Brentford B Team - A Unique Player Development Programme!

All major football clubs have academies, but not Brentford. After facing a lot of opposition, the Bees decided to shut down their academy in 2016, citing that investing £2 million per year is bad for business. Instead of competing against top clubs for academy players, the club established a reserve team.
The Brentford B team is made up of 17–21-year-old players released from Premier League academies and talents from undervalued overseas markets. It has its own football calendar, which includes friendlies against teams like Manchester United, Liverpool, and Bayern Munich. The club’s experiment has been quite successful so far, with over 20 players graduating to the first team. The most prolific of them, Chris Mepham, was sold to Bournemouth for £12 million in 2019.
However, as per the Premier League’s latest youth development regulations, Brentford needs to reopen its academy before the start of the 2024–25 season. Whether it will be with or without their reserve team, only time will tell.
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