IN less than two months, Brentford will be playing in the Premier League, kicking of their campaign against 13-time champions, Arsenal.

As part of that, we thought this was a good excuse to look at the life and career of the 'architect' responsible for this historical achievement.

Thomas Frank was born on October 9 1973 in Frederiksværk - a town with a population of just 12,000, around 30 miles from Copenhagen.

He completed his BA studies in Physical Education at the Copenhagen Institute of Sports Medicine in 1999 and studied Sport Psychology and Coaching-Based Leadership at the same institution from 2002 until 2005.

After a short playing career in amateur football as a midfielder, Frank began his coaching career with the U8 and U12 teams at Frederiksværk BK.

Over the next decade, from 1998 until 2008, he coached youth teams at Hvidovre IF, Boldklubben af 1983 and Lyngby, before getting appointed as the manager of Denmark's national U16 and U17 teams.

In 2011, he led the U17 team to the European U17 Championships and managed to advance all the way to the semi-finals before losing to Germany 2-0.

During that same year, he also managed to lead Denmark to their first ever U17 World Cup, before being eliminated at the group stages.

Following his success, Frank was appointed manager of Denmark's U19 team in 2012.

In 2013, at the age of 40, he secured his first position in senior football as manager of Danish club, Brøndby IF.

In his first two seasons he managed to lead the club to Europa League qualification but failed to lead them into the group stage on either occasion.

Frank resigned in March 2016, after a controversial situation where the club's chairman, Jan Bech Andersen, used a pseudonym to criticise Frank on an online supporters' forum.

Nine months later, he was appointed as assistant coach at Brentford, alongside Richard O'Kelly, under the leadership of Dean Smith.

Nearly two years later, in October 2018, Dean Smith left the Bees in order to take over Championship rivals, Aston Villa, with the Dane being named as his replacement.

Although his start as Head Coach at Griffin Park was difficult, winning just one of his first 10 games in charge, the team's form improved, and he was nominated for the Manager of the Month award in January 2019.

The end of the 2018/19 season found the Bees in 11th place and knocked out of the FA Cup in the fifth round.

After an uneven start to the 2019/20 season, Frank was nominated for his second Manager of the Month award, this time in October 2020.

He finally won the award in June 2020, after the Championship's restart following the three-month hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Dane led the Bees to the play-off final at Wembley, which Brentford lost to West London rivals Fulham 2-1.

In October 2020, he reached the milestone of 100 matches in charge and had the highest winning percentage of any Brentford manager to manage 100 matches or more.

He won his second Manager of the Month award, this time in December 2020.

Only three weeks ago, he managed to lead the Bees to the holy grail of the Premier League and became only the second manager in the club's history, after Harry Curtis, to win promotion to the top tier.

Following this tremendous achievement, Frank was named the Danish Football Association's Coach of the Year for the 2020/21 season.

He will now lead the Bees in their first season in England's top-flight in over seven decades, since 1947.