Now that the January 2024 transfer window is open, Premier League clubs are set for an important month of deals and negotiations. It is a busy time for those at the clubs responsible for identifying and recruiting players, such as Brentford technical director Lee Dykes.
Speaking to Brentford's official website, Dykes lifts the lid on how the Bees plan their signings, giving an intriguing insight into the work that is done to seal a deal.
Seven stages
“There are seven stages of recruitment that we operate within," Dykes says. “The first stage is narrowing down the 85,500 players that we cover to our 16 positions on the pitch, with the criteria that we set per position. That happens from an objective perspective from data, and also subjectively from all of our scouts around the world.
“Then you start to go into the second stage, which is the lead scouts working with the data around the world, in certain territories and regions, and putting down what they believe their top four players per position could be.
“Phase three is, from those top four per 16 positions, what’s the priority position we are looking for? And who are the ones that we’re really interested in?
“Stage four is me and two key members looking over that, comparing those players, and coming up with the best two or three players in all of the 16 positions.
“Then you start working towards stages five and six, where we’ll look at those specific positions and players, and decide which is our priority.
“Then Thomas [Frank, the manager] will be involved in those conversations, giving his thoughts and feelings. The other coaches - Claus Norgaard, Kevin [O’Connor] and Justin [Cochrane], or Neil [MacFarlane] and Sam [Saunders] - will be asked to assess the players, find out their opinions, and get their buy-in.
“And, finally, stage seven will be a final conversation between myself, Phil [Giles, co-director of football] and Thomas, where we will go, ‘Right, this one, this one and this one’, based on playing ability and potential, but also financial availability.
“Between me and Phil, we’ll decide who takes each individual deal forward, and we’ll try and recruit that player.
“In the end, it will be Matthew’s decision (Brentford owner Matthew Benham) with close guidance from Phil. He is a fantastic owner who generally backs us and trusts the process, but he does like to look at the information himself and give his opinion too.
“I think there could be a few interesting opportunities for us to do some business."
New opportunities
Brentford have been dealt a number of injury blows in 2023/24, with the likes of Bryan Mbeumo, Rico Henry (below) and Kevin Schade all sidelined for lengthy periods.
“We have had a few injuries, as people know," Dykes adds. "Rico is unfortunately going to be out for a long time, so we may look at that position as a position of interest, as an example.
“But then you have got to think about the fact that Rico will be coming back - what’s the plan, what’s the pathway for that player?
“So, there may be new opportunities. There normally is because you will always have injuries; you will always have interest in new players; you may have to take a player now as opposed to the summer because they will have a spike in their performances that you didn’t anticipate.
“We might have to rush through a signing because we think that if we wait another six months then this could go beyond our reach.
“I would say, as a whole, I think that January is a seller’s market, not a buyer’s market, and a market that we don’t tend to want to work in too much. We don’t believe that the valuations that are placed on players are as realistic as in the summer.
“But we always need to be active in the market, and sometimes you need to do something because you have an injury, or a particular situation has cropped up.”
In a wide-ranging interview, Dykes also explains how Brentford got the Mbeumo deal done in 2019 and the tactics he had to use to capture Ji-soo Kim from South Korea.
