“When I was young there were two things I loved: one was football and the other was art."

Dave Flanagan became so obsessed with Roy of the Rovers, a comic strip about a fictional footballer, that he used to draw the characters on the wall of his bedroom at his home in Lancashire.

"I also became obsessed with my dad’s collection of old Manchester City and United programmes," Dave begins. "I kept all of them under my bed.” 

It was this love of football programmes that would eventually bring Dave and Brentford together and create a special creative partnership of people at the top of their game.

For 20 years, Dave worked as a commercial designer for a firm in Preston. "I was always doing illustrations in my own time but never thought of it as a job,” he says.

“Then I got a call asking me to do a drawing of David Silva for Manchester City. I thought someone was taking the mickey!"

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It led to City commissioning him to do drawings of all their squad, which they used in their stadium and elsewhere.

"It was dreamland stuff,” says Dave. “Social media was just taking off so I started posting and Arsenal got in touch, then Juventus, followed by England rugby and UEFA. I was doing all this while still doing a day job in the design firm.”

In 2018, Sam Marshall, who was in his first year editing the Brentford matchday programme, spotted Dave's talent on Twitter. “I saw a pencil drawing Dave had done of Alexis Sanchez and got very excited because I was keen to use illustrations on our covers the following season."

Sam invited Dave to design the covers in that pencil-drawn style for the Brentford programmes for the 2018/19 season. Dave had done some one-off covers for other clubs, but Brentford was the first time a club had signed him to do a whole season of artwork.

A lover of programmes, Dave says that Brentford was “a perfect job". When he went full-time on his own as a football illustrator, the Club became one of his regular clients. 

“Brentford have become my second club after Man City,” says Dave. “I really like the philosophy of the Club and the way they do things.”

Sam adds: “I think Dave enjoys the freedom he has to discuss with me how to approach each cover. He loves working on the project and I love working with him. I think he's incredible - the best in the business."

One of Dave’s most striking images was of a Brentford robot.

Dave's other work is progressing well, too. Last year he was invited to do some of the illustrations that were animated into the title sequence for the BBC's coverage of the Euros.

It was Dave's equivalent of reaching the Premier League.

Dave was then invited down to Brentford for the first Premier League game against Arsenal. Throughout the season he produced a constant flow of high-quality work for the programme covers.

Sam explains: "We decided that there wasn't going to be one overarching theme. Dave has a spectrum of styles that range from the really basic and quite abstract to the incredibly detailed. We wanted to jump along that line all season and keep people guessing; it was that randomness that maintained freshness. If you're not careful, programmes can become wallpaper after a while."

Dave has two favourites from last season. One was for the Crystal Palace match: "I liked the idea of bees taking on an eagle."

His other favourite was the programme cover for the West Ham game, featuring an Ivan Toney penalty.

Sam says: "The Ivan Toney one became a labour of love for Dave - I don't think he realised what he was taking on!”

At the end of last season, Dave was able to look back on his work.

Now Dave and Brentford are ready for a second season in the Premier League.

2022/23 Match Programme subscriptions are available now. The subscription includes all 19 Premier League home games, and any potential home cup matches. Programmes will be sent via first class mail the day before the fixture