Brentford are expecting to appoint a permanent replacement for departed Dean Smith next week, but will not prioritise experience of the Championship in their search for recruitment.
Directors at the west London club have spent the last 24 hours since the announcement Smith had left the club, for boyhood side Aston Villa, sifting through names which have been presented to fill the vacancy at Griffin Park.
One of those names is current assistant Thomas Frank, who took first-team training on Thursday, though directors will take the weekend at least to make a decision having also lost the manager at Danish club FC Midtjylland, who are linked with Brentford at board level, on the same day as Smith.
During a fan forum at Griffin Park on Thursday night, director of football, Rasmus Ankersen, said: “We are pretty open-minded [about a replacement], it doesn’t have to be someone who has a lot of Championship experience, the main thing for us is that we find someone who fits into our structure, someone who buys into the project and is able to execute the strategy we have.
“Brentford is not a one-man band, it is a football club with a structure and a strategy.
“It is not the first time big clubs have come in for our players and coaches. We feel strong despite our coach leaving and we feel we are in a good position as a club, we are more than one person and are optimistic about the future.”
Co-director of football, Phil Giles, added: “It isn’t a shock that Dean has left, but are we starting from scratch today? More or less, yes.
“We are keeping an open mind to things, we want to take our time to speak to some people and go from there, we hope the process won’t take forever but it is the right time to pause and see if we can improve. We don’t have a detailed plan at the moment but we are confident we can make some good decisions over the next few days.”
With Smith’s departure having come during the international break, players now have three days off before returning to training ahead of their home clash with Bristol City a week Saturday.
