh is Brentford's Operations Manager. He has been in that role since Brentford have ascended into the Premier League.
Walsh joined Nathan Murphy on The Football Show to discuss how the club has evolved the last decade.
As Walsh attests to, Brentford isn't known in England. People don't know where it is and even now as they play in the Premier League it's not likely that many fans would be able to point to it on a map. But Walsh notes that is part of the beauty of the development of the club.
"It's very much a people's club," he said.
"We're very open and welcoming to new fans, to new supporters and even existing supporters because they've gone through a lot of pain over numerous years from playoffs. Even from like struggling as a club with financial hardship before our owner Matthew Benham assisted.
"From probably 2014 onwards you could probably see a shift and a different approach within the football side."
Brentford brought in two directors of football at that time. They changed the philosophy and their approach to how they handled players coming into the club and how they then developed those players. Since 2019, Brentford have sold Neil Maupay, Said Benrahma and Ollie Watkins for at least £20 million.
That money has been smartly reinvested in developing a Premier League squad.
"We've always stayed true to our roots. We develop players in a particular style."
Danish manager Thomas Frank is at the center of Brentford's success. He has been at Brentford since 2016.
"Thomas Frank. Great guy. He's full of energy, but actually we've always had managers from the time we got Dean Smith on board, Thomas was part of Dean's team...and he's slotted in, ultimately grown into the role. The fans and supporters have followed that journey.
"And ultimately he's had the days out when we managed to get to Wembley...from there his feet haven't touched the floor."
Frank is best known for how he celebrated Brentford's win against Arsenal in the first game of the season. He embraced a young fan passionately to match his joy after the final whistle. That was a snapshot of a great moment, but it's a reflection on how the manager is day-to-day as well.
"He loves it. Full credit to him, it's very infectious as well. He actually gets off on the supporters and he approaches it completely different...A different head coach might say I'm Premier League and I want to do this. Thomas doesn't take anything for granted.
"He puts in the hard work and so do the players. Ultimately I think the world is seeing what we're all about."
Every newly-promoted side just wants to establish themselves as regular Premier League participants. But as they showed in that win over Arsenal, Brentford have high ambitions. Walsh sees Brentford as aiming for the Champions League.
"In all honesty, we're not here to make up the numbers. We're not here to just survive. We're here to compete. We want to get into Europe. We want to play European football at the stadium. Whether that's Europa League or whether that's Champions League, that's ultimately the aspiration this season if not maybe for next season."
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