Brentford head coach Thomas Frank signs new contract until 2027 | Football News

Brentford head coach Thomas Frank has signed a new contract, the club have announced.

It was only back in January that the 49-year-old Dane agreed fresh terms on a deal until 2025. But given the way the Bees have started their second season in the Premier League, the board have opted to hand him another extension until the summer of 2027.

Brentford sit 10th in the table after four wins and seven draws from the 15 league games that preceded the World Cup break and get back underway when Tottenham travel to the Gtech Community Stadium on Boxing Day.

Should he see out the contract in west London, Frank will pass a decade with the club, having first joined as one of two assistants to Dean Smith in December 2016, before being appointed head coach in his own right when Smith joined boyhood club Aston Villa in October 2018.

He guided Brentford to promotion from the Championship at the end of the 2020/21 season, which took the club into the Premier League for the first time in their history, and helped them to a 13th-place finish last term.

Frank: There is unfinished business at Brentford; we can progress a lot more

Frank spoke about signing a new contract at Brentford during an exclusive interview with Sky Sports.

“I feel very privileged to be able to stay here for a long time,” he said.

“Of course, in football, you never know about tomorrow; 2027 is just a number, so three days later, maybe I’m out of here! No, it’s a privilege because it’s not certain you will just get offered a new contract at the club you’re working at.

“I’m so pleased and I said earlier this year that I still feel, deep inside me, there is a lot of unfinished business here at Brentford, even though we’ve been extremely successful, all of us together, in the last years with some fantastic milestones: the new stadium, promotion, attacking the first season in the Premier League and now we are in a fine position in the league so far.

“I work in a place where there is an unbelievable alignment from top to bottom and everybody’s on the same page, everybody wants to attack, everyone wants to be better and that culture and environment inspires mate me and I’m pleased to be part of that.”

The Dane admitted that the high ceiling and room for progression at Brentford helped influence his decision.

He added: “The most important thing for me is that I can see we can progress a lot more. The strategies are in place. We want to develop, we want to build, we want to add layers every single day. The club is willing to do that and they want the same. I have a fantastic co-operation and a daily one-to-one with Phil Giles the sporting director, Lee Dykes the technical director and, of course [owner] Matthew Benham – and that is massive.

“With the coaching staff, we’ve been together for a long time now and, most importantly, we have a top squad of players that I really enjoy working with and constantly want to improve and get better, so I think there were so many pluses.

“When you get that special feeling of a special place with the atmosphere where people are coming in every day with a smile on their face, big energy, big determination to want to get better, everyone pushing in the same direction, then you need to really protect it and take care of it.

“If you walk into another club, you need to build something new, which also can be interesting, but I think sometimes you need to be aware of what to reach for and mainly so much more to achieve here.

“I will do my very best in the moment. Enjoy every day, try to improve and develop the club and myself every day and I hope we can achieve other magic moments.”

How were Brentford getting on before the World Cup break?

Position: 10th (19 points)

Top goalscorer: Ivan Toney (11 goals)

Next three PL games: Tottenham (H), West Ham (A), Liverpool (H)

Barring the 5-1 horror show at Newcastle and the 4-0 defeat away to Aston Villa, Brentford had quashed any speculation over whether they were about to be the next victims of the fabled ‘second season syndrome’ by the time the Premier League paused for the World Cup last month. If it was not the case already, they appear to have very much established themselves as part of the furniture in the top flight.

And who could forget the way in they entered the break? Days after an embarrassing Carabao Cup shootout defeat to Gillingham, they went to the Etihad as outright underdogs, yet failed to crumble and came away with a fully deserved 2-1 win against reigning Premier League champions Manchester City.

The Bees’ talisman frontman Ivan Toney was very much in the spotlight that afternoon. He responded to Gareth Southgate’s decision to omit him from the England squad by scoring both goals.

Just a few days later, however, it was revealed that Toney had been charged over 232 alleged breaches of betting rules between February 2017 and January 2021.

He was part of Brentford’s trip to Spain earlier this month and played an active part in mid-season friendlies against Bordeaux, Celta Vigo and Wolfsburg, but then came the news he had been charged with a further 30 alleged breaches of FA betting rules.

If the allegations against him are proven, the striker could face a lengthy ban. Given the fact he has scored 11 of Brentford’s 26 goals in all competitions so far this term – with Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa following up with three each – you do get the feeling the Bees will be looking over their shoulder somewhat with regards to developments in the saga.
Dan Long

Brentford’s next five fixtures

Tottenham (H) – December 26, 12.30pm

West Ham (A) – December 30, 7.45pm

Liverpool (H) – January 2, 5.30pm – Live on Sky Sports

West Ham (H) – January 7, 3pm

Bournemouth (H) – January 14, 5.30pm – Live on Sky Sports