Brentford’s first team are heading to the USA this month to take part in the Premier League Summer Series.

To whet the appetite, we caught up with Bradley Wright-Phillips, a former Bees loanee who took Major League Soccer by storm.

Some people believe in the mysterious ways of fate, others prefer coincidence.

Whatever school of thought you subscribe to, it is as though the time Bradley Wright-Phillips spent on loan at Brentford panned out exactly as it was supposed to, putting him on the path to unbridled success.

By the time he signed on 19 February 2013, he had established himself as a reliable frontman in the Championship and League One, while also having played more than 30 times for Manchester City in the Premier League.

A season earlier, he had scored 22 goals in 45 games to help Charlton out of League One, but after nine starts upon the Addicks’ return to the second tier, manager Chris Powell took Wright-Phillips out of the starting line-up for good.

From October 2012, his role was reduced to that of a bit-part player – and it would remain that way for the next four months until Uwe Rosler signed the former England Under-20 international in an attempt to ease the goalscoring burden on Clayton Donaldson.

Things were different in west London. Rosler’s men were seventh in League One, four points behind leaders Swindon Town and with at least one game in hand on each of the six teams above them.

Crucially, he was put straight into the starting XI and after getting back up to speed in his first seven games, really kicked on in the final eight of the season by scoring five times and providing one assist.

“That was one of the best dressing rooms I’ve been in,” Wright-Phillips says in an exclusive interview with brentfordfc.com.

“Brentford was the first and only loan I ever went on as well. But this wasn’t about me getting games in a mid-table side, it was to try and make some history and be a legend.

“I had tasted promotion the year before with Charlton, so I wanted to get that feeling again, which gave me extra motivation to go down there and be fighting for something.

“Uwe Rosler was quite intense, but his attention to detail was really good. I liked playing for strikers, especially successful ones, as he was at Man City. I liked him because he was very clear on what he wanted you to do when you went out on the pitch, so it made things easier. As a player, I didn’t like just being sent out.

“Back in the day, it was more about just gambling off the big man, with not too much detail. He would let you know where you were supposed to be and what he wanted the game to look like.”

The last of Wright-Phillips’ goals in red and white came in a wild 2-2 draw away at Sheffield United that saw three red cards and four penalties, only two of which were converted.

“That was a crazy game, one of the best we had when I was there,” he says, recalling the drama for the first time in years.

“I feel like we had a bit of a rivalry with them as they were up there fighting for promotion, too. I remember coming on and feeling sharp and because we were losing, I was just trying to get in behind.

“Once I got out on the left, I knew I needed to cut inside and get a shot away and then go and celebrate in front of the fans. It was an important goal, I remember that – I need to watch the highlights!”

Judging by his reaction to the mention of that Doncaster game, he would wince if he had to sit through the highlights package again.

“It was like that Troy Deeney goal for Watford against Leicester – and it was in the same season as well! I remember just hating [Marcello] Trotta at the time. Kev [O'Connor] should have taken that penalty – and it still lives with me today.

“The dressing room was so quiet afterwards. I don’t remember any shouting, I just remember having my head in my hands.”

Did losing the play-off final against Yeovil Town hurt more?

“Every kid wants to play at Wembley and simply losing there hurt, but the disappointment was because of the pen. We shouldn’t have been there and in that situation, even though it was a great day out for the fans. The penalty against Doncaster hurt a little more.”

As Brentford began the healing process, Wright-Phillips’ loan spell came to its natural conclusion and he was released by Charlton within weeks.

As it turned out, the play-off final turned out to be his last game in England.

“If we got promoted, I would’ve stayed at Brentford,” he admits. “I was having a great time there. I loved the boys, we played great football and it was a great place to be.

“But my agent looked after Thierry Henry, who was playing for New York Red Bulls - and they were looking for a striker.

“At first, they asked me to come and train and see how I liked it. As Brits, we are often ignorant to the MLS – we don’t really get to watch it, so we don’t rate it - so thought I’d go over and get a holiday in as well.

“When I got there, though, I saw the facilities were good and the stadium was unbelievable. When you throw in playing with Thierry [Henry], Tim Cahill and some big names, once I got here, I knew I wasn’t coming back.

“It’s a bit more difficult when you are in international player because you have to sort your visa and wait for an international spot to be available, so that part took a while, but it was a matter of days.”

After signing in July 2013, it was another month before Wright-Phillips made his debut, but what was left of the 2013 MLS campaign was about getting back up to speed again, just as those first few weeks at Brentford had been.

He was a different beast in 2014, though. And he credits playing with Henry in the Frenchman’s final year as a professional as a major contributing factor to his incredible haul of 31 goals in 37 games, which included 27 goals in the MLS regular season – the joint highest in history at that time.

“I’m a big Arsenal fan, so I couldn’t have asked for anything more. And he was a striker, not just any striker, but the greatest Arsenal player and I was on the same team as him. The way Thierry sees the game, us mere mortals can’t see it like that.

“I learned so much about football from him: movement, first touches, the way you take the ball, areas you try and get into. As a striker, knowing you’re going to get a chance in a game takes care of a lot and Thierry guaranteed me getting a chance every game.

“I could go out into the game and know that when I got the chance, I only had to hit the target. He had a big part to play and we had a thing where, as soon as he got the ball, I’d go into a certain spot and I knew he could get the ball to me.”

Enjoying this interview? Read other instalments in our Long Read series, including in-depth features with Thomas Frank, Christian Norgaard and Aaron Hickey

It did not stop there for Wright-Phillips. He played for the Red Bulls for another five seasons and won the MLS Supporters’ Shield on three occasions, as well as the Golden Boot twice, among hordes of other individual awards.

He sits sixth on the list of the highest MLS regular season goalscorers of all time with 117 in 234 games and leads the Red Bulls’ all-time scoring charts with 126 – 64 ahead of Juan Pablo Angel in second with 62.

It goes without saying that the way things panned out across the pond were beyond his wildest dreams.

“Honestly, I never expected it to go so well. I was in a weird place in football before that. I’d been in trouble a bit and had fallen out of love with the game a bit in England. Going to the US was like a new chapter.

“I’m a Londoner, I love London and that’s home. But over here, I wasn’t Ian Wright’s son, I wasn’t Shaun Wright-Phillips’ brother - I was just going to training and doing my thing. I could just think about football and forge my own path.

“Obviously as a striker, you want to get goals, but I wasn’t thinking about breaking records. I wanted to enjoy the experience and play with one of the best to ever do it. I had some good moments in England, but it feels like I was supposed to come here. It defines my career for sure.”

Wright-Phillips left New York in 2019 and played for LAFC in 2020, before joining Columbus Crew in 2021. The latter did not activate their option to extend his contract for 2022 and, last March, he announced his retirement from football, four days before his 37th birthday.

Given his outstanding contribution to the club, New York Red Bulls handed him a ceremonial one-day contract in order to allow him to retire as a Red Bull. “It just didn’t seem right to retire at Columbus,” he admits.

That re-opened the door for him at Red Bull Arena and shortly afterwards, he was appointed special assistant to sporting director Denis Hamlett.

“I’m learning the ropes about what that entails and how you go about being a good sporting director,” he explains.

“I’m also assistant coach for the second team, Red Bull II, which I’ve been doing for almost a year now. My close friend Ibrahim Sekagya is the head coach. He signed as a player around the same time as me and we’ve been friends ever since.

“When he got the job, we didn’t have any coaches to help out, so I honestly just jumped into it and we’re having a good season so far. I never wanted to be a coach, but I can see where you get the joy from it.

“I don’t know if I’d ever want to be a first-team coach, but I like working with young players and trying to get their potential out of them. You can see what young players could really be good at and how they could make it, so if I can help in any way, it’s a nice feeling.”

He finds time to work as a pundit on Apple TV’s MLS 360, too, and confesses he has been on a steep learning curve.

“I used to think it was easy when I watched it, but it’s been eye-opening! I’ve learned that I need to take my notes and preparation a lot more seriously as it’s not just as simple as going on and talking about a game. You’ve got an earpiece in your ear, cameras on you and it’s difficult to get used to, but I think I’ve adjusted well.

“I’m very busy and I do a lot of things, but it’s enjoyable. I’m not getting much sleep, though!”

Perhaps it was coincidence that Bradley Wright-Phillips reinvented himself in the US. But maybe, just maybe, things were meant to happen in just the order that they did.