David’s Bees won’t fear Blues
THE first thing that strikes about David Raya is the broad English accent with a hint of Spanish. Born in Barcelona... forged in Blackburn.
It is nearly 10 years since a callow 16-year- old made his way on a scholarship from UE Cornella in Catalonia to Ewood Park, joining up with Rovers’ youth scheme.
Now living in London, he has become one of the stars of this Premier League season.
The Brentford goalkeeper’s performance against Liverpool at the end of last month was sensational. And this evening he faces another of the most formidable attacks in world fo o t b a ll as Chelsea arrive at the Brentford Community
Stad ium — Romelu Lukaku, Timo Werner, Kai Havertz and the rest.
Raya grinned at the prospect. “They are worldclass players, we know,” he said. “They won the Champions League last year.
“But we don’t fear them. We want the three points. We have to play our game, be confident in each other, fight for each other.”
Not much has fazed Raya or the Bees this season, back in the top flight after a gap of 74 years.
Ask Arsenal, Wolves and West Ham, all beaten already in the run of only one defeat in their opening seven games that has Thomas Frank’s side sitting in seventh place, four points off the top spot held by Chelsea.
He is ready for another big night with the kind of confidence that comes from leaving home as he did in 2012, creating a career and making his first-team debut in the Conference on loan at Southport in a 3-0 thumping at Macclesfield.
“I was there for three months,” said Raya. “I only have good memories. I owe a lot to them for letting me play men’s football. The Conference Premier was a very tough league.
Changed
“We got into the third round of the FA Cup against Derby and only lost to a last-minute penalty. My first game, though, we lost 3- 0, and I was thinking, ‘What is this?’ I only met them for the first time that night.
“The players were part-time. They would train in the morning, get changed, go to work. How did they do it?
“Working Friday night before a game, playing twice a week. We stayed in a hotel just once or twice for away games. All of that makes you grow up very quickly.”
Brentford’s recruitment process spotted Raya in 2019 after 98 league games for Blackburn and brought him south for a bargain €3.5m.
“When I came it was a massive project,” he said. “They told me about the new stadium, there to be ready for the Premier League.”
But he added: “We don’t think too much into the future. We have competed against everybody. It’s a good start but we have to build. We have an identity. We are not going to change that for anybody.”