Brentford owner Matthew Benham has revealed what he believes has been important in the success of both the Bees and his former club FC Midtjylland.

Benham recently sold his majority stake at Danish side FCM after nine years at the club, during which time they won the Superliga on three occasions and competed regularly in the Champions League.

And, speaking to Bees United, he discussed the small but significant changes he made when first taking over the Nordic club, which ultimately led to Midtjylland's title wins in 2014/15, 2017/18 and 2019/20.

Benham highlighted set-pieces, recruitment and “embedding the right people in the right places” – all factors that have also played a significant role in Brentford’s achievements.

“[FCM] had had financial challenges and had agreed for me to come in and invest, so they were open to ideas as a result,” he said.

“There weren’t that many changes implemented, but one example would be a bigger focus on set-pieces at the time, which went really well.

“In hindsight, a lot of the success came as a result of them having some pretty good quality individuals in the building at the time - particularly in terms of set-piece takers - and people who could finish them off.

“One other thing was a change in focus on recruitment - we identified Tim Sparv and brought him in, and he was a bit of a marker for a new era at FCM.

“While they did have some good players in the team already, some really good players in fact, Tim Sparv was not a player that FCM would have naturally looked at as part of their recruitment before.

“So, I think that was probably a Brentford-style transfer. The change was in motion at the time and, with me coming in, I was able to put my vote in, and so the recruitment strategy changed subtly following my arrival.

“That change was really the main thing and there wasn't anything else really drastically different. I wasn’t throwing grenades into both clubs and saying, ‘Make this change, make that change.’

“At this point, it was very much about good quality work by Phil [Giles] and Ras [Rasmus Ankersen] at Brentford, and then what Ras was doing at FCM.

“So, really, change was more about the influence from the people who were involved in both clubs and what changed things in both clubs was embedding the right people.”

He added: “People overestimate how much is the ‘data’ and underestimate how much is improved decision making and structures - like how do ideas get implemented, how do you use data, and everything else you have available to you to make decisions.

“You can fire as much data in as you like from Smartodds or anyone else; it is the decision-making that is important, and I think they have good people on the ground there making decisions.”