Brentford academy director Stephen Torpey: Alignment, development and the future | OneFootball

Brentford Academy director Stephen Torpey has reflected on a successful 2024/25 campaign, which is his second season in west London.

This term saw the academy awarded Category Two status as the Under-9s to Under-16s age groups were reintroduced at Jersey Road.

Torpey has overseen this period of growth after officially joining the club in January 2024.

“It’s been a busy period, but it’s been a really enjoyable period for us all. It’s been challenging at times, but challenging, in a good way,” said Torpey.

“It’s been fantastic what we’ve achieved, I’m so proud of everything we’ve done. I couldn’t have dreamt that we’d be this far ahead in terms of the journey that we’re going on and the project that we have.

“It’s all been based on bringing good people into the organisation who have helped us do that and believe in our purpose, which is very clear.”

Following Brentford Under-18s first season in 2023/24, this campaign saw the U9-U16 age groups reintroduced to the academy set-up.

Torpey outlined the process of recruiting players and the development seen across the season.

“First and foremost, we didn’t have any players who were registered with the club at that time, so we had to relaunch the squads. We took some cautious decisions around how we would do that,” explained Torpey.

“We took a real view of how we could care for people, we decided that we were going to recruit smaller numbers, and we felt that less was more in terms of our squads.

“That’s worked out really well for us this year, where we’ve been able to merge our age groups across the multiple age bands that we have. What that’s done is be able to give us that care and attention that we needed in order to develop the talent.

“Development within those ages has been remarkable, we’re so pleasantly surprised by the competition level that we’ve got within the groups, but also how we’ve been able to compete against other well-established academies this year.”

A driving force behind the accelerated development of the young Bees has been the coaches and staff who have joined the club; hiring "really good people" allowed the academy to hit the ground running in a busy first season.

“Our academy purpose is really clear to everybody and it’s a reason why a lot of people have actually wanted to join the football club,” said Torpey.

“We want to be admired as the most caring and progressive football academy in the world, people know that… therefore, what it’s enabled us to do through the hiring process is to ask questions that would link to that.

“Because we’ve hired really good people and the structures are right, it’s given us the best foundation to implement those processes for long-term development of the player. We don’t think short-term - of course, we’ll have some short-term gains - but we’re always thinking long-term.

“It’s about recruiting, developing and retaining skilled, diverse individuals who have the capacity to grow and develop within our space.”

Following the Brentford B games programme template, academy players were challenged with international opposition as well as Premier League fixtures.

The chance to play across age groups also provided players with a different challenge during the season.

“It’s a unique selling point for us, our games programme. We’re very fortunate with our B team, being one of the first clubs to run that kind of model where it’s a bespoke programme that tailors to the individual need,” stated Torpey.

“We do it because we think it’s the appropriate challenge. All of our boys have faced international opposition this year, that’s continuing to grow as we get more solid relationships and interactions with other clubs.

“The games programme is massive for us and an important part of our development programme, and we work extremely hard to make sure that we have a diverse, varied menu of games that these boys can all learn from.

“It’s part and parcel of academy life. We use the term 'playing across age groups' rather than 'playing up' or 'playing down'.

“We have some boys who play in younger age groups because their biological age requires that, and we think the challenge on that day would be suitable. Likewise, we’ve had first-year scholars train with our first team at times this year.

“That doesn’t just happen by chance, that happens because there’s an unbelievable connection and alignment through the football club and, more importantly, that the talent is good enough.”

That alignment starts at the top of the club with the senior leaders, relationships which Torpey said have helped with the development of the academy, its players and staff.

“The football club’s so supportive in everything it does, the culture’s strong, the connection that we have throughout the club and the alignment we have all the way from Matthew [Benham], to Phil [Giles], Lee [Dykes], Ben [Ryan], Thomas [Frank], how the board supports us, it’s such an amazing place to be,” he said.

“I speak regularly with Phil and with Lee about player pathways and succession, so our board and our sporting director know the names of our highest potential and performing Under-11s, for example.

“That just helps opportunities and we’re very proud to say that we’ve done that, but we’ve got a long way to go now to see the rewards and the benefits longer term of that.”

The alignment carries through to the parents and families of each player, who play a critical role too.

“All of our families have really brought into what we believe in. We can be as caring as we want to be as staff but, actually, that care has to transition into our families and our people, and they also have to show that,” said Torpey.

“Just like hiring staff or bringing people into the organisation, it’s the same message that was given to our families before they joined, and that’s the beauty of this project at the moment; there was such a clean slate that we could set all of these structures up.

“Fortunately for us, we’ve got a number of amazing people both out on the grass with the children and the support networks that they have with their families, we put all that in the mix and there’s a lot of fun, happiness, smiles and laughter.”

This season saw success across the U18s and B team, with some changes in personnel also occurring.

After leading the U18s' first season, Lydia Bedford departed as head coach in January, with assistant coach Jon-Paul Pittman taking on the role for the remainder of the season. Gary McDermott has since been appointed head coach for the 2025/26 campaign.

“It’s important to thank Lydia for her efforts. As part of this relaunch, she was really important to what we did. She was the first female head coach in the Professional Development Phase and she embraced it with as much effort and energy as she possibly could,” said Torpey.

“JP always knew that he was going to take the reins for a period of time whilst we looked for a new coach, and he did a fantastic job with the group.

“We went through a detailed recruitment process and what was great for us was that we had an internal candidate that shone within that process in Gary McDermott - Gary’s going to take the reins as the head coach for this coming season.

“The performances individually and collectively within that Under-18 squad from the start of the season to now have improved greatly. That is a by-product of the work and the consistency of the process of the delivery.

“What Gary’s going to do, hopefully, is just help us continue to deliver that to an elite level and, therefore, the boys will reap the rewards of that over the long term.”

Brentford B made three finals this season (the Premier League Cup, Professional Development League and London Senior Cup), lifting one trophy so far from two games, with the LSC final still to come.

While development is the focus, the challenge of playing in big games is something that will accelerate the young Bees’ development.

“Neil [MacFarlane] leads from the very top of the academy age groups and the B team set-up, and he shows everybody what it should be like,” explained Torpey.

“In terms of the results for the B team, it’s evident that the group performed really well and consistently. That is a by-product of the work that happened on a daily basis.

“The fitness of the guys thanks to the athletic development team, the strength and conditioning, the medical team. Our programme is relentless, we played a lot of games this year. Boys in the squads got ample opportunities.

“If you can get into quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals of competitions consistently, regardless of the outcome, that gives you a true indicator of how your performances are going and your individual performances.”

Looking ahead, Torpey expressed the club’s ambition to become a Category One academy.

“We’re in a fantastic space right now as a Category Two academy, only a year ago we were a Category Four academy,” he said.

“Our aspirations are to, one day, be a Category One academy and operate at the very highest level we possibly can. If we just do the jobs to the best of our ability, the categorisation will fall into place.

“We’re on track to do that as quick as we possibly can, we’ve got the right levels of staff, we’ve got the infrastructure in place, we’re about to build our indoor dome which is going to be one of the final pieces of the puzzle in terms of a Category One status.

“That’s something that we’re trying to do a little differently and take our time over to make sure that we implement the right levels of technology and planning around that space.

“The players and the staff performance this year has given me even greater confidence that we’re ready for that, it’s just a matter of time now and being patient."