Ben Burgess became a fan favourite at Griffin Park during the 2001/02 campaign, netting 18 goals in 51 appearances while on loan from Blackburn Rovers. In total, Ben led the line for ten clubs during a 14-year career.
Now a teacher in Lancashire, Ben still keeps a close eye on the Bees and will be providing his thoughts ahead of each game this season.
Training
Thomas Frank recently fielded some questions about injuries in training and especially among his new signings.
With squad depth so important as the games come thick and fast, it was a valid question.
Frank's response was brilliant: “I would rather train fantastic and get a few injuries because I believe massively in training with quality.”
I would imagine the reason some new signings pick up injuries is that simply they are not used to training at the intensity that is expected at Brentford. Many of the top coaches expect sessions to be short and intense.
The rhetoric from most managers and players is to ‘train how you play’. Players, like anyone in life, will gravitate toward the norms. If you have some top professionals who model that intensity and professionalism every day, then that is what others will follow.
When teams struggle, people often cite the lack of leaders in the team. That isn’t just on a matchday, but every day at the training ground.
I’ve played in sides that lacked those characters and training ended up being farcical. Fortunately, I’ve also been amongst players who drive the whole squad to do better. Real leaders are at the front in warm-ups, they are at the front in running sessions, and they arrive early and stay late.
There’s no hiding place in football and those players who embody professionalism are the ones whose careers are elongated.
Cristiano Ronaldo, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Karim Benzema are all still playing at the highest level by design and not luck.
Frank understands the importance of standards and not letting them drop. New players will know that when they join the Bees they must up their game to be given a chance.
Forest of players
Whilst the majority of social media has been producing (very funny) memes on the subject of Nottingham Forest’s rather bloated squad, Steve Cooper and his side have been slowly turning their season around.
A season that, at one point, seemed to be destined for misery is beginning to show glimmers of optimism.
Whether Cooper actually chooses his new signings or not, it was always going to take time for them to gel and become a team instead of individuals.
The City Ground can be a formidable place to play, and the crowd have been starved of success for so long. Growing up, I always remember the entertaining sides that Forest produced with the likes of Stan Collymore, Teddy Sheringham and Bryan Roy to name a few.
I personally have mixed feelings about the City Ground. I had great success there for Blackpool when we won the Championship Play-Off semi-final, but the overriding memory of that ground will always be tied to my love of Manchester City. Most people watching football in the 1990s will remember the goal I am referring to.
City 'keeper Andy Dibble had the ball resting nicely in the palm of his hand when Gary Crosby (doing his best Robin Hood impression) crept up from behind and nodded it out of Dibble’s hand and rolled it into an empty net for 1-0 victory. It was hard enough being a City fan in those days without having to go to school and suffer even more ridicule!