Senior figures from Brentford Football Club answered supporters’ questions at a Fans’ Forum last night.

From 6.30pm until 8pm yesterday, Thursday January 29, Brentford Chairman Cliff Crown, Chief Executive Mark Devlin, Sporting Director Frank McParland, Manager Mark Warburton and Assistant Manager David Weir answered queries on a range of topics.

Questions came in from all around the world as the forum was broadcast live on the Club’s YouTube channel.

Among the topics covered were the Club’s playing budget, which Crown and Warburton estimated was in the lowest third of the Sky Bet Championship, contract negotiations with Jonathan Douglas – “ongoing” – and how the Club does its transfer business.

McParland said: “We try to do our work under cover.

“We will never say where we are or what players we are looking at.

“We keep our business in house, which is the professional way to do it, but we can’t control other clubs, agents trying to get more money.

“We will not get in to an auction; if that starts we generally drop out.

“We know a lot of good players we think we can bring to the Club.

“We won’t spend too much money on the wrong player.”

Answering a question on the potential of spending multi-millions on players, McParland added: “We won’t be spending £10m on a player in the Championship but in the Premier League you may need a striker.

“We are sensible with our business and we are happy where we are.

“Who knows what will happen in the future, if you are in the Premier League you have to compete.

“Our aim is to get there.

“I am proud of the work rate of the players, we say no to some skilful players that don’t work hard enough.

“Our fans don’t accept players that don’t work hard enough for them.

“We are happy with our business but there are players out there we will spend money on.

“All our contracts have clauses to lower wages if we go down and increase if we go up.”

Warburton added: “We have to look at good examples.

“Burnley were under the radar and one of the favourites to go down when they went up last year.

“Now they have invested in infrastructure, their training ground and are investing for the future.

“They are also holding their own in the Premier League.”

Devlin addressed the forum on whether Griffin Park would meet Premier League requirements if the Club was to win promotion.

He said: “The stated position is that we would like to stay at Griffin Park if we are promoted.

“We have submitted a form detailing what we are able to do to meet Premier League criteria.

“We need to be aware we can’t meet Premier League criteria fully in almost all aspects but we are willing to upgrade floodlights, changing areas and the pitch.

“The biggest challenge is the media requirements of the Premier League.

“We are aware of what we need to do and the first requirement is the Premier League have told us they want an all-seater stadium.

“I would like to think if we make progress in other areas we may be able to get away with terracing until we leave Griffin Park.

“We have had discussions with several stadia and clubs – Wembley have given us a magnificent amount of money we would need to pay to play there.

“QPR and Fulham are prepared to have further discussions but QPR have said they have a problem with their pitch and, let’s be honest, they will have a PR problem if we are in the Premier League and they were in the Championship.

“We have also spoken to Reading but they have an issue as they have London Irish as tenants.

“We also spoke to Twickenham, Chelsea and Harlequins, who have ruled themselves out for a ground share.”

There were questions on Financial Fair Play, the Club committing to London Living Wage and the new stadium project.

Warburton spoke about his commitment to the long term project at Brentford but added 16 Championship bosses had already been sacked and the nature of football was that if football teams lose games, managers come under pressure.

Crown said: “You have all said what a wonderful job Mark is doing.

“We, the board, wholeheartedly endorse that.

“We will sit down at the end of the season and evaluate the position but we are committed to retaining Mark as manager of this club.

“If one of the top four or five clubs came in for Mark – and I say that because we can’t discount that, he is probably the best manager outside the top three or four in this country, he has proved that over the past 12 months – we wouldn’t stand in his way.”

Warburton added: “It is a team job, everyone here works tirelessly.

“People like David, Frank, the medical team, the analysis department, the best Kit Man in the business and the support we receive from people at Griffin Park and [Brentford Owner] Matthew Benham enables us to be as strong as we are.”

Warburton confirmed Brentford would be looking to go to America for pre-season and play two friendly fixtures.

He said he expected Middlesbrough, Derby County and AFC Bournemouth to be in contention for promotion at the end of the season.

Weir added: “I think the best moment of this season is still to come.

“We say to the players that they have a fantastic opportunity going in to February being competitive at the right end of the table.

“We have a good squad, a settled squad and we want more.”

The Fans’ Forum can be seen in full here.