Toumani Diagouraga has spent his Brentford career trying to prove himself and this season he is out to prove the Bees are good enough to reach the Premier League.

The 28-year-old first moved to Griffin Park on loan from Peterborough United and he impressed then boss Andy Scott enough to land a permanent deal in 2010.

He has made more than 200 appearances for the club since then and played under five different managers, as well as spending a spell on loan at League Two Portsmouth.

He appeared to be heading out of the Griffin Park exit door permanently when he left for Pompey before returning to help secure automatic promotion in 2014 under Mark Warburton.

Diagouraga still cannot quite believe he remains an integral part of plans to reach the Premier League and admits he is enjoying the ride.

“It is strange to think I went out on loan and now I’m trying to get into the Premier League,” he said.

“I always believe if you don’t play you can’t show yourself. If I hadn’t gone to Portsmouth maybe I wouldn’t have played last year.

“But because I did go and did well it helped me when I came back and the boss thought I deserved a chance.

“At the time I didn’t think I was going to go back to Brentford to play.”

He added: “We are trying to go one better. When we were in League One we lost the play-off final and then won promotion the year after.

“We’ve got that never say die attitude. It wasn’t meant to be last year, but this year we will try again.

“We are bringing in players worth one, two, three million you can see the intent. “The club is growing at a rapid pace.

“It is not the same club I joined when we were mid-table in League One.

“It is exciting to be here.

It is like being on a train that is just going forward and not stopping. It is enjoyable, because we are going the right way.

“I don’t want to get off the train. The train is doing well at the moment. The best place to be is on the train.”