Thomas Frank is keen to keep star players Neal Maupay and Said Benrahma at the club as Brentford look to challenge for the playoffs this season.

Neither featured in the Bees’ 3-0 win against AFC Wimbledon at the Kingsmeadow but both reportedly both have clubs interested in them.

Maupay, whose rumoured suitors include Premier League newcomers Sheffield United, was Brentford’s leading scorer last season with 28 goals in all competitions.

And his teammate Benrahma, apparently being watched by Aston Villa, was also a hugely important player, chipping in with 11 goals and 17 assists.

But Frank wants to keep the group together and improve on their top half finish from last season.

“I think as a coach you want to keep your best players, always,” he said.

Asked whether the club has received any approaches for either player, the Bees boss added: “Approaches? Nah. That's the good thing with the construction of our club, I can very, very confidently can leave that to [co-directors of football] Rasmus [Ankersen], Phil [Giles] and [ owner] Matthew [Benham].

“I can have my wishes.

“I think it's very obvious that everybody who watched us last year saw some amazing bits of football. When you play good football, and we have very young, interesting players, it's natural that other clubs are interested in them.

“But we also know that we want to progress, we want to push, so because of that we want to keep our best players and get some new good players in - just like we did with Christian [Norgaard] and Ethan [Pinnock].”

Both Norgaard and Pinnock featured in the victory against AFC Wimbledon, with the former scoring the second of the three goals on 82 minutes.

Now the club is headed to Austria for training camp, though there are still some players who are yet to report back.

“Ezri Konsa is going to be back on the 15th because he got three weeks because he had a long training camp before the under-21s [European Championships],” Frank said.

“Julian Jeanvier and Kamohelo Mokotjo are playing tomorrow, on Saturday in the African Cup of Nations, so they will be in later.

“Said Benrahma is still recovering from his injury in the spring. Mads Bech, unfortunately, got an injury two days ago. We don't know how long he'll be out [for] but we'll find that out on Monday.

“Neal has just a slight overload, we'll be taking him to Austria [for the training camp].”