This could be the most crazy 24 hours in modern football. We’ve already had the farce of last night’s Checkatrade trophy opening round where the lure of West Ham and Leicester City U-23 teams (please note, your definition of under 23 may vary) was not enough to persuade supporters to drop the proposed #BteamBoycott in this most maligned of tournaments. And then today sees ‘Transfer Deadline day’ as Brentford supporters join the rest of the footballing community in wondering if any new names will be coming through the ‘in door’ or if anyone is heading out?
Jim White, Natalie Sawyer and the rest of the gang lead the madness on Sky Sports before the window eventually ‘slams shut’ (TM) . You all know the drill by now. Yellow ties, yellow dresses and lots of cutting to empty stadia where nothing is happening. Plus, presumably, archive footage of Harry Redknapp leaning out of a car (subject to his sore knee).
To read the rest of this article, season 2016/17 is now available for download on e-book in the retrospective: Welcome Home, King Jota (Brentford FC season review 2016/17)
Priced at just £1.99, all sales are being donated to the Brentford FC Community Sports Trust.
Likewise any sales from the previous titles – Celebrating like they’d won the FA Cup (2013/14), Tales from the football village (2014/15) and Ready. Steady. Go Again. (2015/16) – are also now going to the BFCCST.
Jim and Natalie do their thing on deadline days gone by
Brentford’s most recent signing activity
Nick Bruzon
BrentfordFC 
I actually think the introduction of U23 sides to the Trophy is a good thing….
…bare with me….
…introducing these sides to the competition will be of huge benefit to English football. Not because it gives the opportunity for young professionals to be involved in competitive games, but for the following…
*This experiment will clearly only last one season, the biggest sides in the country bar-Chelsea have opted out of taking part, for fear of injuring their prize assets. Of course they came up with some other reason
*The experiment has not gone down well with fans as demonstrated by the appalling attendances. in fact some of the clubs who have U23 sides involved didnt even sell tickets to their own supporters.
*The whole U23 or B(ee) team experiment is clearly a dead duck, and there is no appetite for these sides to be involved in ‘first class’ competitions. This should silence forever the FA’s desire to include these sides in the Football League structure
*The EFL firmly believe that the Trophy is in trouble and needs restructuring. Maybe thats so, and yet they seem to ignore that the League Cup is in a similarly poor state. Maybe with the Trophy laid bare it will force members of the EFL to look closely at the League Cup. Do we really need a League Cup and Trophy competitions? Should the League Cup continue but only feature EFL clubs with the Trophy scrapped altogether.
The car crash that was completely predictable will open up the heirarchy of the EFL to scrutiny and Im sure further sweeping changes will occur next summer
Oh and im avoiding deadline day. After a hard day’s work the last thing I want to be faced with is a barrage of yellow and Jim White constantly shouting “Yes, I can hear you Jim, thats why we have volume controls”