It has been another 12 months of fantastic progress at the Brentford FC Academy.
We opened our new Academy indoor facility at Uxbridge High School at the end of 2013 and we have seen the way it has excited and inspired the players that use it.
The talent we see use it every day gives us great encouragement for the years to come.
On the field results have been good and players have progressed.
We have welcomed Lee Carsley to the coaching group and I look forward to continuing to work with him over the next 12 months and beyond.
We have high hopes for a number of our players.
As you will know three – Harry Francis, Ross McMahon and Josh Bohui – have been called in to international training camps this year.
It is fantastic for the Academy, and the Club as a whole, and we hope there will be further recognition over the next year.
I hope as supporters you can see all our boys developing as they get older and more experienced.
At younger age groups we are bringing boys through and with further progress towards a new stadium at Lionel Road this year we have a target.
We want Academy players in that Brentford team when the stadium opens.
The First Team achieving promotion and now challenging near the top of the Championship will mean players have to be even better to make it through.
But that does not change our aims, we want to produce Premier League and international footballers and we want them to play for Brentford at Lionel Road.
The progress of the Club is a challenge we relish.
I would like to take this opportunity to wish all Brentford fans a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
I thank all supporters for their assistance over the past 12 months and I am sure there is more to come.
Brentford FC is an exciting place to be as we enter 2015 and I hope all Bees fans are enjoying it as much as we, the staff, are.