Simon Royce doesn’t feel pre-season could have gone any better for Brentford’s goalkeeping unit ahead of the new Sky Bet Championship campaign. The start of the month saw highly rated 23-year-old Daniel Bentley join from Southend United, as further competition to David Button and Jack Bonham in the fight for the number one shirt at Griffin Park, while for the last week the group has been working hard in the beautiful surrounds of the WM Sporthotel in Germany on The Bees pre-season Training Camp. Speaking from Germany, Simon revealed that he has been pleased by the way Daniel has settled into the goalkeeping unit and the way all three have applied themselves in training so far.
“It has been a great pre-season so far,” Simon told Bees Player. “It started with a new goalkeeper, Daniel Bentley, coming in. He is one that I have been tracking for 18 months now. He was first put on my radar playing for Southend United, which is my local club, and where I first started. It was quite easy for me to track his progress and he has come in and hit the ground running. He obviously looked after himself in the summer and has fitted in with David Button, Jack Bonham and everybody else. It is great for me as I have three fantastic goalkeepers in the group and they have worked really well. The facilities that we have here in Germany are fantastic and you have everything you need.”
Much has been made of the great atmosphere within the goalkeeping unit at Griffin Park since Simon’s arrival from Gillingham in 2010, an atmosphere Simon is evidently proud of. With only one goalkeeper playing in any given match, Simon admits that it would be easy to think, from the outside, that the goalkeepers out of the team might not want to help the man in possession of the shirt but he said the truth is very different.
“The goalkeepers push each other just like the outfield players,” said Simon. “It is a little bit different to the outfield players because it is such a small, tight knit unit. People from the outside could say that the one who is playing at the moment has the shirt and the other two are not friendly with him and hoping he gets injured. That has never happened at any football club I have been at. They always get on great and push each other. The goalkeepers are pleased when they play well and back them up when they have had a bad time. They are from different backgrounds and they have had different experiences so they share them, and I am from a different background and have a lot of experience so can share that with them. I do with them what I would want to do myself. I wouldn’t ask them to do anything that they wouldn’t be comfortable doing and we have an excellent working and social relationship.”
Between David and Daniel, the pair have missed just 11 league matches in three seasons for The Bees and The Shrimpers and Simon is expecting a great battle for the number one jersey this campaign, especially with Jack also waiting in the wings.
“David had been the number one now for three seasons and he has been fantastic,” said Simon. “We have brought in Daniel to add the competition while Jack’s situation is slightly different as he’s been knocking on the door as a number two but needs to play games now. I wouldn’t say that they come in on an even keel because that would be unfair on David as he has been the clear number one. The competition with Daniel is going to be healthy. Perhaps with Jack he needs to go on loan to get some games which is what he needs: he has only played five first team games for us. The next step in his development is first team football somewhere, either here or away from here with a loan move. My advice to Daniel is to push David as hard as he can for the number one spot.”