With the transfer deadline looming on Thursday, you could forgive scurrying rivals for peering over the wall at Brentford in envy. It may seem an odd thing to say given they have lost their captain, John Egan, and the winger Florian Jozefzoon to Championship competitors this summer but few clubs navigate transfer windows better.

Brentford do not panic but rather rebuild and, once more, Dean Smith’s stimulating side – top of the tree after a thumping 5-1 first-game win – have plans of surprising the field.

They are comfortable in their own shell, happy at being different from the rest, visionaries of sorts. Brentford cross-reference potential signings through the owner Matthew Benham’s statistical-analysis company, SmartOdds and ditched their £2m‑a‑year academy two years ago. This pre-season the manager, Smith, scrapped the captaincy altogether – long before the £4m sale of Egan to Sheffield United – preferring a leadership group. Smith is intrigued by rugby, particularly the freedom for players to get involved in the tactics of the game. He has gathered titbits from visits from the French Rugby Federation and London Irish, while he has an invitation to watch Eddie Jones’s England team.

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