McKenna heaps praise on top-flight new boys Brentford

Ipswich boss Kieran McKenna believes Brentford have done "fantastically well" during their time in the Premier League.

Under manager Thomas Frank, the Bees secured promotion to the Premier League for the first time in 2021 and finished ninth in the table the following year.

In their fourth season in the Premier League, Brentford sit 13th in the table and come up against newly-promoted Ipswich on Saturday afternoon.

The Tractor Boys enjoyed back-to-back promotions to reach the top-flight for the first time in 22 years and while McKenna stressed that Ipswich are on their own path, the Fermanagh man believes Brentford can be seen as a good example for newly-promoted clubs to learn from.

"I think they've done fantastically well, there’s no doubt about it," McKenna said.

"They’ve got their own model, I think everyone’s model is different, but there’s no doubt that they’ve done a fantastic job as a club and Thomas has done a fantastic job as a manager and the coaching staff with him.

"I think different clubs have their own context, of course there’s things that Brentford have done well that we can take some inspiration from.

"On the other hand, their journey is different than ours, the season before they got promoted, they lost in the play-off final. They had a couple of years pushing at the very top of the Championship.

"By the time they arrived in the Premier League, to be honest, they’re probably pretty much had their Premier League team already set.

"They’ve had their own journey, our journey is very different to that with the speed of the ascent that we’ve made, but there’s no doubt they’ve done some things very well and any newly-promoted club can look at some of the things they’ve done and see it as an example."

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