Huddersfield Town, who are now onto their seventh manager/head coach in the past 18 months, are emulating Brentford and going down the B team route. There's even a Watford connection with Leigh Bromby being their Head of Football Operations. The aim is to make it as easy as possible to transition from age level football to the first team and have been relatively successful already before making this final step. The owner has a hint of Pozzo about him with his hirings & firings as well as previously (still?) being involved with transfers so it'll be interesting to see if he can stick to trying to promote youth if it doesn't go well initially. Their choice of Head Coach looks good after nabbing Carlos Corberan from Leeds and the B Team will be managed by Danny Schofield, the pair having worked together at the Elland Road club. https://trainingground.guru/articles/huddersfield-replace-under-19s-with-b-team
Wow, their form in the second half of the season (plus the fact that I believe they were the worst team in the division for dropping points from winning positions) suggests they'd be in enough trouble without that! They were third going into Christmas, eight points behind Leeds (who funnily enough they beat 2-0 away after the decline had started) but they picked up only 17 points from 23 games, which started with a collapse at Stoke when they lost 3-2 after going into second half injury time leading 2-1. As if their fans haven't already had more than their fair share of kicks in the teeth. It could be at least 23 seasons outside the top flight for them...
Do people want Brentford or Fulham to win this evening? Which would provide less competition in the Championship next season? If Fulham lose one would expect Mitrovic will be sold in the summer, and if Brentford lose at least Benrahma would probably go.
Yes. I think the Brentford fans will want Brentford, whilst the Fulham fans will be rooting for Fulham. I'm not certain, it's just a hunch.
Brentford are more deserving imo. Great model that they've stuck with unwavering faith over the past few years. Plus being the only club in the world with a Head of Set-Pieces wins them extra kudos with me!
I saw a Linkedin post of some guy claiming to coach throw-ins at Liverpool (though he might not have been full-time there)!
Ah yeah, Thomas Gronnemark - he does coach throws part-time there (and at Ajax and others!) but Brentford are deffo the only club to have someone with the job title Head of Set-Pieces (although club has someone who's job that technically is, although it's usually the assistant manager or GK coach)
Brentford have had some interesting specialist coaches. Set-piece specialist? Not so strange. Ball striking coach? Okay, that's a new one. Sleep coach? I mean, who doesn't have a sleep coach!?! This from February 2019 shows they are willing to invest time & money in different approaches to help develop players. https://trainingground.guru/articles/ankersen-how-backroom-investment-pays-off-for-brentford It's all well and good buying young players to sell for profit but a club has to put money into the coaching system to develop them. Hoping they'll develop by playing out on loan or occasional appearances for the 1st team or U23s is shortsighted.
A lot of clubs are now really paying attention to sleep now (this is a good read on it: https://www.fourfourtwo.com/feature...ng-performance-enhancer-nobodys-talking-about). I think now both Tottenham and Man City have accomodation at the training ground where the players stay the night before a home game so that their sleep can be properly controlled where their rooms have black-out blinds and have to wear special glasses when looking at their phones to block out the blue emitting light or something. Can't seem to find where I read that now but i've definitely read it somewhere!
Want Brentford to go up so it completes the Premier League status quo. 1 promoted team being a “big club” back where they belong - Leeds 1 promoted team being everything wrong with football - WBA 1 promoted team being the plucky underdogs that everyone loves - Brentford On a serious note though, I think Brentford deserve it. They have been building every season and have been in the play-offs 8 times only to never be promoted. Would be nice to see them in the Prem. Fulham will lose Mitrovic for starters. When you lose a striker that guarantees 20+ goals a season in the championship that is a massive hole to fill. Can see him going to Leeds if Fulham don’t go up.
What a brilliant article, thank you for sharing @reids. It's a no-brainer sleep is important but I would never have guessed the extent shown in that piece. Fascinating stuff. The detail, down to a particular wallpaper type, at Manchester City's training ground complex was in this piece (near the end) and mentioned along with Swansea's 30 inflatable napping pods!
Was a terrible game until extra time. Neither side looks as good as even Aston Villa were last season. I bet Fulham are pleased they held off from selling Joe Bryan to us last year. I'm pleased Fulham went up ahead of Brentford, if only because I'd have been annoyed if another PL club had ended up buying Mitrovic had they lost. It also gives us a bit of hope that bouncing back isn't impossible.
I thought I'd add this in here as there are a few posts about specialist coaches and Brentford are linked due to having the same owner. A piece from Sunday about Midtjylland and their analytic approach. It isn't in-depth but it's a nice reminder as to where the game is heading by using data. https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...ed-footballs-data-revolution?CMP=share_btn_tw
