A DOZEN years ago (2009), Brentford were getting promoted to League One as League Two champions.

Less than two weeks ago, the Bees secured promotion to the top tier of English football for the first time since 1947.

Nine years ago (2012), childhood Brentford fan, Matthew Benham, became the club's majority shareholder.

He had earned his money through SmartOdds, a gambling and data analytics company, and then put his mathematical recruitment philosophy into motion at the club.

Two years later, Benham also took over Danish side, Midtjylland, and trialled his data analytics vision there.

The club would use data and mathematical software to analyse which players would help them win games, something which clearly worked as they were crowned Danish champions in Benham's first season.

This philosophy is usually used by clubs looking to overachieve against bigger opposition, similar to the 'Moneyball' philosophy adopted by the Oakland Athletics in Major League Baseball (MLB).

Benham had seen his plan work in Denmark and was determined to copy it in West London, even if that meant getting rid of Mark Warburton, the manager who had led the Bees to within two wins of the Premier League.

Benham hired Midtjylland chairman, Rasmus Ankersen, as director of football, while data guru Phil Giles joined later on to help analyse the mathematical equations.

Things didn't start off on the best footing, with Marinus Dijhuizen only lasting three months in charge as manager.

He was followed by Dean Smith (current manager of Aston Villa) who slowly and steadily led the Bees back up the table.

At the same time however, bigger clubs started poaching Brentford's best players, such as Ollie Watkins, Neil Maupay and Said Benrahma.

But the mathematical planning meant that Brentford had data-driven back-up options to replace the players lost.

The perfect example is Ivan Toney coming in to replace Ollie Watkins and scoring 33 goals this season.

Former Brondby manager, Thomas Frank, was brought in as assistant manager in 2016.

When Smith was poached by Aston Villa in 2018, Frank stepped up and became the club's Head Coach.

In the three seasons that the Dane has been in charge, Brentford has reached the play-offs on each occasion and has now finally managed to achieve the end goal of Premier League football.

Although history doesn't look kindly on recently promoted sides, Brentford will hope that their 'Moneyball' style of recruiting will help them have a long and successful time in the 'best league in the world'.