Having fared poorly in the Championship for aerial duels last season, they addressed that this term by signing Pinnock and Jansson. "They spend a lot of time ensuring the players they sign are the right type for the dressing room: they wanted to get rid of any dressing room bullies that thought they ran the place," Grant says. It has taken them to the verge of the Premier League. Guided by owner Matthew Benham, a former professional gambler, they had the fourth-lowest wage budget in the Championship last season, and their record signing stands at the £5.85 million they spent on Bryan Mbeumo last summer. "This is so important.
(1:11)Previously, those flying over west London would have seen a snug stadium with fading advertising on its roof, red-painted seats, pubs at its four corners. Start a 7 day free trial today!Brentford finished mid-table in the 2018/19 Championship season, but Benham is aware that all the money spent on the club will pay dividends in the future. Not only was he now the owner of SmartOdds, but he was also a professional bettor.Matthew Benham (left) also owns Danish club Midtjylland. He calls it "contextual awareness. They now stand joint top of the Championship on percentage of shots on target (34.8%), third for pass completion in the attacking third (79.4%), third for overall possession (57.8%) and second for XG (75.89) and XA (52.99) -- all remarkable improvements on the previous season's tallies.A lot has changed since then, especially in the world of transfers. Then they turn to scouts and databases to profile the player and decide if they'll work for their system. "We're definitely one of the top three teams in the division, and where people used to be writing us off, they're now praising us. You need the full picture. It's all done in the name of minimising risk.The all-conquering All Blacks rugby side of 2008-15 that won back-to-back Rugby World Cups had a policy that the team is always bigger than the individual. It's much misunderstood -- people say: 'Oh, Moneyball, these guys came along and applied stats to baseball'... Moneyball's idea wasn't about using any old statistics, but statistics as an academic and scientific exercise to see what stats actually helped predicted things.
Ankersen now uses Newcastle's fifth-place finish from the 2011-12 Premier League season as a prime example for the "table of justice" theory, arguing the stats dictate they should have finished far lower, but were fortunate -- Newcastle finished 16th the following season. Credit: Søren Palmelund - The GuardianAfter his time in the world of Finance, Benham started working as trader for Bloom’s Premier Bet, which is a sports betting bookmaker.Over time, the supporters have fallen in love with Benham after many years of success, you’ll often hear a few songs of praise for Benham from the stands.Sign up with your email address to receive our latest articles and videos to help you improve as a sports traderBenham’s overall career earnings form sports betting are completely unknown, but in terms of the betting industry, he’s had just as big of an impact as anyone!But by the 21st century, and yes you guessed it, he moved in the betting world!Brentford playing at Stamford Bridge in 2013.
"With Rasmus Ankersen as chairman -- he now serves as co-director of football at Brentford with Phil Giles -- they started looking at "football's inefficiencies," as Ankersen puts it. They were scoffed at when they first started using analytics and data to scout players. It's number-crunching and analysis like you wouldn't believe. A February 2015 statement announcing Warburton's departure at the end of the season detailed Brentford's new direction, adopting the European model of a sporting director and head coach.Steve Nicol looks ahead to the "psychological battle" Brentford will face vs. Swansea in the playoffs. "But even if we do go up, if you speak to those supporters who have been around for a long old while, they will talk about the journey and will say their favourite days were the trips to Accrington Stanley or Wrexham. Regardless of which division we're in, we'll still always remember Wrexham and that horse. Grant remembers those afternoons in the early days of the Benham era when unknown players would arrive from all corners of Europe. Guided by owner Matthew Benham, a former professional gambler, they had the fourth-lowest wage budget in the Championship last season, and their record signing stands at the £5.85 million they spent on Bryan Mbeumo last summer.
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