4️⃣ The 4 Key Decisions Behind Brentford FC's Rise to the Premier League

Brentford Football Club are one of my favourite stories in all of sports.

Fifteen years ago they were in the third tier of English Football. Today they sit comfortably in the Premier League with their owner Matthew Benham on the verge of selling the club for £400m!

How has the club ascended so quickly?

Which of their moves had the biggest impact on the success of this West London football club?

Today, I dissect the key business decisions they made along the way.

Before we dive in, Jose Mourinho recently went on Rio Ferdinand’s podcast. On that visit, Stephen Howson asked him “what is the key to success at a club?”. He responded:

Well, Matthew Benham, Brentford CEO established chemistry very quickly.

As a result, take a look at the revenue of Brentford in its last 4 seasons!

That, ladies and gentleman is the power of Benham’s vision (and the lucrative power of the Premier League)!

Here are the four key decisions that helped Brentford get there since Benham took over

Key Decision 1: The Purchase of FC Midjtylland

Benham bought FC Midjtylland in 2014 for €6m. This acquisition seemed strange at the time but Benham knew that his ideas and his philosophies would take time to bear fruit at Brentford so he purchased this Danish club to:

1. Test his data-backed ideas

2. Use the club as a breeding ground for players

It didnt take long for the purchase to bear fruit.

Have you ever noticed how many Danish or Scandinavian players have played for Brentford? Here is a sample of just five that you may recognise:

• Jonas Lossl

• Christian Noorgard

• Mathias Jensen

• Mikkel Damsgaard

• Kristoffer Ajer

There’s more too!

Jensen was club captain for several years. Ajer was once their club record signing. All of these were a by-product of Benham’s Scandinavian exposure in the mid-2010’s.

Six years later Benham sold the club for €60m allowing for even more funds to re-invest into Brentford.

Genius.

Key Decision 2: The Closing of the Brentford Academy

Key Decision 3: The Unwavering belief in the Transfer Policy

If you’ve been a long time subscriber of TLP you will know that I have done a shortform video on this which covers both of these two points together so I’m grouping them into one here.

Benham famously used a data-backed approach in all of his business decisions and kept that same approach for his transfer policy. The strategy was a simple one:

• Spot talent young using data

• Buy for cheap

• Sell for profit

In the mid-2010’s Brentford made some amazing profits on players providing a great cash position for a smaller club without sacrificing team quality.

• Scott Hogan €950k —> €10.5m

• Andre Gray €620k —> €12.0m

• Ryan Woods €1.35m —> €7.25m

These profits are amazing for a club like Brentford and allowed them to re-invest that money back into the club.

In addition to this Benham noticed that many of his top academy players were being poached by bigger clubs far too often. In the summer of 2015 bright talents Ian Poveda (Manchester City) and Josh Bohui (Manchester United) left the academy and it led to a shock decision to shut the Brentford Academy completely.

By doing this Brentford saved £2m per year and were free to play whoever they wanted. It also meant that they could command “proper” fees for their young players.

Chris Mepham was the best example of this, coming through the Brentford B team and being sold to Bournemouth for €7.25m later. Something that probably would not have happened had he been in the Academy!

A shrewd move which has since been mimicked by many clubs.

A move which takes us to the last one:

Key Decision 4: The Construction of the Gtech Community Stadium

The best way I can show you how important this is to Brentford is with this graph showing the matchday revenue of the club in the last 10 seasons:

Benham knew that Griffin Park wasn’t going to cut it long term so he set his sights on a new, more modern stadium.

An interesting tidbit of information too, the hospitality seats available:

• Griffin Park: 660 hospitality seats

• Community Stadium: 3,000 hospitality seats

Not only did the stadium bring a higher weekly gate. They sold the naming rights to Gtech in a reported £10m deal, the largest commercial deal in Brentford’s history at the time.

A year later, they got promoted to the Premier League and created a pathway to even greater commercial revenue!

Recently, Benham appointed the firm Rothschild to oversee the sale of Brentford where he is seeking a valuation of £400m!

If successful, this will conclude one of the most impressive runs as an owner we’ve ever seen.

See you next week.