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Brentford are promoted to the Premier League. And who best to ask about HOW that happened than Phil Giles and Rasmus Ankersen – Brentford’s Directors of Football.

With lockdown easing, Beesotted were back where they are most at home. In the pub.

And in true Brentford style, Phil and Rasmus were more than happy (too happy I would say) to come to the pub for an evening hosted by Billy Grant and Dave Lane – just as Head Coach Thomas Frank did before them – to eat, drink, talk with the fans invited to the event and chat for two hours on the Beesotted LIVE podcast on everything Brentford

The two-part podcast is a must-listen, even if you are not a Brentford fan and you can catch both parts below.

It is fascinating listening to two of the most successful Championship Directors of Football being so open and honest with fans about how they do their business. And the things that have affected them, and the club, in a relaxing environment.

In Part 1 points of discussion included:

  • Phil Giles’ and Rasmus Ankersen’s younger days living in Newcastle and Denmark respectively. How did they come to join Brentford? Did Rasums really play professional football? We even hear from Giles’ mother and brother
  • Phil and Rasmus’ early days a Brentford – post-Warburton. What did they have to do to get the club on track in the way they wanted it to go?
  • The relationship between FC Midtjylland and Brentford FC and the fact that Brentford are huge in Denmark now meaning everyone knows them and all the top players want to play for them
  • Rasmus Ankersen was probed about Brentford potentially signing Nigerian international Frank Onyeka from FC Midtjylland
  • Why did the academy close? What was the whole process which caused the academy to close and the B-team to be created? Will we ever open an academy again?
  • Post-Warburton, Brentford bought in a new manager. And a load of new players. Loads and loads of new players. Things didn’t quite go to plan in that period. They talked us through that period. What went right and what went wrong in the period and why?
  • Which player we signed most surprised the fans the most?
  • Brentford and transfers. Signing players like Janelt and Ivan Toney. How do we find these players? How do we do these deals?
  • How has COVID and Brexit affected the way we do our business?
  • How do Phil and Rasmus share the Director of Football roles? Who does what?


In Part 2 points of discussion included:

  • How do you transition from finding a player for the Championship to finding a player for the Premier League?
  • The Ivan Toney deal from Peterborough. What exactly happened? How close were we to have had Watkins, Toney and Benrahma in the same team?
  • Which player we signed most surprised the Directors of Football the most?
  • What exactly happened when we Birmingham signed Jota, Dean and Colin from us on transfer window day?
  • Which players did try and get that we missed out on who we regretted?
  • Which players who were recommended by fans did Brentford pick up on and also miss out on?
  • How has Brentford’s transfer hit rate been with UK-based players as opposed to overseas players?
  • How has life changed for Brentford now we are in the Premier League?
  • How has Thomas Frank dealt with the fan negativity that he has received over the past year or so?
  • How different are Brentford to other clubs? Will other clubs be able to mimic us? How do we stay ahead of the opposition?
  • Why did Brentford turn down a deal last January for a winger they had lined up to sign?
  • Where are we going to strengthen next year?
  • How does Brentford’s “No dickhead’s” policy work?
  • Why did Brentford players stop taking ‘the knee’ without replacing it with anything?
  • How long is the DoF’s ‘New Player’ list?
  • What is Brentford’s vision now that we have got to the Premier League?

This podcast is brilliant. Funny. Insightful. Interesting. Reflective.

We very much hope you enjoy as we start to gear ourselves up for a season (hopefully more) of Premier League Brentford content.

We’ll give you more details in due course.

You can support Beesotted (no pressure) to help to keep us running by going to Beesotted.com/Beer where we very cheekily as you to buy us a beer. But beer really means web hosting. And equipment. And maintenance. And subscriptions. And photograph fees. And everything else that we have to sort to keep the show own the road. Oh and beer😀

And you can get our brand new Brentford Premier League T-Shirts at Beesotted.com/PremierLeagueTees