Phil Giles’ decade at Brentford: ‘He makes the most complex job in the world look simple’

On the first floor of the Robert Rowan Performance Centre at Brentford’s training ground, there is a sparsely-decorated office connected to that of Thomas Frank by a door in the middle of a shared wall.

Frank, Brentford’s head coach since October 2018, has a whiteboard and a high table with stools in his office, where he discusses tactics with his staff.

There is nothing remarkable about the other room.

It has a wooden desk in the corner, plus a small table with chairs dotted around it. Sometimes, books lie on the table. There are no pictures on the walls of Brentford’s recent achievements, which include winning the 2021 Championship play-off final to return the west London club to the top flight of English football for the first time since the late 1940s.

The only feature is a huge window, which allows the sole occupant to keep a close eye on the players training outside.

This is where Phil Giles, Brentford’s director of football and the architect of their success over the past decade, spends the majority of his time.

The room is a reflection of his personality — quiet and understated. You are more likely to spot him on a matchday over at Brentford’s stadium in a polo shirt and trainers than a business suit. The 46-year-old sits in a separate box to the other directors and invites a range of guests, who have included former Germany striker and later manager Rudi Voller and ex-England full-back turned leading pundit Gary Neville, to discuss ideas.

Giles did not have a career as a professional player or a coach. He grew up in Newcastle and was a season-ticket holder at St James’ Park from 1990 until 2015. He studied mathematics and statistics at the city’s university, so he could continue to attend games.

After completing a PhD in statistics, Giles spent two years with gambling company Spreadex before he became a quantitative analyst for Smartodds in 2007, which is where he met Matthew Benham — a lifelong Brentford fan who became the club’s majority owner in June 2012. Giles was later promoted to head of quantitative research at Smartodds before he was appointed as Brentford’s co-director of football, with Rasmus Ankersen, 10 years ago today.

Since then, Brentford have moved from the dilapidated Griffin Park to a modern stadium which hosted games at the Women’s European Championship in 2022, upgraded their training ground facilities to include a state-of-the-art gym and a roof terrace where senior figures can invite guests to watch first-team sessions, closed their academy and reopened it, lost one Championship play-off final and won another, and spent four consecutive seasons in the Premier League with a fifth to come. With two games of their 2024-25 campaign remaining, Brentford could break their record points tally for the competition (56) and qualify for Europe for the first time.

The Athletic has spoken to players, members of staff and football agents who have worked with Giles to paint a vivid picture of his reign in this part of west London. According to Allan Steele, who worked with Giles for much of his decade at Brentford, “he makes the most complex job in the world look simple”.

This is the inside story of the man who holds the power behind the throne.

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Giles and Ankersen officially joined Brentford less than 24 hours after the club had lost 5-1 to Middlesbrough on aggregate in the Championship’s play-off semi-finals.

Manager Mark Warburton nearly guided them to the Premier League via back-to-back promotions, having finished second in League One a year earlier, but it had already been announced in the February that he would leave at the end of that 2014-15 season, along with his assistant David Weir and sporting director Frank McParland. According to a club statement, Benham wanted to appoint a head coach rather than a manager, and implement a “new recruitment structure using a mixture of traditional scouting and other tools including mathematical modelling”.

To say Giles and Ankersen’s first major decision did not work out well would be an understatement.

Marinus Dijkhuizen, an unheralded Dutch coach, was announced as Warburton’s replacement on June 1 — by the end of September, and after only nine games in charge, he had been sacked.

Steele had joined Brentford in 2014 and spent nearly a decade working with their academy and then the B team. He believes Giles and Ankersen inherited a “tough situation.”

“The squad had an affiliation to (Warburton) because they had been promoted from League One and had a successful time in the Championship,” Steele, now head of strategy and football operations for sixth-tier non-League side Oxford City, tells The Athletic. “Then you have a group of players who have been signed by the new recruitment team.

“There was a distance between Marinus’ style and what he was trying to deliver compared to what most of the players were used to. The needle swung from one way to another.

“Phil and Rasmus realised these new methods were not working quickly but they brought people in who could recalibrate what was going on. Then they took a more pragmatic approach to incorporate data and analytics into the recruitment models, while Dean Smith arrived as head coach and there was a better balance.”

“A lot of people learned from that experience,” Giles told The Athletic’s audio documentary Access All Areas: Brentford in July 2023. “We put this coaching team together with Gianni (Vio), Marinus, Roy (Hendriksen), Flemming (Pedersen) and trusted it would come together, but it never worked. You had lots of people coming from different backgrounds and philosophies and we underestimated the difficulty of getting people to blend from day one.

“Maybe we brought in too many people at one time, but it wasn’t change for the sake of change. It was necessary to deal with what we found.”

Smith, who had led third-division Walsall to the previous season’s EFL Trophy final, proved a natural fit. He guided Brentford to a ninth-place finish in the second tier but there was more drama to come at the end of that 2015-16 season with the closure of the club’s youth academy.

Brentford had become frustrated at repeatedly losing their best young players to clubs who could offer better facilities and wages, so they set up the B-team project, which was led by Robert Rowan until he passed away in 2018. “Some people thought (the B team) was crazy, but we felt it was in line with our ambition of getting promoted,” Giles said.

Brentford B produced several players who have broken into the club’s first-team setup including Yehor Yarmoliuk, who made his senior debut for Ukraine in March this year. A change to Premier League rules forced by-then-promoted Brentford to reopen their academy in 2022 and it now operates alongside their B team.

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In December 2016, former Denmark Under-19s and Brondby manager Frank was appointed as an assistant under Smith, following a meeting with Giles and Ankersen at the Novotel near Brentford’s former home ground, Griffin Park. Before Brentford moved to the Gtech Community Stadium in 2020 and upgraded their training ground two years later, Giles and Ankersen would meet players and agents at hotels instead to hide how outdated the club’s facilities were.

The long-term plan was for Frank to succeed Smith, which happened in October 2018 when the latter left to manage Aston Villa, then a fellow Championship side and the club he had supported as a boy.

Brentford still spoke to external candidates about the job, but were convinced Frank was the best choice. The Dane lost eight of his first 10 games in charge, winning only one, but Giles and Ankersen never considered sacking him. The underlying data was positive and he had a good relationship with the squad. Frank repaid their faith by guiding Brentford to back-to-back Championship play-off finals, winning the second of them in May 2021.

“Rasmus was the more innovative and outgoing guy,” Frank tells The Athletic. “When Rasmus was going in one direction and I was going in the other, Phil kept everything together.”

Frank and Giles regularly catch up over coffee but will have more in-depth meetings a couple of times a month. When they sit down at the end of each season to review what happened, Frank is encouraged to give feedback on Giles to Giles.

“Phil is one of the most intelligent people I have ever spoken to,” Frank says. “Not only about football but strategies, processes, alignment. We run everything past each other. I really enjoy working with him. He is less emotional than me, and that’s a good combination.

“He is good at handling tricky situations with people. He is calm, listens to a lot of input and makes decisions from there.”

The best example of Giles’ staying in control of his emotions was in the dressing room at Wembley after Brentford lost the 2020 play-off final to Fulham, 2-1 following extra time. Giles and Benham cajoled a devastated squad — several players were crying — and told them they would get promoted the next season. The following day, they held a planning meeting and accepted that key players Ollie Watkins and Said Benrahma would be sold. There was no time to wallow in defeat.

Striker Watkins followed Smith to by-now Premier League side Villa in a £33million deal and was replaced by Ivan Toney, signed from third-tier side Peterborough United for a fee of £5m. Toney promptly broke the Championship’s goalscoring record, with 31 goals from 45 appearances, as Brentford went on to beat Swansea City 2-0 in the play-off final. Giles and Benham’s promise had come true.

Ankersen left the club before the end of the year to become the chief executive of Sport Republic, which now owns current Premier League side Southampton, and Giles has been sole director of football since. A few months later, he promoted Lee Dykes to technical director, hired Olympic gold medal-winning former rugby union coach Ben Ryan as performance director and added Justin Cochrane, who had worked for Manchester United and with England’s youth teams, to the coaching staff.

“Phil and Rasmus were a brilliant double act,” Steele says. “When Rasmus left, Phil identified what responsibilities he would take on and what areas he needed support. He appoints good, smart people around him.”

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Dykes is in charge of Brentford’s recruitment department, who have access to a database which includes information on more than 80,000 players around the world. He will do a lot of the background on a transfer target before Frank speaks to them about their strengths and weaknesses and how they would fit into the starting XI. Giles handles the negotiations.

“Transfer windows are planned 18 months in advance, so the decisions being made are smart,” says Steele, who worked on multiple deals with Giles. “When you see what happens behind the scenes and the way clubs change and move things around, it’s tough to navigate, but Phil always seemed to be able to deal with those situations. He would consider all of the information but was able to act with incredible speed. He would be standing over a photocopier with Lisa (Skelhorn, the long-serving club secretary), trying to get things done. He takes it in his stride.”

One agent who has brokered deals with Giles, and asked to remain anonymous to protect relationships, describes him as “likeable, personable and very good at what he does”.

“I work with a lot of sporting directors in the Premier League and Phil is right up there,” the agent says. “He is clever, easy to deal with and there’s never any drama — he’s not confrontational. But he is not a soft touch. He is hard, fair, reasonable and doesn’t overcomplicate things.”

Brentford no longer meet players and their representatives at that Novotel but do select picturesque locations in nearby Richmond and Syon Park to deliver detailed presentations. They can analyse hundreds of someone’s games and categorise them by different colours — green for a good performance, red for a bad one.

In July 2022, they signed Keane Lewis-Potter from Hull City of the Championship for a then club-record £16million. “I came to London and met Phil, Thomas and Lee, but they didn’t have to convince me to join Brentford,” Lewis-Potter tells The Athletic. “The way they spoke about the club, the plan for me, how I would fit into the system and what I was going to add to the team was amazing.”

Brentford’s captain Christian Norgaard signed a new two-year deal in March, having entered the final six months of his existing one. He was free to sign a pre-contract agreement with clubs overseas from the start of January but chose to stay with the one he joined from Italy’s Fiorentina in summer 2019.

“(Phil) is a tough negotiator,” Norgaard told The Athletic after April’s 1-1 draw with Arsenal. “I’ve tried it first-hand recently and sometimes he can get a bit too much, but at the end of the day he is doing what is best for the club. You need a man like him if you want to run a professional, successful and profitable club.”

Vitaly Janelt came to Brentford from German club Bochum in 2020’s summer window for £500,000. He has gone on to make 136 appearances for them in the Premier League and is a member of the dressing room’s leadership group.

“Phil is a great guy,” says Janelt, who has a year to run on his contract. “We are a family on and off the pitch. Everyone works hard, no one is arrogant or thinks he is the star and Phil has a big impact on that. The only thing is it’s not easy to deal with him sometimes. He is tough, especially in contract situations, but he gets some advice from the big boss (Benham) to sign a deal or to disagree.

“Lee (Dykes) is maybe a bit closer to us, but you can speak to both — the combination between them is perfect. You can go to their office, have a coffee and a chat, talk about football and this makes a difference.”

Giles’ tough negotiating stance has been necessary to ensure that Brentford grow organically.

It could have been easy to get carried away with spending after they were promoted but, four years on, they still have one of the lowest wage bills in the Premier League. They have spent around £200million on transfers in that time, which has been partially offset by the sales of Toney and goalkeeper David Raya for more than £60m combined.

There have been times when Giles’ reluctance to budge has backfired.

Brentford tried multiple times to sign Brennan Johnson from Nottingham Forest. In August 2021, Forest wanted £12million for the then 20-year-old winger but Giles valued him closer to £10m. Brentford made another offer in the ensuing January window but Johnson remained with Forest, helping them earn promotion to the Premier League via the play-offs. The Wales international then scored eight times during his first season in the top flight, which prompted Brentford to make several more bids in the summer of 2023, worth up to £40m. Johnson rejected them and eventually moved to Tottenham Hotspur in what window in a deal worth up to £47.5m.

Last summer, Giles handled the negotiations over Toney’s departure.

The striker scored 72 goals in 141 appearances for Brentford and played for England at the 2024 European Championship. In the middle of August, Saudi Pro League side Al Ahli submitted an offer for Toney but he did not join them until the final hours of the transfer window at the end of that month. Al Ahli were willing to pay a significant salary and Toney was determined to go but Giles held out for a higher fee. It led to tension between the two men but they ended up back on good terms and Toney watched from the stands as Brentford beat visitors Southampton 3-1 the day after his club-record sale for £33.6million was completed.

For three years in a row, Brentford have lost one of their key players for under his market value.

Christian Eriksen joined Manchester United as a free agent following the 2021-22 season, after his short-term contract expired. Brentford had originally offered Eriksen a six-month contract, with a club option for an extra year, when he joined them the previous January, having been released by Italian club Inter following his on-pitch cardiac arrest during the Euros in summer 2021. The Denmark midfielder wanted a base salary of around £50,000 a week, which the club were reluctant to commit to. Eriksen eventually accepted lower wages, which were bumped up by performance-related bonuses, but the option was removed, giving him control over his future.

After Eriksen’s excellent performances for Brentford helped them avoid relegation, Giles offered to make him the best-paid player in their history and explained their long-term vision, but he moved on to Old Trafford instead.

Raya and Toney both entered the final 12 months of their deals before they were sold. Brentford’s previous club-record sale was Watkins’ move to Villa in 2020, when they were still in the Championship. Raya and Toney left for only slightly more money than that, although they were proven performers in the Premier League and senior internationals.

The contracts of forwards Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa, who have both scored 18 league goals this season, both expire in summer 2026 but do contain clauses for an extra 12 months. Giles’ next challenge is to either convince the pair to sign new long-term deals or sell them for fees which reflect their true value.

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Toney and Eriksen are the two players with the biggest profiles that Giles has worked with so far and they presented him with different problems. He had to navigate a media frenzy and a complicated medical process when Brentford signed Eriksen in January 2022 — seven months after the midfielder suffered that cardiac arrest playing in the European Championship.

Toney was accused of breaching the Football Association’s betting rules and, in May 2023, received an eight-month ban after admitting to 232 charges. Giles supported the striker throughout the legal process and his suspension. They attended Formula One’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone that July, with Frank and team-mates Janelt, Ethan Pinnock, Mads Roerslev and Rico Henry.

Generally though, Giles tends to keep his distance from players and coaching staff alike. Once or twice a week, he will mingle with different members of the squad in the training ground’s open-plan canteen. Norgaard describes him as a “special character” who he can share laughs with.

“Sometimes you don’t know if he wants to talk or not but once you have him one-to-one, he is a good guy,” the Denmark international says. “Especially now, being the captain, I have spoken to him more than I did.

“I don’t see him a lot, because he is upstairs in the office — he tries to stay away from the football side,” says centre-back Nathan Collins. “But when you do see him, you say hello and ask him how he is. He is always asking how we are. He is always open.”

Stuart Hatcher is a lawyer who helped with the legal process when Benham bought the club over a decade ago. He has been the chair of Bees United (BU), Brentford’s supporters trust, since February 2023.

“I first met Phil at Griffin Park when I was just a fan,” Hatcher says. “He was quiet, calm and did not want to be the centre of attention. He was switched-on and guarded — you only knew what he wanted you to know. He wasn’t swept up by the scale of the challenge or criticism from people saying, ‘You don’t have a background in football or any contacts’. Phil and Matthew injected a sense of calmness and stability around the club.”

In his role as BU chair, Hatcher has a seat on the board and regularly attends meetings on the direction of the club, which Giles is involved in, too.

“Phil is a believer in keeping things fresh,” Hatcher says. “Even if it’s just changing the coffee machine. He has a sense of humour. He will joke, ‘We are not talking about injuries, and if you do, then I’m leaving’, so he can be light-hearted. But I’m under no illusion as to how smart and sharp he is. At one point, he powered up one of his spreadsheets in a meeting to make some analytical points and I remember thinking, ‘Wow!’ — it was on a different level, in terms of his way of analysing the game.”

Giles has high demands, though, and can be strict when required. “If you stepped out of line, you knew about it, because he dealt with it instantly,” Steele says. “He had no fear of making a phone call and calling you into the office if he felt something wasn’t right, but he always listened and gave you the opportunity to speak. He was firm and fair but ruthless with his decision-making.”

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Brentford’s biggest signing during Giles’ first transfer window was Andreas Bjelland, a centre-back from Dutch side FC Twente for €3million. Last year, they broke their club record to sign Brazilian forward Igor Thiago from Belgium’s Club Brugge for €36.5m. The squad today is littered with senior internationals, including Collins, who is Republic of Ireland captain. It has been a decade of constant growth and success.

“I have only fantastic things to say about Phil,” Norway international defender Kristoffer Ajer tells The Athletic. “The way he has taken control of the club and works with Matthew, Thomas and the rest of the staff is fantastic. When I signed, he took me out for a good chat and I felt a strong connection to the culture. Everything he told me the club would become has happened.”

“I remember sitting in Wembley before the (2021) play-off final thinking, ‘If we lose, where does the club go from here? What will happen to all the players?’,” Hatcher says. “I was so emotional after we won.

“We had 14 years in the third division in a row when I was growing up (from 1978 to 1992). We were terrible. Fifteen years ago, you wouldn’t have thought Brentford would reach the Premier League. These are halcyon days. What (Giles and Benham) have achieved and done for the fans is unimaginable.”

(Top photo: Giles, left, at a game with Toney in 2023; Alex Pantling/Getty Images)

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