Brentford's B-Team model explained: Does scrapping your academy work? 

Which Brentford player has most impressed you so far this season? 👇

This model works well as long as other teams continue to have academies and you can take the players they have developed. If too many teams do this the number of players to pick from will diminish.

In Portugal even top clubs have a B team (as well as U23). It's a key stepping stone in the players development. Same in Spain, Germany, etc

@8:55 Gael Kakuta just turned 30 and he's now at Lens

This is brilliant, never heard of this. Another great talking point about Brentford

Love the Brentford model one of the best run clubs in world football.

I didn’t expect to be saying this but there are aspects of what brentford are doing that clubs like Barca could benefit from. I’m not suggesting Barca should scrap their academy. Rather the way they manage their B team. Barca B is constantly battling to remain in the highest tier of Spanish football they’re allowed to play (la segunda) getting relegated to lower divisions is problematic for the club because it makes it harder to keep the best emerging talents because they don’t wanna get hacked down constantly by a bunch of has beens In the lower tiers. It doesn’t help their development to be playing at such a low level. I’d rather see Barca organize their opponents for Barca B and focus on player development rather than league position and being desperate to avoid relegation. I think Barca B could benefit from playing youth teams of strong teams and select first teams of smaller clubs that play excellent football in closed door friendlies that really put the players skills to the test in ways that they wouldn’t when playing lower division teams that may approach the game with a win at all costs mentality that results in dirty play which doesn’t adequately prepare the youngsters for top flight football. As it is anytime a youngster shows promise the first thing the club and player aims to do is to get promoted to the first team as possible and to get the hell away from the B team. I think it would be better if the B team was seen as less of a hell hole that needed to be escaped from but rather an important development stage that prepares the player better so that they can slot into the first team faster and make an impact sooner

This Is actually a fantastic piece. What type of contacts are these B Team players on? Can they still offer YTS / Scholarships, or are they all on full time and or youth contacts, as they select and sign these B Team players after they’ve been released from other clubs?

Well done Athletic UK! I hope you all do one on the Danish, UK, French, or other positive cultural influences/impacts to Brentford F.C.

You're not aware that the Spanish B-teams play in their 3rd division in Spain? In Germany they play in the 4th tier, Regionalliga. In Austria they allow 3 top clubs to compete in the 2nd tier. It's important to give the young talents the opportunity to play against adults. Nowhere else is it so restricted as in England. The 2nd, 3rd and 4th tier regular clubs in those countries aren't thrilled either to play those B-teams, but they don't get a choice. It slightly hurts the lower division clubs, but it's a huge advantage for the development of the young players on the top end.

Very interesting video. I'm pretty conservative when it comes to football and I believe that football clubs should represent their communities. I don't think you can do that with a B team model. It's of course a very clever way of trying to catch up to the big teams who steal all the talent in the entire country. I think poaching youth players should be regulated much harder. The way the B-team model has been used elsewhere in Europe is an absolute travesty. Letting them compete in the main league system is absolutely insane when they keep stepping on the little guys. We have to protect the small teams. This isn't the way to do it. Also, Brentford is doing the same (poaching) with, for example, nordic talents.

Spain, Portugal and Germany all have B teams. A lot of them are in the second division. Players like Bernardo Silva, cancelo, matic, jovic, Ivan cavaleiro, Hélder Costa and Nuno Tavares are where they are now because they played for benfica b team

This is quality journalism S/o to Jay Harris

8:31 is that an actual Bee😁 following IT. Do they have trained Bees assigned to every player?

Super interesting conversation

While it definitely works for Brentford and may work for other clubs their size, I think their is a prestige element associated with a good academy. In the way that clubs want to win trophies for the prestige, having a famous academy is also a point of pride: look at Barca, Ajax, Benfica, and, more recently, Chelsea. Clubs are not just driven by money (though that is a recent trend), they are also driven by a desire for glory.

Excellent podcast.

Except Brentford sign a lot of ex cat 1 academy players after they are released by their club. So this clearly was cost driven originally. The irony now is with changes to the rules thanks to Brexit and FA changing rules on u21 players from abroad. Brentfords access to B team players is much reduced, unless they recruit ex academy players. With Brentford now being a Premier League club, a Cat 1 academy would be an acheivable goal if tied to the improvement of Brentfords training complex. The reality is you don't have to be a premier league club to have a Cat 1 academy. But your academy not being Cat 1 is a problem. By definition it means medical facilities, pitches, teaching facilities, all weather pitches, indoor facilities etc are not there. So it's really easy to pilfer the kids showing them a flashy academy and facilities . The issue is it costs a decent chunk of money to run them every year. Then to actually put in the level of facilities required is potentially expensive. However if two or three make it into the first team then they pay for themselves. In the savings on transfer fees, wages and potential sell on/clauses. Also owners can spend on academy facilities without breaching FFP. A lot of them however choose not to. I really don't understand why clubs don't fund first team and academy facilities together.

I got scouted and offered to join brentfords youth academy a few years back, couldn't go because I was moving very soon but still its interesting to see how well they are doing.

Most effective way to first team is very good idea!! While the media make it look like brentford will not even tty evolving young ppl around their area, but in reality they might have the beat way!

but when pep talked about the B team model everyone slated him

Wrong to say Ivan Toney dropped down he was over looked and came through Northampton. He made his debut at 16 before moving to Newcastle at 19 And was loaned out every season twice. He played very little reserve football ever

Flo has a lovely lovely voice

Is there a middle ground? Have an academy but replace an u23 team for a B team. Allow the that level to contest at professional level, isn’t that what happens in Europe?

A step beyond the B team model, is to have a farm team, in the lower league's, Man U should have bought Bury, the city and redbull groups doing this already, even the Watford owners, Brentford to some extent also owning multiple clubs

Rangers B team is one of the best outside spfl and players are constantly getting put into match day squads because of their performances

If you talk to ajax players they always talk about the growth of playing in the kkd (dutch second division)

thats why it has take a revision of football in england i heard.

It "works" for us other lesser clubs may not be as successful

Why is this news in England while it has been done for years in countries like Portugal, Netherlands, Spain and many European countries.

Will this hurt the national team in the long run ? I mean it sounds like less academies will result in less local players

They have but they haven’t at the same time

Seeing Chelsea lose like 5/6 of their u23 squad for barely nothing, I now know how the smaller clubs feel about their youngsters. The more it goes on, the more smaller teams will probably go with this model.

:-)) Like your work

B teams are better model for clubs .....but.....I would rather have hundreds of kids in academies away from the streets

bUt BrEnTfOrD dOnT hAvE dEpTh

And danish fc midtJylland got same owner, even that fc midt Jylland are a fusion club from 2 clubs on north part of denmark Fc midt Jylland has become a Power factor in danish football, before it was almost only fc copenhagen and brondby with few other clubs shines up from time to time Many scandivian players are around denmark before going out on europé So brentford are harvesting many good players like Christian norgaard Best team in denmark almost offer The same as Netherland Ajax and osv When ur Comes to raise up players