Brentford are almost unrecognisable from the club that was in League One 11 years ago, but what has not changed is their approach to innovation.
“I believe that a lot of clubs have eyes on us and are watching everything we do,” ex-Bees forward Marcus Gayle tells The i Paper. “It does not matter what level they play at.”
Much of that is down to the culture Thomas Frank has instilled as the Premier League’s second longest-serving manager after Pep Guardiola, but it is also down to their famous data-driven recruitment.
This season, Yoane Wissa and Bryan Mbeumo have 25 league goals between them, filling the void created by Ivan Toney’s departure last summer. Mbeumo was bought in 2019 for just £5m – now he is worth 10x that.
That mindset is not just about competing in the top flight. The biggest impact can be found in how Brentford invest back into their community.
“The big clubs do not have to put in the groundwork like Brentford have to,” Gayle adds, having been involved with the club since 1989.
“There are a lot of people watching how we do things. We are very proud of how we do things and how we achieve those goals and impact our community.”
Gayle has spearheaded Brentford FC Community Sports Trust’s Bee a Hero campaign, to start a conversation around the topic of blood donation. So when the NHS Blood and Transplant issued the first ever amber alert over bloodstock shortages in 2022, Brentford set up a personal – and of course, data-driven – campaign to address it.
In 2024, only 3.63 per cent of donors in England were black – far from the 12,000 new donors needed to meet the growing demand for better-matched blood to treat illnesses which disproportionately affect people of black heritage such as sickle cell disease.
In the surrounding boroughs of Brentford in Hillingdon, Ealing and Hounslow, black African and black Caribbean communities amount to approximately 85,000 people.
“We are a diverse community in this region of London, and it is important that we provide a place where people can find out their blood types,” Gayle says.
Before the campaign, he had never given blood due to his fear of needles. “I’ve only had negative experiences with them and I still don’t like needles but I put my fears aside,” he adds.
“I tell the people I speak to forget all the myths and the stereotypes they have heard because this could help someone’s life.”
Bee a Hero – nominated at this month’s London Football Awards – has become particularly important because black donors are 10x more likely to possess the necessary Ro and B+ blood types, which can help treat more than 1,500 people who suffer from sickle cell disease in the UK.
Everyone at the club has bought in. Midfielder Josh Dasilva has attended events, something The Trust’s health and wellbeing manager Emily Donovan believes is a “big step”.
“To have him come and show his support shows how important it is for us as a club… What differs this to a normal campaign is that it has got people behind it who really care about it.
“While this initiative is deeply personal to us, what other clubs can do is find a way to personalise it to their localities, making a difference on a local and global scale.”
Gayle insists that relationship with supporters and local people is paramount.
“It is not just about us saying this is what is happening, that’s the only choice, it is about compromise and listening to fans,” he says.
“You may not please everybody, but hopefully, you are going to capture the majority as much as possible. We have to listen to our fans because we are still a small club in the Premier League, but we have a big heart, and we are never going to get too big for our boots at this level.”
The hope is that one day Brentford could host a blood donation centre on-site, removing the geographical barriers which prevent people from giving blood.
There are currently only 27 permanent blood donation centres across England, so the NHS rely on temporary centres to meet the required target of 140,000 first-time donations a year.
In the four years since Covid, that target has not been met across England.
Across the country, London and the South West are the only regions that meet the estimated target amount of first-time donors each year, but that has fallen year on year, and as a result, in 2024 there were under 120,000 first-time blood donations.
Brentford have fostered a community and culture that has helped them to make an impact on and off the pitch.
For further information and to purchase tickets to the London Football Awards 2025 at Wembley Stadium on 27 February, visit https://londonfootballawards.org/
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