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Brentford, at their core, are a small club outperforming their overall stature
at 16:06 19 Jul 2025

Funny you should mention "big clubs of the 30's etc".

Brentford got promoted to the (old) First Division for season 1935/36 (were in 3rd Division South as recently as 32/33) and finished 5th - London's top team. Played 4 seasons in the top flight until football was suspended for the war, but got relegated in the first full season after the resumption (46/47) - another addition to Hitler's long charge sheet!

Probably didn't imagine it would be another 76 years before they got back, mind, but that's football for ya!

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Brentford, at their core, are a small club outperforming their overall stature
at 23:51 18 Jul 2025

Not the full story.

In 2012, when BFC were in League One, they opened a Category 2 Academy, one of only two operating at that level below the Championship. They spent a ton of money on it, including building a £1m+ Training Centre at a local college, where the Academy boys were getting their education.

Then 3(?) years later, the PL bunged the EFL a measly few quid, in return for imposing a rule which now limited transfer fees for Academy players to a £50k cap. BFC then lost two of their best prospects to Man City and Liverpool for £100k, when they might reasonably have expected 5 or 10 times that amount prior to the rule change.

So the owner decided he wasn't going to spend serious money just to produce players for the PL big boys, and closed the Academy. (The college got to keep its shny new Centre).

Instead, the club came up with the new concept of a "B" team (not Reserve or U-21), to take players who had been released by top Academies at 18, who they reckoned were released prematurely and might still do a good job id given more time. This initiative has proven successful, eventually being copied by a number of other clubs.

Then when they got promoted to the PL, they reinstated their Academy, having (I think) to start at a lower Category, but since risen to Cat.2 This was partly because it is a PL Rule that clubs must have an Academy i.e. I'm not sure that it has to be as high as Cat.2?

Anyhow, afaik they were more influenced by it being a UEFA requirement if they were to play in Europe, which reflects the club's long term planning and ambition. Meanwhile, the club has also spent a packet in upgrading their Training Ground, which will be used by the Academy, as well as the rest of the club's teams:
https://www.brentfordfc.com/en/news/article/club-news-brentford-begins-construct

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