Bees keen to emulate Saints – Crown
Brentford chairman Cliff Crown says the club are keen to emulate Southampton.
The Bees have controversially decided to replace manager Mark Warburton and his staff because the club wants a European-style structure that will include a head coach and a director of football.
It is a model the Saints have utilised to take them into the top four of the Premier League.
“We’re aware of a number of clubs that work under this structure and the one that seems to work well is Southampton, who’ve done remarkably well,” Crown said
“I’m hopeful that the outcome will be the same as when Southampton swapped Nigel Adkins for Mauricio Pochettino, but there’s no guarantees.
“We haven’t spoken to anyone at Southampton but I’m sure we will do. We know it’s a model that works primarily in Europe, and we’ve spoken to plenty of people on the continent, but we want to give it a go in the British game.”
Warburton has been praised for developing a successful group of players he has played a key part in putting together as sporting director and then manager – and he has been able to veto suggestions from the owner Matthew Benham and the board.
But Brentford have insisted their new head coach will not have the same control over incoming players and Crown admits that could be problematic.
“Potentially it could cause problems but I think it would be foolish to bring in someone that the head coach has a strong objection to. There’s a difference between having a veto and having an opinion,” he said.
“The way in which we foresee it happening is that the director of football will make recommendations that the head coach will be able to see clearly is either the right player for the club or not.
“Everything’s a concern when you’re making a change but we think we will approach it in the right manner and ultimately get the right results.
“It’s about the long-term sustainability of the club and if there’s a short-term cost to it then that’s something we have to live with.”
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