Brentford first-team squad return to training for pre-season | OneFootball

A group of Brentford players returned to training for pre-season this week, as new Bees head coach Keith Andrews took his first sessions as boss.

Andrews, along with new first-team assistant coaches Neil MacFarlane, Mehmet Ali and Martin Drury, worked with some of the squad at Robert Rowan Performance Centre ahead of the new campaign.

In the first sessions back at Jersey Road, the first batch of first-team players were put through their paces with a lung-busting 2km Test.

This run measures the players’ Maximum Aerobic Speed (MAS) by calculating the average speed over the 2km distance.

The players were working with Andrews after his appointment as head coach, as well as his new-look backroom team.

MacFarlane left his position as Brentford B head coach, which he has held since May 2019, to join Andrews’ first-team coaching staff.

Ali arrives at the club having spent the last three years as Arsenal Under-21s head coach, while Drury joins the Bees having been at La Liga club Valencia.

The Bees are preparing for a pre-season trip to Portugal later this month, when they will face Primeira Liga side Gil Vicente in a friendly on Friday 25 July.

Estádio Cidade de Barcelos will play host to the game, which takes place as part of the club’s training camp in Portugal.

Two other pre-season clashes have also been confirmed, with Keith Andrews' side making the short trip to Loftus Road on Saturday 2 August to face west London rivals Queens Park Rangers.

Brentford will then welcome Bundesliga side Borussia Mönchengladbach to Gtech Community Stadium on Friday 8 August.

Those matches are in preparation for the club's fourth consecutive season in the top flight, with a trip to Nottingham Forest first up on Sunday 17 August.