00:00Evening.
00:20Ready when you are.
00:24Or not. Jay?
00:26Congratulations, Keith. That must be the perfect start for the season.
00:29It's pretty impressive on a lot of fronts, I suppose.
00:34You never truly know from pre-season what exactly you're going to get
00:39because the intensity of the Premier League is very, very different
00:42to any friendly or most friendlies you can try to organise.
00:47It felt like we were in a good spot.
00:49The cohesion of the team has come together nicely over the last two to three weeks
00:53of pre-season as we've built.
00:55I think we've produced a pretty good performance.
00:58I have to ask you about Mamadou Sangare,
01:01maybe a player not everybody knew about before today's game.
01:04I think everybody knows about him now.
01:06What's it been like working with him over these last couple of weeks?
01:08What more could we expect from him?
01:10More of the same, hopefully.
01:12It's been really nice working with him.
01:15I think the club deserve a lot of credit for getting that deal done.
01:18A lot of clubs, I'm sure, were looking at Mamadou.
01:21We were pretty keen to get that deal done.
01:24I think you've seen today what he's capable of, the attributes that he has,
01:28adds to an already really talented midfield that we have.
01:31And I think that's probably a position that we've needed to add to,
01:34the strength and depth that we need with the long season that we're going to have.
01:38So, yeah, I really enjoyed his performance today.
01:43On Mamadou, I think Tottenham's performance with Ford Davidson
01:46shows you how hard it can be to adjust straight away.
01:51How does he feel it looks like?
01:53Yeah, his first game was against a bit of behind closed doors,
01:58he played 45 minutes, then we played Rennes a couple of weeks ago
02:00and I thought he just felt really good.
02:02Just the cohesion, the intensity of the way we train is high,
02:09so you're always looking for new signs and see how they adapt to that,
02:12coming from different clubs, even though on paper it should sue his style of play.
02:17But, yeah, he's slotted in really, really well, he's adapted really, really well.
02:21And you never truly know a different league, different language,
02:24even though his English is pretty impeccable.
02:28And just a humble young man that's very, very hungry.
02:32Can you do any more business in the last couple of weeks?
02:36I'd say I'm very content with the squad.
02:39I think the squad depth right now is as good as it's been.
02:42You see the types of subs that we've brought on today,
02:45the energy and the quality that brings into the pitch.
02:48The starting line-up will obviously change as the season goes on,
02:51so that depth is important.
02:53So, if the window close tomorrow, I'll be pretty happy.
02:57Just following on from that, you managed to keep your key players,
03:00so-called a summer, added depth and quality,
03:03whereas the squad's going for a bit of a rebuild,
03:05impacting the system.
03:06How much do you think having us to be settled towards helping today?
03:11Yeah, they're none of my business.
03:14I'll only speak about us.
03:17And I know from 12 months ago and what I inherited
03:21and all the change compared to this pre-season,
03:25it flowed a lot easier.
03:27There's a real trust about how we work, what we built last year, obviously,
03:31and what we've added into the mix with the players I've just mentioned
03:36and the way of playing, the way of training,
03:38we can look to grow, we look to develop.
03:40So, certainly from where we started when we came back,
03:42whatever date that was, end of June, July,
03:44to now, we've took decent strides within that period,
03:48but we want to take more.
03:51Can you just talk a little bit about what you've got
03:53bringing in Daniel to the coaching staff
03:55and giving him any particular responsibilities?
03:59Yeah, he's got a lot of responsibilities.
04:01He's my number two.
04:03He's a magnificent coach.
04:06He's a brilliant support for me, day-to-day.
04:09Someone I trust implicitly.
04:12Someone who's already built up really good rapport with staff members
04:16and players.
04:18Undoubtedly, they would look at his playing career,
04:21but that's just a tiny bit of it for me.
04:24What makes him who he is, it's the craft of his coaching.
04:27The level of detail and his passion that I love working with every day.
04:31How do you think you've ended up being back in a dugout
04:33this time as a number two rather than obviously being a manager previously?
04:37You'll have to ask Damien.
04:40We had an idea of his personality from what he was like with Shevs
04:43and that kind of energy that he brings.
04:45Is that something that you were particularly looking for?
04:48I just want Damien to be Damien, really.
04:51I've known him a long, long time.
04:54Someone, again, who I trust.
04:55I love his personality, I love his drive, I love his passion.
04:59And we're working really, really well together with all the other coaches.
05:04You talk a lot about the long throws and the set pieces,
05:08that so much of the football today in our play just can't spurs apart.
05:13Do you feel that side of it sometimes in front that goes under the radar a little bit?
05:18I don't know whether it goes under the radar because I don't tend to read everything
05:22and hear everything that people say because I haven't got the time for it, to be honest.
05:26But we want to be unpredictable.
05:28We want to be able to create opportunities in different ways.
05:33Set pieces has obviously been pretty well highlighted, as you've alluded to, at this club.
05:37But obviously, when you look at the game today, we've created far more opportunities
05:41than just from set pieces.
05:43But I have to say set piece-wise, we're in a really good groove at the moment.
05:47We do look really, really dangerous.
05:49Do you think it will cover time when people expect Brentford to do well?
05:54Do you think it will always be written off a little bit and surprised people when it will be the
05:59biggest?
06:01I don't know.
06:03Do you care?
06:04Not really.
06:05I think the nature of why you're all there with laptops and phones is the stories to be written,
06:13the stories to be told, isn't there?
06:14That's the beauty of this game.
06:16It's about journeys, it's about stories, it's about narratives.
06:21You've just got to go at it, haven't you?
06:22I'm pretty comfortable where we are.
06:24Whatever you guys write or say, that's OK, it's the game.
06:29John?
06:30I want to ask about both full-backs, starting full-backs score today.
06:34I think towards the end of last season, you saw others playing there and crash the box a bit,
06:37particularly Michael.
06:38Do you think that's something you've been focusing on and instructing your full-backs?
06:44Yeah, a little bit.
06:46You've obviously got to be very respectful of the opposition and committing too many bodies forward.
06:51But I think when you look at all of our full-backs, really, Chuck Aaron and Rico into that are
06:56quite attack-minded.
06:57So if we can find the balance of how we attack with bodies forward and how we attack and being
07:02pretty unpredictable,
07:05you've got real quality there when they do get into those positions and they're coming from different angles
07:09where it's deeper naturally than the wide players.
07:14And I don't want our full-backs to play the handbrake on.
07:17I think we're in a position now, physically, where they're able to get up and down the pitch.
07:20And obviously, you've seen today, we brought Aaron on after whatever it was
07:24and it brings real quality and energy.
07:29Aaron, the first home win against London in the Premier League,
07:32the last two seasons finished 17th.
07:35Unfortunately, he still couldn't manage to beat us.
07:37How much does this win feel to finally get one over?
07:42Last year was slightly odd, I suppose, because it was against Thomas.
07:46Coming back and us playing against them, there was staff familiarity.
07:52I can say I've been hunting down Spurs for the last couple of years, I must say.
08:00I just think it's a good day for us.
08:02It's the start, it's the first game.
08:06They've obviously got seriously talented players, very, very experienced manager.
08:12And I'm sure it'll be a different game when we face tomorrow.
08:15Okay.
08:16We'll leave it there. Thank you very much, everybody.
