Re: Which youngster will break through this season?
Great news surely! He's gone there to develop by playing a lot of first team football, getting a good start could be vital.
Brentford is as good a place as any to go on loan. A club very much on the up and it's in London.
Their current manager, Mark Warburton, is an interesting guy. He began his playing career as an apprentice at Leicester City under Frank McLintock and later dropped into non-league football with Enfield, winning the 1981/82 FA Trophy and the 1982/83 Alliance Premier League title, after taking a dislike to new Leicester manager Jock Wallace's methods, later saying "he was a Marine. We had runs on sand-dunes, running until we threw up. I learned a lot from that, never treating a player that way". Moved to the US in 85 and played a bit there before cruciate injuries ended his career.
Worked as a trader before taking up a part-time role at St. Clement Danes School in Watford. Looking back in 2014 on his time in the City, he said "I was a currency dealer for the likes of Bank of America, AIG and RBS. I was getting up at 4:32 for 20-odd years, leave the house at 4:52, get the 5:02 train into Liverpool Street, at my desk at 5:45, getting home at 7pm and take phone calls through the night, orders from New York. I was well paid, good at what I did. There was a lot of risk, a lot of pressure. My personal turnover would be £1.5 billion to £2 billion a day".
He later said to his wife, "we have the money in the bank, the house is paid for, our lifestyle won’t change. I want to do this: 10 years to achieve something in the game. It’s now or never". After leaving his trading job in the early 2000s, he spent his own money travelling around Europe, watching coaching sessions at Sporting Lisbon, Ajax, Valencia, Barcelona and Willem II. Warburton was offered a permanent coaching job with Watford, at U9 through to U16 level and was appointed manager of the academy in 2006. After a reshuffle in 2009, he became assistant academy manager for U17 to U19 age groups. While at Watford, he established links with Harefield Academy. Warburton left Watford in February 2010 to "pursue other sporting interests".
Warburton and sports TV producer Justin Andrews met in 2005, while working on the Inside Soccer project. The pair formed Cycad Sports Management in 2010 and through the company they launched the NextGen Series, an U19 club cup competition. Brentford owner Matthew Benham was also a backer of the competition.
In February 2011 he was appointed first team coach at Brentford to assist caretaker manager Nicky Forster. "I got a call from the owner at 1.30 in the morning, asking if I would come in to assist Nicky. I didn't know a lot about Brentford or know any of the players, so I stayed up for the rest of the night looking at player profiles". Forster was later given the role on a permanent basis until the end of the 2010–11 season. Forster and Warburton applied unsuccessfully for the manager's job in the summer of 2011 and the position went to Uwe Rösler. Warburton commented that he was "disappointed and annoyed" about failing to secure the manager's job.
Warburton was retained by the club and moved into the role of Sporting Director in the summer of 2011, a new position created by an internal restructuring of the club. His role included dealing with agents, club finances and contracts, in addition to scouting young players and recommending them to the management. Warburton's links with the academy at Watford saw Brentford sign a number of players with Hornets connections. Also helped Brentford achieve Category Two academy status in July 2013 and they opened a new purpose-built facility last year on the grounds of Uxbridge High School.
After Rösler left for Wigan he eventually got the manager's job and helped recruit former Liverpool academy chief Frank McParland as their new Sporting director. Brentford went 19 games unbeaten before he suffered his first loss, at the hands of Wolves. Got them promotion with a win ratio of almost 63%. Definitely one to watch and a good place to be for younger players IMO.
