Brandon Austin: “Working with the players, the quality is world-class”

Brandon Austin has opened up on the “invaluable” insight he gets from working with Hugo Lloris on a regular basis – and underlined how some of our senior strikers are also helping to develop his game.

A product of our Academy, the 23-year-old goalkeeper spent the whole 2021/22 season as part of the first team squad, training and travelling with the group on a daily basis to provide back-up to captain Hugo and on-loan Pierluigi Gollini.

Named on the bench 14 times over the course of the campaign, the young stopper gained a huge amount of experience from working with the squad and coaching staff. And while naturally he learned plenty from our World Cup-winning number one, he said the chance to come up against the likes of Harry Kane and Heung-Min Son on the training pitches has also taught him a great deal.

“Hugo is a great character – he will always talk to me and give me advice on different situations that happen in games and in training, and when we watch the analysis videos of games involving other teams or his own performances, we will discuss things about why he’s done things in a certain way,” said the Hemel Hempstead-born keeper, who has picked up previous first team experience during loan spells at Danish side Viborg FF and Orlando City in the MLS.

“With the tactical and technical aspects of the game, to get that level of insight from Hugo is invaluable really, coming from someone of his stature and someone who has achieved as much as he has. He's very good to learn from, obviously in addition to the fantastic coaches we have.

“Ultimately, I put the pressure on myself. I want to be able to compete with all the players, so if Sonny or H is doing finishing practice, I want to be saving some of their shots and be able to make it difficult for them while also improving my own game by competing with them. They’re two of the best forwards in the world so working with them and all the senior players in the squad, it’s helping me to develop my game and take it to the next level.”

With the Club from a young age, Brandon believes his formative years in the youth system prepared him well for the demands of senior football.

“Coming up to work with the first team, the quality is world-class,” added the keeper, who signed a new contract with us in March. “You’ve got some of the best players in the world playing and training on the same pitch as you every day, so you have to be on it every minute of every day to try to match the quality that the training sessions provide, but I feel like the Academy set me up for those habits and routines, so I believe I was as well prepared as I could have been for coming into this environment.

“I feel like I’ve made progress during the last year and I’ve had some good feedback from the coaches so I’m happy with that, but now I want to keep progressing and keep improving. Any opportunities that I get, I’ll take them with both hands, try to keep elevating my game and continually learn and improve in order to be the best that I can be.”