Brentford Technical Director Lee Dykes believes the recent transfer window highlighted the club’s philosophy of finding and signing talented, young players.

Five players joined the Bees over the summer, with free transfers Ben Mee and Thomas Strakosha joined by Aaron Hickey, Mikkel Damsgaard and Keane Lewis-Potter in West London.

And, whilst admitting it was 'scary' to spend over £30million on the latter trio, Dykes insists that he has full faith in both the recruitment and coaching teams.

“Listen, it’s still pretty scary for Brentford to spend over £10m and we’ve just done it three times this window,” Dykes told The Athletic.

“When I joined in 2019, our record fee was £2.3m. When we spent £5m twice on Ivan Toney and Bryan Mbeumo, everybody was going, ‘Wow. In two years you’re spending all this?’

“But then you balance that with the likes of Ben Mee coming on a free transfer. Plus, we’ve kept hold of our best players - that’s two years running. And we’ve got Josh Dasilva back. The medical team have been fantastic with him. He’s like a new signing.

“We have our own way of working, we’re open-minded, looking to innovate, to out-think the opposition, not out-spend them. We back our recruitment, our coaching, and our fantastic manager. There are so many good people at this club who don’t get headlines and we’re all allowed to do our jobs because the ownership is so good.”

Dykes added: “The job at Brentford is to identify players early. The longer a player plays, the more bigger clubs know and once you’re competing with Arsenal or Manchester United or whoever, as a football project, generally, we’ll lose. They have just too much to offer.

“We’ll move on to the next one and we’re comfortable with that. That’s where you have to back yourself, and stay true to your model. We want to sign players other clubs are unsure of - that’s exactly where we want to be. You’ve to spend wisely, plan, and realise the asset value of your investments."

The club also made numerous B Team signings over the summer, adding to Neil MacFarlane's squad ahead of their maiden Premier League Cup campaign.

Ryan Trevitt became the latest B Team player to make his First Team debut after coming on as a substitute in our win over Colchester United in the Carabao Cup, while Fin Stevens moved to Championship side Swansea City on deadline day.

And Dykes explained how the club’s B Team model is helping to find and produce players who are ready to feature for Thomas Frank's side.

“Ryan was flagged up through our network, came in on trial, impressed us, and our B Team coaches have done a great job with him,” he said.

“He’s got a similar mentality to Fin and, like Fin, has come from non-league. It shows you don’t have to be a player dropping out of a top academy. Fin was on the bench 29 times in the Premier League. So we can show that to other young players, there’s a real pathway at Brentford.

“Ryan has stepped up in training with the First Team. He’s going in the right direction, he actually played against Arsenal in a pre-season game and scored and assisted, one of the best players on the pitch.

“We’re not alone, other clubs have similar stories. But we’re still doing it.”