There are a lot of young players in your squad Brendan?
Yes, I think it's a good mix. This club's got a lot of talent and if you look at that talent they've actually played a number of games. The likes of Alex Pearce, James Henry, Jem Karacan and Hal Robson-Kanu, these are guys that have actually got decent league experience. They have been here for a few years and I'm looking forward to working with them, getting new ideas and looking to give a new identity to the team, and so far the players have accepted them and they enjoy their work.

Did you work with a lot of the younger players before when you were here?
Yes, I was obviously involved when a lot of them came to the club. Alex Pearce, we took Alex from Oxford as an under 12, Simon Church we brought here from Wycombe, Jem Karacan was at Manchester United as a boy and James Henry's been here all his life, so a very long time. And Julian Kelly and Hal Robson-Kanu were with the under 15's at Arsenal. So we've got a real decent knowledge of their DNA and obviously some of the senior players too.

I'm also looking forward to working with some of the European players because I worked at the international level at Chelsea and Chelsea is an International club, so you get to learn about different cultures and here we've obviously got quite a few.

Is there quite a bit of pressure on these young players, do you think they're strong enough to come through?
Yes, they're certainly good enough. Alex Pearce played last year and I tried to take Alex to Watford on loan, but Steve wanted to keep him and obviously play him and he's done exceptionally well. James has played in some of the big games with Reading and he's also gone out on loan and that was good experience for him. And you know, they're young players but I always feel that if you're good enough, then you're old enough. How long do you wait, how long do you wait? I mean if a boy's good at 17 then he needs possibilities to play. If you look at Kieran Gibbs at Arsenal, he's played in the Champions League and he's 19.

So the boys need opportunities and I have a belief in young players, so I believe that you need to be good enough but I will always give that opportunity to the young players, but you need the balance. There's a decent balance here and what I'll be able to bring into the club aswell will support them.

Do you have any idea as to whether you're going to favour the younger players at the start of the season or if I can put it crudely, just pick your best 11?
I favour the top talents. If he's 18, he's 18. If he's 31, he's 31. So I will favour the best players. What I will not be frightened to do is that if the best player is 18, he plays. I did that in Watford in my short period there. I had an 18-year-old and a 19-year-old in midfield. I had an 18-year-old at right-back, I had a 20-year-old goalkeeper in Scotty Loach and others around that who were 21-22. I will favour the best players and like you say, at the biggest clubs like Manchester United and Arsenal, you have to have no fear in playing them. If you have fear then you will pick 29-year-olds and 30-year-olds, but I favour the good players.