THIS BEATS HENRIK’S IKEA VISIT..
Frank: I don’t need to make a Pacino speech for Brentford to have a Hollywood ending
THOMAS FRANK may channel his inner Al Pacino in the dressing room ahead of the world’s richest football match against Fulham tonight. about the big sports events and I could do an Al Pacino gameintro speech, I could do that – but my way of course. I know that already.
“Sometimes I think about it a lot. I’ll pick it up and write a few things down. A fancy quote or I could cry, I could laugh or joke. But honestly, sometimes it doesn’t matter at all.
“Tonight, who are they playing for? Themselves, their families, the fans. That’s their inner motivation.
“I could say, ‘A... B... C... wouldn’t matter.”
Frank – and the ‘Moneyball’ philosophy that Brentford’s remarkable success has been built on – recognises the value of calculating everything to the nth degree.
He added: “Yes, we are very good on the data side. Yes, we are extremely good on recruitment.
“And that is a big advantage
D...’ it
GRIFFIN PARK is less than six miles from Wembley – but the closest Brentford right-back Henrik Dalsgaard has got to the hallowed turf is the neighbouring IKEA.
He revealed: “I have never been to Wembley itself – but when we first moved to England I did have a couple of trips to IKEA.
“I tried to put it all together myself, but don’t remember buying anything useful.”
Thankfully, Brentford manager Thomas Frank has been better at building the perfect family environment – even without recourse to an Allen key.
“That’s what we are about – we are a family,” the Denmark international said.
“We are ready to fight for each other and if somebody has something to say, we will listen to it.
“We are ready to work for each other and when you do that you become more like a family or good friends.
“At the same time, you are not afraid to talk to good friends and if I have to kick butts in training I can, because I know we are going to be good friends again.
“Many times Christian Norgaard and I have been fighting in training but as soon as we step off the pitch we are best friends.” Those family spats include rows over music – although those have reduced since Dalsgaard (left) took charge and selected Blur’s Song 2 as the team’s anthem.
He said: “It’s an old FIFA ‘98 song and it just gets us going a little bit, just to fire it up sometimes.
“The young players were playing such rubbish music.
“I told them I was vice captain and shooed them away. “Then I just tried to put something together that everyone would
enjoy.”
Sky Bet Championship Play-Off Final Brentford v Fulham (7.45)
Third ODI: England v Ireland (The Ageas Bowl, 2pm).