Brentford head coach Marinus Dijkuizen has warned this summer’s pre-season tour to Portugal will be no holiday as it is crucial to a good start to the new Championship campaign.

The Bees head to the sunshine for a 10-day trip on July 6, knowing they will have to integrate at least two new faces into the squad after the Bees captured Ryan Williams from Morecombe last week.

The club have already signed Akaki Gogia from Hallescher FC and have been linked with FC Twente pair midfielder Kamohelo Mokotjo and Andreas Bjelland, and French Ligue Two side Chamois Niortais defender Yoann Barbet.

Dijkhuizen will have little time to get used to life in the Championship with a stiff opening day test on the menu after Ipswich Town were this week confirmed as the visitors to Griffin Park on August 8.

The Tractor Boys lost to promoted Norwich City – pre-season friendly opponents on August 1 – in the play-offs and finished on the same number of points as the Bees in last season’s table.

They play six games in August – including the Capital One Cup visit of Oxford United on August 10 – with Bristol City (a, Aug 15), Birmingham City (h, Aug 18), ex-Premier League side Burnley (a, Aug 22) and former West Bromwich Albion boss Steve Clarke’s Reading (h, Aug 29) completing the programme.

Dijkhuizen is planning on expanding the squad to cope and will spend pre-season concentrating on his team rather than worrying too much about prospective opposition.

“I love watching other games , but I have to prepare the players,” he said.

“In the Netherlands we have six weeks pre-season and then we have one game a week, but here there are six or seven games in the first month.

“It is difficult. We need a bigger squad because there are a lot of games.

“We need good quality of players to make changes for Saturday-Wednesday-Saturday games.”

“If you have good enough players you can make more changes, which – in the end – is better for the squad and results.

“Sometimes you have to rotate. If you have two or three players of the same quality in the same positions it is good to make changes.”

The first of six London derby clashes is on October 24 when Charlton Athletic is the venue, before QPR visit on October 31.

Fulham is the destination on December 12, with the return fixtures for the trio scheduled for 2016 in March (Charlton and QPR) and April (Fulham).

The season ends with a trip to Huddersfield Town on May 7.