Dean Smith has been seriously linked with a move away from Brentford for the first time in his reign.

The Mirror have the Bees head coach as one of four men West Bromwich Albion are looking at the turn around their fortunes in the summer along with Graham Potter, Derek McInnes and Michael Appleton.

Deservedly, Potter is currently the 'flavour of the month' due to his excellent work at Ostersunds and it will not be long until an English club do come knocking.

However, the Solihull-born coach will also have the pick of the clubs and it wouldn't be a surprise if he was seen as a long term replacement at a Southampton.

The thing with being 'flavour of the month' though is it can turn sour, much like it did for former Watford boss Marco Silva when Everton came calling. The Hornets rejected their approach and accused the Toffees of distracting him when they sacked him earlier this year.

Appleton is highly fancied by the staff at West Brom, while McInnes has done excellent work in Scotland.

The latter pair though are names that have featured on the managerial merry go round before with Appleton having a number of jobs, while McInnes had a stint at Bristol City.

That leaves Dean Smith and, for those who regularly watch Brentford, it will come as a surprise that his name hasn't seriously cropped up before.

Certainly, Aston Villa and Sheffield Wednesday fans have spoken positively about the idea of having the Bees boss in charge. Part of that will come due to the fact that Smith supports Villa and played for the Owls in his playing career.

Dean Smith

However, his name has never cropped up when being linked with jobs and he is always seen as an outsider.

Smith took over a Walsall team that was stuck in a slump and kept them up before turning them into contenders by the time Brentford came knocking.

The Bees side he inherited in December 2015 was in the midst of a transition following the overhaul of playing staff the previous summer.

It's important, at this stage, to appreciate how Brentford work as a club and how the club's head coach is just one part of the overall machine.

Smith's influence on the overall philosophy on the club is limited. The club have shown themselves to be one that likes to sign young, hungry players with something to prove and develop them which will either lead to the club being promoted to the Premier League or the player being sold for a healthy profit.

Smith was appointed because that philosophy is practically identical to his own and was more than happy to work in the structure laid out by owner Matthew Benham.

The fact that the overall philosophy of the club is set in stone is a good thing as far as I'm concerned. Brentford view their squad as a jigsaw and, rather than taking the 'Supermarket Sweep' approach to a transfer window, they sign a player who best fits the required role in the side. When the manager has power over philosophy it means that a departure can lead to a vast difference in style.

If we take the summer departures for instance of Jota, Harlee Dean and Maxime Colin to Birmingham. Ollie Watkins, Chris Mepham and Henrik Dalsgaard have all proven themselves to be more than capable replacements, while the club have continued in a forward direction. Just a quick look at the league table shows that the Bees had the better summer than the Blues.

The Birmingham Three: Jota, Maxime Colin, Harlee Dean

That is not to say that Smith has no say in who the club signs as that is patently untrue. He works closely with co-directors of football Phil Giles and Rasmus Ankersen along with others in the football department at the club. He's given the green light to every signing made during his tenure – the club's philosophy demands that recruitment is as detailed a process as possible.

It is this setup that has helped Smith in his job and why Brentford have been regulars in the top half of the Championship throughout his tenure.

Given that football tends to work on a 'flavour of the month' basis it's been surprising that many still haven't opened their eyes to the job Brentford have done in the last two and a half seasons, despite selling a key player in every one of the last six transfer windows.

Some probably disregard it because they don't like how the club operate, instead preferring to deify one man and chiding the club for daring to do something different.

Others take the snobbish look and overlook the Bees, dismissing their achievements in the Championship because they're an unfashionable club. They're regularly shown late on highlights shows and some pundits look down their noses at them.

Another school of thought is he's not a glamorous name or 'flavour of the month'. Carlos Carvalhal may be doing a good job at Swansea but I'd argue that Smith has done a better job than the former Sheffield Wednesday boss over the last few years given their respective budgets.

Smith's also very 'safe' when it comes to handling the media. There won't be comments such as Sam Allardyce's tongue in cheek remark where he said in 2012: "I won’t ever be going to a top-four club because I’m not called Allardici, just Allardyce." As an aside, I remember being at this press conference and discussing afterwards how Allardici would be spelt!

Dean Smith in a press conference last season

Carvalhal, if you remember, did some 'interesting' things in his press conferences such as getting out a £20 note.

To appreciate the work Smith has done at Brentford, you need to see them for longer than just the highlights or when they're on the telly.

They consistently play a brand of football that is easy on the eye, as per the philosophy at the club, and regularly give bigger spending teams a bloody nose.

He gets players playing for him and he tweets them as human beings, as previously mentioned by Ryan Woods.

Video Loading

The Brentford boss is also very astute. He understood what he was going into at Brentford and felt it was the right move for him. He also knows that he's still developing as a coach and wants to improve in every factor all the time.

Given that he was in the top 10 longest serving managers in the country during his time at Walsall it is inconceivable to think that there weren't overtures prior to heading to Griffin Park.

He has always spoken about how fortunate he has been to work for good owners who provide time to build a squad and he strikes me as a person that wouldn't move somewhere if it didn't feel the right move.

West Bromwich Albion appear to have a toxic dressing room due to incidents involving stolen taxis, touchline rows and players accused of not trying.

Their likely relegation will probably be followed by a transitional year which may see them struggling in the Championship next season while the contracts of those players dragging the club down run closer to expiring.

Will Baggies fans be patient and accept that things need to change in the squad in order to progress or will they hound whoever they appoint out if they don't make a good start to the season?

West Brom may not be the right job but it appears that Smith is starting to attract attention from elsewhere. It's long overdue.

Keep up to date with the latest news in west London via the free getwestlondon app.

You can even set it to receive push notifications for all the breaking news in your area

Available to download from the App Store or Google Play for Android now.