Rasmus Ankersen has revealed that Brentford would rather sign a player based on confidential references over speaking to the player himself.
The Bees' methods of mixing analytics with scouting is well known and the blend has worked well with the likes of Maxime Colin, Ollie Watkins, Dan Bentley and others thriving at Griffin Park.
But, while it's, arguably, easy to judge a player on what they do on the pitch, it's what they are like on the training ground that can make or break a transfer.
And Ankersen revealed how one player they were seriously interested in had a reputation for turning up to training drunk.
"We do a lot of digging on players," the Dane told football.london. "Obviously we speak to them before we sign them, but we do a lot of taking confidential references, because that's a lot more effective, and tells us a lot more.
"If you ask me if I want to speak to the player we want to sign, or three players he shared a dressing room with, I'll speak to the three players. A job interview is most effective when the guy doesn't know he's being interviewed, otherwise he's likely to tell you what you want to hear.
"We had a player we looked at a year ago. We really liked him, we met him, but then took references on him and they were not good - said he occasionally arrived drunk on the training ground.
“We don't want a terrorist in the building. Brentford is about togetherness, no egos, and we don't want anyone who will ruin that."
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