Brentford Football Club

"I’d heard of Darren [Simmons, Founder], and that Executives In Sport were very good at what they do, particularly that they had a very good pool of contacts and talent – that was key for us.

We needed to fill three or four positions, in very different areas of our business, from Marketing Manager and Retail Manager to a Training Ground Site Manager. We wanted to work with a sports recruitment agency who could quickly find the right people for us.

There’s a perception that working in football is exciting, and because of that our jobs can be very attractive. We sometimes receive 50 or 60 applications for each job that we advertise, so it’s important that we cut through all of that to find the people that aren’t just in it for the ‘glamour’ of working in the game. We want people who understand that it is a career for them, and that it comes with challenges, and involves a lot of hard work.

Darren and his team listened to every brief and took on board exactly the type of person that we were looking for. I think they have a great understanding of the culture of the organisation as well, and our values – it was important that we got the right fit. ​

They worked hard to get to know me and the business, and really got to know the type of people we were looking to recruit. I trust their judgement and the people they put in front of us have always been of a really good standard, even the ones we didn’t employ. We aren’t frightened to recruit out of the industry, people that come with fresh ideas. A number of our departments are looking for that fresh impetus and it’s important that they provided us with people already working in sport, but also those from outside with strong transferable skills.

When we get to the new stadium [Brentford are due to move in to the Community Stadium in 2017], and if we get promoted, we will be a much bigger business and there will be many more job opportunities. And I’m confident that Darren and his team will be there to help us grow when we need to.”