Thomas Frank has been full of praise for new coaches Justin Cochrane and Ben Ryan this week, their first at Jersey Road since the summer break.
The Head Coach spoke to us yesterday, giving an update on the transfer window as well as looking ahead to improvements in West London.
“I love to talk about players that we have signed. Hopefully, sooner rather than later we have some new players that I can speak about and explain in detail how excited I am to work with them and develop them. There’s a lot of hard work going on behind the scenes, a lot of long hours, we are working hard on it.
“Zanka had a relatively big injury at the end of last season so he is still doing his rehab here. We’re more than willing to help him and put him in the best place. I think it’s important that all of our players, whether or not they are getting a new contract with us, have been part of our journey and so we want to make sure they are in a good place. That’s why you’ll see him in the training pictures at the moment.”
Three players from the B Team were promoted over the summer; Paris Maghoma, Fin Stevens and Matthew Cox. Thomas told us that each one of them had deserved their place in the First Team group this season.
“They are three very talented players. Starting with Fin, I think he has done well. He trained with us for almost the whole of last season, progressed more and more before getting a Premier League debut. We have big belief in him so I think he earned his promotion to the First Team group.
“Same with Paris, he’s been a little bit unlucky with injuries but got more and more consistent with his performances. He’s another talented player that we believe a lot in.
“Matthew came in last year, we’ve seen a huge development from him and he’s just won the European Under-19 Championship with England, along with Dan [Oyegoke]. It’s a big statement from us that we can name two players in the starting eleven of the England Under-19 squad. That’s really impressive.”
The coaching staff saw two additions in the arrivals of Justin and Ben over the summer and Thomas was keen to explain how they will be able to move the Club forward.
“It’s a good sign of who we are. At Brentford we try to be on the front foot in every aspect, we want to be innovative. Instead of reaching a plateau with our staff, we want to push on and reach the next level. That applies to the players as well as the staff, who can bring more experience and quality. Both Justin and Ben will one hundred per cent do that.”
The Bees are heading to a training camp in Germany next week, making a change to their summers at St George’s Park over the past couple of seasons. Thomas is excited to get going in a new setting.
“I’m really looking forward to going abroad. It will be really good to go to Germany and work on some details in different surroundings. It’s a top place we have found, it will be great and we are playing a few good games down there. It will go very quickly and we’ll suddenly be playing Leicester away but I’m sure we’ll be ready to attack that day.”