Harlee Dean: If I had a magic wand, I'd never have left Brentford | OneFootball

In a conversation with Harlee Dean, no subject is off limits.

Chatting to Dan Long as he drives into training with latest club Reading – where he has been since August 2023 - he offers up brilliant anecdotes from the time he spent at Brentford – of which there are many.

He says Uwe Rösler was “everything I needed” in a manager as his career started to take off, how the German told him to wind in his tendency to play like Franz Beckenbauer and why the first and only pre-season training camp under Marinus Dijkhuizen was “more like a holiday camp”.

Dean wore his heart on his sleeve on the pitch during his time at Griffin Park and endeared himself to Bees fans because he was exactly the same off it – fiercely loyal and as honest as the day is long.

That’s why those vivid recollections will be suitable for a future feature that offers a deeper, more rounded look into the defender’s time in west London, which included the equaliser against Fulham before that Jota winner, one promotion from three attempts, time spent as captain and so much more.

On this occasion, though, the focus simply has to be on his exit from the club in August 2017.

Dean left for Birmingham on 30 August, one game away from reaching 250 appearances for the club. There was a further double blow the next day, when Jota and Maxime Colin followed him to St Andrew’s.

Manager Dean Smith had anticipated this - given the fact Dean was entering the final year of the two-year contract extension he had signed in February 2016 - and already informed him he would be passing the armband on.

“That was just Dean saying to me ‘You're not going to be here, I need to give someone else the captaincy’ and that was it. It wasn't like I was stripped of it and we had a falling out,” he explains, keen to take up a rare opportunity to share his side of the story.

“Brentford’s policy at the time was, if their valuation was met, then the player could leave. They had offered a new contract, but we'd been in conversations where it had gone a bit, not backwards, but it hadn't gone forwards.

“I'd been there for the previous five years, or however long it was, where we'd got continuous improvement, but [in 2015/16 and 2016/17] we finished ninth and 10th from being in the play-off places. I wanted to get to the Premier League and I don't know why, but I thought I would get there quicker with Birmingham.

“Knowing the stature of the club, the fact Harry Redknapp was the manager and the players they were signing, I thought that would be the season, the start of a new project.

“There was no animosity between me and Dean or anybody else. I played until the deal was done. I didn't ever say that I wasn't going to play or anything like that.

“The only thing I'd say that Dean said is ‘Don't sign for Birmingham’. I thought, with him being a Villa fan, he would say that! But I think that was me being young, not knowing what Birmingham were at the time, just looking at the positives.”

Shortly after joining Birmingham, he was put in front of the camera and interviewed for the first time as a Blues player.

It’s something that has become customary - more often than not, full of the generic, ‘It was great to get the deal over the line and I just can’t wait to get going now’ nonsense – and quickly lost in the ether once the initial first impression has been made.

This particular interview, however, is one that he will never forget.

"I've been in teams where we've finished fifth in this league and missed out on promotion via the play-offs - this squad is 10 times better than that,” he said.

Brentford fans were, naturally, quick to react. Social media was awash with opinion, in an instant, in many peoples’ eyes, Dean had burned his bridges.

“I think it was something that was taken really out of context,” he says.

“My relationship with the Brentford fans was unbelievable my whole time there. I loved them, they loved me. I loved the club, I’d never say a bad word about the club. I always thought I'd be a Brentford legend and I always wore my heart on my sleeve.

“My point was that Brentford were a load of young lads that hadn't made their name in the game, but had come up and done well, whereas Birmingham had started signing people like David Stockdale, who'd been the best goalkeeper in the league for three or four years, Paul Robinson, who's a league legend, Che Adams, who ended up being an unbelievable talent.

“It was a comment about where their squad were, in terms of profile, that was how I saw it. I didn't mean any disrespect by it.

“You've still got people at the club like Peter Gilham who means a lot to me. I know how much the club means to him so I didn't want to upset him.”

On 20 February 2018, Dean made his return to Griffin Park. The comments had cut deep and the wound was still very much open, so when two goals from Ollie Watkins, one each from Florian Jozefzoon and Neal Maupay and a Marc Roberts own goal secured a 5-0 Brentford win, the home fans were jubilant and had an extra spring in their step.

That feeling was cranked up a notch as the players shook hands after the final whistle, when ‘Daydream Believer’ by The Monkees was played on the tannoy and the fans sang ‘Cheer Up Harlee Dean’ along to the tune.

“I know it's part of football. Fans can do what they want, they're entitled to their opinions. But I'll never forget that night,” he admits.

“I came outside the changing room and there was a steward that I always spoke to and an old boy that I always used to see in the Beehive who was almost in tears. ‘I'm so sorry. That should never have been done,’ he said.

“I was just disappointed with knowing that the club would have had to put it on the tannoy but, in all fairness, Dean Smith rang me straight away the next day and said that he wasn't happy with that and that he'd find out who had done it and it had been dealt with.

“It's part-and-parcel of football. I just wish that interview hadn't been taken in the regard that it had been. Perhaps I'd have changed my choice of words or explained it better and I'd have gone back to Brentford to a nicer welcome as opposed to being the villain.

“I never wanted to be the villain of the club that made me and the club that I love.”

Dean has so far played against Brentford five more times, but the reception has never been as hostile since.

“I don't think it was put to bed, but I don't think it was important,” he adds. “The club was building, getting to play-off finals and eventually promotion, so Harlee Dean doesn't really matter anymore.”

As he rounds off the call a few minutes before arriving at training, Dean reiterates his fondness for the club.

“Brentford was a big part of my life and probably the only reason I had a career. I could never not love the fans or not want to be part of the club.

“You think what we had was the norm, then you go into different environment and you can’t believe how far away it is from Brentford.

“The whole environment, the family side of it, the fans, the progression in the football, the whole infrastructure; we were doing things five years before everybody else, like set-piece coaching. You don’t realise when you’re in it, but as soon as you leave, you realise we were innovators.

“I couldn't say anything better about them to be honest. It was just a great time of my life and a really enjoyable period, probably the most enjoyable football period I've had. It’s a special place and if there was a magic wand, I'd never have left.”