Brentford defender Harlee Dean thinks this year’s edition of the Sky Bet Championship will be the toughest yet for The Bees but feels doing the little things right could be the key to success for Dean Smith's side. Harlee and his teammates have been working hard since returning to pre-season training in late June and the 25-year-old feels that they are ready to go for Saturday’s visit to Huddersfield Town.
“Pre-season has been very good,” said Harlee, speaking to Bees Player earlier this afternoon. “It has been shorter than usual but we have done a lot of volume. We have probably had three days off in five and a half weeks. There have been double sessions and triple sessions and Chris Haslam knows what he is doing so he has got us firing. We want to do better than last year, get into the top six, and see what happens. The clubs that are in this league are huge. You only have to look at some of the money that they are spending. It is going to be the toughest Championship since we have been back in it but we are more than capable of being successful. We can’t outspend them so we have to out-think them and we are doing a lot of stuff, over a lot of different areas, that might give us a marginal gain and ten marginal gains can give you one big gain over the rest of the field. That is the way that we are playing it and hopefully it pays off.”
Harlee was part of the Brentford team that ended last season on a high with a 5-1 thumping of Saturday’s opponents back in May. The Bees netted nine goals against The Terriers last season but, with new manager David Wagner having the summer to shape his squad, Harlee believes Huddersfield will certainly be no pushovers this time around.
“We were chomping at the bit the last game of the season and they were already on the sunloungers,” said Harlee. “That result, while it was a good one, could be misleading. It is going to be a tough game. We watched them and they have unbelievable energy pressing high. They want to win the ball back. The manager has worked with them this pre-season so they are going to be his team like we will be with Dean. It will be a tough test but we feel ready and hopefully we can get another good result.”
Harlee joined The Bees, initially on loan, in November 2011 with only Sam Saunders a longer servant on the playing side at Griffin Park. Despite being only 25, Harlee is an experienced head in a young dressing room and, on the eve of entering his sixth season with the club, he said that it is up to the experienced players like himself and Sam to make the Brentford dressing room a welcoming place for younger players.
“Myself, Alan McCormack, Sam Saunders, Alan Judge, and Nico Yennaris have been the constants of the dressing room over the last few years,” said Harlee. “There have been a lot of ins and outs but we try and instil the same routines every day. We will have a laugh and get everyone involved. If you ask the new boys, they will say that they have been welcomed but we know when it is time to get serious and work. We are an easy dressing room to get on with and we all want the same thing which helps because you are always pulling in the same direction.”