Brentford’s success in Saturday’s Play Off final, which gave the Bees the chance to participate in the Premier League for the first time in history , has distant technical roots; scouting and programming are the basis of this success. In particular in the choice of the strikers who in the last three seasons have alternated in London with truly sensational results, we are talking about: Neal Maupay , Ollie Watkins and Ivan Toney .

Ivan Toney: 33 goals

The last and the winner is  Ivan Toney , a 25 year old striker from  Northampton , who dragged the  Bees  to victory in this play-off season, resulting in promotion to the  Premier League ; monstre season   for him who scored 33 goals and signed 10 assists in 52 races. In addition to promotion, he also achieved the title of Top Scorer in the  Championship , repeating himself after winning the top scorer in the previous season in  League One , signing  24 goals with  Peterborough United .

Ollie Watkins: 26 goals

The previous season, 2019/20,  Brentford  won the Play Off final, after finishing third in the Championship, being overtaken by Fulham who denied the Bees access to the  Premier League . Leading the Londoners’ attack was  Ollie Watkins , 25 from  Torquay , last season the striker scored 26 goals and 3 assists in 50 games played with the Bees shirt  .

At the end of the season, the forward moved to the Premier League anyway,   signing the contract with Aston Villa ; good debut in the top flight, for him 14 goals and 5 assists in the 37 games played with the Villans; for him his debut goal with the  English national  team in the qualifying match for the World Cup against San Marino.

Neal Maupay: 28 goals

The trio of forwards who in the last three seasons have led the Bees attack   is completed with  Neal Maupay , a 24-year-old French forward; in his last season with the Londoners he scored 28 times in 49 Championship races  , enriching his performances with 9 assists; during the season  Brentford  finished in 11th place and Maupay was sold, replaced by Ollie Watkins, to  Brighton & Hove Albion  scoring 10 goals on his debut in the Premier League, in the current season there are 8 goals scored with the Seagulls .

The great talent of  Brentford  in identifying the strikers is evident, it will be interesting to see if  Toney  will follow in the footsteps of his two predecessors leaving the  Bees  to play in the Premier League; or play the Premier League anyway   but do it with the Brentford shirt  .

By  Gianluca Urgnani