Manager Uwe Rösler said Brentford’s pre-season games programme had been designed to try and help the Club start the 2013/14 League One season quickly.
The Bees will face Scottish Premier League Champions Celtic at Griffin Park as well as Premier League Cardiff City and Championship side Millwall.
They will also face League Two Southend United, who gave The Bees three tough games last season.
Uwe said Brentford did not start 2012/13 as well as they could have done – winning just three of their first ten games – and he wanted that to improve this season.
Brentford’s squad will head to Germany for a pre-season training camp that Uwe, speaking to Bees Player last week, said would be about conditioning and would end with a game against FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt.
The Brentford Manager said his players did very well in 2012/13 albeit they narrowly missed out on promotion – finishing third in npower League One and losing the Play-Off Final to Yeovil Town.
He said he now wanted to see how they responded to the disappointment of going so close – The Bees missed a last minute penalty on the final day of the season against Doncaster Rovers and would have been promoted if they had scored.
“We had a very good season last season,” said Uwe.
“It did not have the positive end we all hoped for but nothing should be taken away from the achievement of the players.
“It is important for me to see how the players used the disappointing end and push back from that.
“We have a short pre-season this season, a week and a half shorter than last season.
“Our trip to Germany will be for conditioning rather than playing.
“We are going to a fantastic training venue and we will use that more to work on basic fitness.
“We will have one decent game while we are out there.
“Last year I did not feel we picked up enough points at the beginning of the season.
“It was difficult for us to get a good pre-season games programme in place because of the Olympic Games, particularly at home.
“This year we are in a different position, teams want to play us.
“We have probably put in place the strongest pre-season the Club has ever had.
“It is important we measure ourselves against the best and see what we have to do before the season kicks off.”
Brentford players report back for pre-season training next week and Uwe admitted the close season was shorter than he would have liked.
But he said everything was in place for the start of the season and new arrivals would be announced soon.
“After playing 68 games last season – including pre-season – five weeks feels a bit short, in terms of recovery,” said Uwe.
“I would have liked a bit more time off for the players and staff and to have a bit more time for recruitment.
“It is a short break and we had to prepare for both League One and The Championship.
“Everything is up to speed, there will be new players announced soon.
“Things are agreed.
“Everything looks promising; we are where we want to be.”
Uwe spoke to Bees Player before the signings of Jake Bidwell and Jack Bonham were finalised but after Sam Saunders signed a new two-year contract.
The Brentford Manager said he was happy the attacking midfield player had put pen to paper.
“Sam is fantastic to have around,” said Uwe.
“He is an example of how I want to see players handle the majority of situations.
“At the end of my first season he was probably our most influential player.
“We designed a system for him at the start of last season and things did not work out as well as hoped.
“Harry Forrester also hit fantastic form and was hard to leave out.
“He responded in a professional manner and has always been an important player.
“He got on with his job.
“I am happy he is a part of our future.”
Uwe is about to start his third season as Manager and said the Club was very different to the one he arrived at in June 2011.
“The Club is in a very different shape from two years ago in terms of the Academy, the First Team, infrastructure at Griffin Park, infrastructure at Jersey Road,” he said.
“The Club has made big strides and the higher you go the air gets thinner so it is harder to progress.
“We are working very hard to secure our assets for the future and will add quality to the team.”
Bees Player subscribers can see the interview with Uwe Rösler here.