Brentford Football Club is an English professional football club based in Brentford, Hounslow, London. Between 1897 and 1920, the first team competed in the London League, Southern League and Western League. Since 1920, the first team has competed in the Football League, the Premier League and other nationally and internationally organised competitions. All managers who have managed at least one first team match are listed below.
From Brentford's formation in 1889 and until 1900, the club's first team was run by a committee. William Lewis was appointed as the Bees' first official secretary-manager in May 1900. Fred Halliday was at the helm for Brentford's first ever Football League fixture in August 1920. The club has had 44 full-time managers, with the most recent appointment being Thomas Frank on 16 October 2018.
Brentford's most successful manager was Harry Curtis, who after being appointed in May 1926, won the Third Division South and Second Division titles in the 1932–33 and 1934–35 seasons respectively and won promotion to First Division for the first time in the club's history. Curtis recorded Brentford's highest-ever league finish (fifth in 1935–36) and the club topped the First Division table for three consecutive months during the 1937–38 season. Brentford also won the 1935 London Senior Cup, the 1942 London War Cup and reached the FA Cup sixth round three times during Curtis' tenure.
Brentford has never won a senior competitive cup (the club has reached the 1985, 2001 and 2011 Football League Trophy Finals), but several other managers have won silverware in the form of league championships: Malky MacDonald (Fourth Division, 1962–63), Phil Holder (Third Division, 1991–92), Ron Noades (Third Division, 1998–99) and Andy Scott (League Two, 2008–09).
The majority of Brentford's managers have been English, with Scotland being the next-best represented (Jimmy Bain, Malky MacDonald, John Docherty and Frank McLintock). Uwe Rösler (Germany) was Brentford's first overseas manager.
An overhaul of the club's management structure prior to the beginning of the 2015–16 season saw the manager's position redefined and renamed as that of a "head coach". Marinus Dijkhuizen was the first appointment to the new role on 1 June 2015. Dane Thomas Frank was appointed head coach in October 2018 and took the club to successive Championship playoff Finals in 2020 and 2021. Frank's victory in the latter Final made him the second man to manage Brentford to promotion from the second-tier, the first Brentford manager to win promotion via the playoffs and the first Brentford manager to manage in the Premier League.
Managerial history
1889–1926: Early Southern League years and election to the Football League
In the early years of Brentford, first team affairs were run by a committee involving any or all of the club's directors, secretary, trainer or captain, who presided over the selection of the team and the arrangement of friendly fixtures. For 11 years after the club's formation in 1889, leading figures in the running of the first team included secretaries Archer Green, C. West, A. E. Harriss, William Brown, J. Hinton-Bailey and captain J. J. K. Curtis.
Fresh off the back of wins in the London Senior Cup and Middlesex Senior Cup in the 1897–98 season, Brentford were elected into the Southern League and commenced play in Second Division London in the 1898–99 season. William Lewis took over as the club's first official manager in August 1900, leading the club to the Second Division title in his first season. Former Everton secretary-manager Dick Molyneux replaced him in May 1903 and together with his successors William Brown and Fred Halliday, kept Brentford in the First Division. Halliday brought silverware to Griffin Park in the shape of the Southern Professional Charity Cup in the 1908–09 season. With league form faltering, Halliday resigned from his position in November 1912 and was replaced by Dusty Rhodes, who could not prevent the Bees from slipping back into the Second Division at the end of the 1912–13 season.