It is a beautiful, bright afternoon at Brentford’s Jersey Road training base adjacent to Osterley Park, a country estate on the western edge of London. A Turf Tank Two robot fitted with a club crest, known as Pontus after their former captain, Pontus Jansson, is marking white lines on to an otherwise spotless pitch, revamped last summer. Grass may seem an odd place to start but the green stuff is an example of how small details paint the big picture.
“We can go toe-to-toe with Man City on those sorts of things because the bottom-line money isn’t going to stop us – it’s not a £100m striker,” says Ben Ryan, the club’s director of elite performance. “Every department here, we’re setting them the objective to be the best in the Premier League.”
