00:00hi guys we'll start with the broadcast section with no embargo followed by an embargoed section
00:13for 10 30 p.m tonight no live tweeting during the broadcast section please and use the microphone
00:17provided gary thank you hello to us thanks for your time it's already being called the thomas
00:25frank dog an extra incentive this to try and put that home record right yeah i think
00:33of course it's um it's a little bit more special for me because i've i faced brentford where i've
00:42been for for nine years uh that's a almost a quarter of my life uh i had a fantastic time
00:51there and enjoyed every every second of it uh there's a lot of people i i'll see on on saturday
00:57i haven't seen for for a long time i used to see them every every every day more or less so so that
01:02will be special um of course as well it will be not true not to say that uh and it is very true
01:08um but it is it's today been a preparation against the team uh players i know very well of course
01:18there's small to small tweaks to um to what you could say i i used to do but uh a lot of the
01:26identity is the same uh in many ways uh which make it difficult in in many ways um but and when
01:34when when the whistle go it's all about getting three points and win we always ask players don't
01:39we whether they'll celebrate if they score against our old team would you celebrate if you score
01:44against your old team yeah i will uh because is that i think everyone respect the respect i got for
01:52brentford the fans everyone before kickoff after kickoff uh after the final whistle in the 90 minutes
02:01plus it's all about one thing uh do what we can to win the game they are struggling to pick up points
02:09away from home you're struggling as we know to pick up points at home something's got to give
02:15hasn't it yeah definitely it will be a nice timing for us to uh to get the three points uh on on saturday
02:24and that's the only one one way to uh to do that is put a good performance in there and work on the
02:31things we uh constantly working on uh phase two phase three constantly make it sharper quicker
02:37uh um not direct but you know more more penetration um when we need to have that
02:45play with intensity come out brave um we're looking forward to the game the fight you showed uh the
02:51persistence you showed in midweek because obviously you know giving everybody a boost including the fans
02:56have you had your defenders out there on the training ground practicing their overhead kicks
03:00maybe cutie and mickey van de vinge to play play strikers uh so uh now uh we discuss a little bit
03:09if it was richie or cutie's overhead kick that was the best um but i think they are disagreeing
03:14uh they agree to disagree limbo that way thanks very much charlie hi thomas lovely to speak with you
03:21today um just in terms of of the team any issues following the newcastle game any injuries no everyone's
03:27uh from um yeah the game should be ready i've interviewed kevin danzo today and we spoke a lot
03:36about the halftime huddle that the players did against fulham and have been doing for a while now
03:40and he said it's a way of the players trying to encourage each other before they come off the pitch
03:44i just wondered what did you make and what do you make of that halftime huddle that the players do
03:49and how happy are you to leave the place with their own devices when it comes to how they can
03:53encourage and um really boost each other up i think it's a on the pitch uh the more they can
04:00encourage each other i think the more there's a positive body language the more they can you know
04:04all the small um setbacks all the the good uh positive actions i think that just you know
04:10built to that uh togetherness and that um that performance so i i think it's it's good they they
04:18are they're out there um on the pitch they're out in the arena uh none of us is out there i know i
04:24stand close to it but i'm not in there um they need to uh to sort it out and and they can only do
04:30that together and in terms of keith andrews obviously taking over after you left brentford
04:35when i spoke to a lot of the brentford players at the start of the season they said that it didn't
04:39really feel like a massive change because of course he'd been at the club when did you first
04:44know that he would make a good manager um i think first and foremost i think it's it's it's big credit
04:54to um to brentford um to two things be brave enough uh to promote within um but also have
05:03built something all the time so i've been there nine years and that those nine years seven years
05:08almost as a head coach and it's definitely not about me it's about what we together built there that
05:13consistency stability uh and high performance level at the level um so that culture um knowing who we
05:26are what we want to be um that was easier to um how can you say continue with with um appointing keith
05:35and i think he's done a remarkable job um it's never easy to step up to your first head coach role
05:44um the club lost uh crucial players um in the summer and the way they just continued you can see they
05:51got what i would call the brentford identity and he knows that with culture and and style of play and
05:58and kept it but also tweaked it with his idea because we're all different so um a big praise um and
06:06what i saw in in in keith uh very very good man good values good coach um had a leadership potential
06:18um yeah so very impressive yeah all right thomas how are i i'm good thank you you surviving um in
06:26terms of brentford you would you would know you came through from dean smith so you stepped up there
06:33like keith did when you came here who had the more difficult job then at the beginning of the season
06:38keith stepping up for his first ever manager role but a club he knew or you coming here to a club he didn't
06:44know uh that's a good question
06:50no no no that's a very good question ah i don't know which was uh i think it's uh how can you say
07:02difficult challenge um uh yeah experience whatever you call it um two different levels um he's come
07:11within the club but he still need to he's standing out there a little bit more on his own uh in front
07:17of everyone facing uh players staff owners press everything and in the end of the day is his decision
07:24um and dealing with the ups and downs and it was it was not a an easy summer looking from the outside
07:32with players leaving the club and stuff like that and i didn't have just um a perfect start to the
07:38first whatever three or four games so still keep his calm um so and then here it's different of
07:43course you're stepping into a new club like uh again need to know uh how the players are the club
07:49uh leadership everything um so um yeah both both good challenges difficult for both of you um how
07:59will you feel on saturday when you come up against players that you bought for brentford you trusted to
08:04go out and form for you for brentford i'm thinking of dams guard collins keen lewis potter lots of
08:11players i mean there have been new ones since you left but a lot of the team will still be the team
08:15you bought more or less everyone yeah having to having the able to go and beat them do you put your
08:21life in their hands every every day for a few years now yeah but that's the that's the nature of
08:28football uh as i said before the game and after the game and maybe not the 10 seconds after the game
08:35but uh after um i'm looking forward to see good people i i really enjoy to work with players staff
08:42everyone uh but during the game it's just about competing and winning a match uh it's the same if
08:47i'm whatever playing a paddle game or something against good colleagues when we are playing we're
08:52it's not for fun it's it's competitive and after we can be happy again finally somebody might want
08:58to play paddle with afterwards uh a familiar face returning on saturday humilson um real legend to
09:05this football club as you know um first of all fans are going to love seeing him and um i i guess
09:11that he might be able to give you some good luck that would be nice uh no doubt about that uh i'm so
09:18pleased for for sonny that uh that he come back and then really hopefully get the the well-deserved
09:23deserved um celebration and uh um for for everything he'd done for this club i think he was a fantastic
09:33sending off in uh in in south korea um but on tuesday i really hoped he got that yeah they really applaud him
09:43hi thomas um on sonny he was a character who was really good at bringing people together at this
09:50club it's obviously been difficult atmosphere wise at home this season we saw that in the fulham game
09:55do you think you've missed um sonny as a kind of unifying figure on the pitch and in the dressing
10:00them this season um yeah um yeah i don't know um i would say uh he's not here so others need to step
10:11up it's like when you you miss a player for whatever reason uh because leadership qualities
10:16are part of sonny bringing people together also part of sonny whatever uh the level they they they
10:22had others will will step up other others will shine a little bit more um because some of the
10:28uh the players that were there uh before uh took took the shine if that makes sense um but of course
10:34you can always use good people as uh sonny and sonny's position was normally from the left in that
10:41left wing role you've played a number of different players with brennan against newcastle um do you feel
10:47you know who your preferred candidate is in that position does it depend on the opposition how do you
10:52see that that part of the team i think it's fair to say that there is competition for that left side
10:59role i think everyone can see that there's two things in it we we played a fair amount of games
11:04and we play every every third fourth day so there need to be rotation as well uh but also fair to say
11:12there's not been one player that you know put put his foot down boom um i'm playing that position
11:16and apologies if you've been asked this recently but is there any fresh update on dom solanke or on
11:23kulisewski in terms of when they're going to be fit uh no um i said it yeah i'm happy there's i think
11:3010 days ago i got a question uh uh that uh when when they are ready to really be close to be involved
11:37in the squad then i will uh they'll give more information yeah we'll finish with george at the back please
11:42hi thomas um sticking with the left side actually you've obviously tried a lot of players there but
11:55um matty tail hasn't sort of really had a run on on the left but it feels like in recent games sort
12:00of man united and obviously he took the corner on tuesday night he's kind of making contributions in
12:05that kind of limited time when is he going to kind of get the opportunity i guess that he's pushing for
12:11that's a good question when i take the decision uh now big you know as we spoke about matchy before
12:19um it's been um it's been a a toughish season for him of course the first thing was we
12:27you can't run away from that he was not um evolved in the champs league squad um but the way he
12:33carried himself the way he trains his mindset is is very good and that's also why i've used him
12:39um in games and he also started um mainly as a nine um any games he played this season i'm very
12:47well they also can play off the left so it's a little bit what kind of type and who you go with
12:51um and how many players can you go with on the side and stuff like that so uh the the only thing
12:57that any player can do is to keep training well keep doing everything they can to to catch my i keep
13:04make it very difficult for me uh when i take my decisions and um someone else has played on the
13:10left as well this season javi but you know prefers being the number 10 how's he kind of reacted to
13:16this you know these four games you know before it felt like he was kind of slowly adapting had a
13:21very good performance since cobenhagen good against man united i imagine he's not been happy to be on
13:26the bench for these four games is is he sort of doing enough in training that to force his way into
13:30your team xavi's trained fantastic uh the last whatever five six times we actually really could
13:37train um very good attitude um on the training pitch um i like that a lot um and we played you know
13:47different games uh with with different um lineups um i think that xavi was towards uh something better
13:57and better um and as long just the same like matchy train well uh good attitude then you know
14:04then then we're getting closer and closer and i think it's also fair to say that he's coming on
14:08in all four games uh we played is there sort of kind of fulham at home and i guess brentford at home
14:14feels like the ideal opportunity for him is there a reason why he didn't start against fulham as
14:20that was just different different scenarios we played with uh two strikers against psd both of them
14:26scored um i think it's fair to say that and i would not say that we struggled to score because
14:31we scored 23 goals i think that's quite a fairly high amount um so that that's that's quite good
14:35but uh also we also played with uh the two just a little bit different role against um man united
14:43um so it's just different personal and who's been a little bit in form and stuff like that so
14:49yeah okay we'll end the broadcast section there and move on to the embargoed section for 10 30 p.m
14:53on friday matt okay
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