The Brentford story - how do they do it?
Why has a small neighborhood club in London become so successful?
Brentford has cumulatively defeated Manchester United and Liverpool, the two biggest historic clubs in England 7-1 this season at home.
So how has Brentford FC, which spent close to 75 years consecutively outside the top flight of English football, become so successful?
I’ll preface I have long had a soft spot for Brentford because the club’s former ground, Griffin Park was one of the last things you see while landing at Heathrow, and also because I knock around the London Borough of Hounslow a fair amount when traveling to and from the UK.
In early 2010, I was so fascinated by Brentford, then in the third tier of English football, I sat mesmerized listening to Jeff Cooper of St Louis, the owner of the our NASL club (AC St Louis) in the city and then a Brentford board member talk about the neighborhood feel of this tiny club he had invested in.
All of this having been said, it’s sort-of local rival QPR, from the working class district of Sheperd’s Bush just to the east of Hounslow in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham , that I have connected with especially in the wake of the Superleague fiasco and UAE support for Russia, which has me sour on my traditional club Manchester City (don’t get me wrong, I still want City to win the league every season because I loathe the other “big” sides, but at my heart I am still a small club person).
Speaking of Manchester City, who have won four of the last five Premier League titles, Brentford beat them in November at the Etihad, so let’s dive deeper into the Bees success without any further adieu.
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