Brentford chairman Cliff Crown has said that changes to the way that the club will be run have been discussed since last summer.

The Championship outfit will use a continental approach to management next season, with a head coach and a director of football, and popular manager Mark Warburton will leaving in the summer.

"It started at the beginning of the season and has been bubbling under, and then gathered pace just before Christmas and then into the New Year – so it's been a number of weeks," Crown told Get West London.

"We were looking at making the change in the summer, but unfortunately someone leaked the story and it accelerated the whole process. It was not something we wanted to do now, but we were left with no choice.

"We just feel the European way of doing things is more akin to our view, and is likely to have a better chance of success than, for instance, getting another manager."

Brentford are currently seventh in the Championship table, and have been strongly linked with a move for Rayo Vallecano head coach Paco Jemez.