Saturday morning, 7am. It’s cold out side, very cold, but thankfully the snow has failed to materialise in Brentford. With the FA Cup behind us for now (although the club did confirm details about the Chelsea game on Friday – more below) it is back to League action for the Bees as Newcastle United are the visitors to Griffin Park.
In the red corner, Scott Hogan. He’s the man, the man with the midas touch. Worth his weight in gold, and goals, he’s been finding the net for fun this season yet now finds himself the absolute centre of transfer speculation as those West Ham stories just won’t go away.
In the blue corner (with orange trim), Dwight Gayle. Outright occupant of the penthouse suite in the Championship leading scorer hotel. Scott’s 14 are still 5 behind the Newcastle United man who showed first hand back in October how deadly he can be. Gayle’s brace contributing to a 3-1 win over the Bees at St. James Park and he hasn’t looked back.
So the big question, will we see them face off today? From one respect the good news was Dean Smith’s confirmation in Thursday’s press conference that “Scott Hogan’s buttock is fine, he has trained all week and is available for selection,” The pair were due to speak yesterday to assess the situation and then, come 2pm (or closely after) we’ll get our first look at the team sheet to see if Lasse Vibe retains his place up top or Scott walks straight back into the side.
I can only expect the later. With no fee having been agreed or deal signed then one can only presume he’ll be leading the line. Unless Scott is having some form of hissy fit à la Diego Costa or Dimitri Payet (how angry must Chelsea and West Ham fans be today?) then surely the chance to prove his mettle against the second best team in the division will be the perfect shop window for a player harbouring dreams of top flight football at some point in his career. Whether that be next week or next season.
As Dean went on to add (and you can find the full article on ‘official’ ), “I fully expect him to want to score a hat-trick against Newcastle United and show people who may question his Premier League credentials that he can do it.”
No Brentford fan wants to see Scott leave but is anyone naïve enough to think we could turn down figures in the region of £15million? More to the point, given what he has been through in his career to date, would anybody really stand in the player’s way? Scott will go to the Premier League at some point soon – whether January or the summer. Of that, have have absolutely no doubt. He’s just too good.
Today could well be our last chance to see him at Griffin Park. At least, in the red and white of Brentford. We’ve only one more home game until the transfer window closes and that’s an evening kick off, on January 31st, against Aston Villa. I’d love to see him starting that one but in my heart of hearts I fear we’ll have said farewell by that point.
Come on Scott. Could today be the last time we’ll see scenes like this?
Instead, let’s just live for the moment. Can Harlee Dean and crew keep out Dwight Gayle at one end, leaving Scott free to try and catch Newcastle’s free scoring goal machine at the other? Here’s hoping. This afternoon’s game has goals in it, no doubt. The only question being just how many?
The one piece of news that the club have been able to confirm is that surrounding the FA Cup fourth round tie at Chelsea. It was announced yesterday that that game will be a 3pm kick off on Saturday 28th January. A not surprising decision but, at the same time, given the home team’s subsequent league fixtures there was always the thought it might be brought forward to Friday night or even Saturday lunchtime.
As with our previous visit to Stamford Bridge, we’ve been allocated all 6,000 tickets in their ‘Shed’ end. Details of sale are yet to be released although with the game only a fortnight away expect this to be imminent. The pricing structure of £30 adults and £15 kids is (relatively) competitive – I’m still baulking at the £41 charged by Leeds United – so filling that end to get Chelsea rocking won’t be an issue.
Everything we know about the Chelsea game in two tweets
With a home game against Brighton and the aforementioned Villa match immediately after that one, it has all the potential to be a wonderful few weeks for Brentford.
This time ten years ago we were playing games against Leyton Orient, Yeovil Town and Carlisle United as the Bees eventually finished the season a the bottom of League One. Now we’re talking about selling players for £15million whilst taking on some of the biggest names in English football.
It makes you think.
For now, though, it’s all about Newcastle United. See you there.
Nick Bruzon
BrentfordFC 
Thanks Nick for your Wincey Willis update. For those of us, far away from the lights of West London and who were enjoying the most beautiful sunny weather, your weather update was very useful, compared to the news which was predicting something akin to The Day After Tomorrow, not very useful!
Newcastle at home. Ill say it again, Newcastle at home. Still cant believe its happening even after all these months. Have to say im extremely pessimistic, but im sure Scott has a lot of pent up energy he needs to release. He could be on fire today and has to start (my only change from Eastleigh). Who knows what today would bring, lets hope we dont have a miss of Marcus Gayle lengths.
Who would of thought our former number 26 (he who must not be mentioned) turned out to be a trendsetter. Costa & Payet following in his footsteps. No such suggestion from Scott who has behaved impeccably throughout, but then again I didnt expect any different. Although he may not be the cuddliest in the team, it has always been clear how determined he is when playing for the Bees. A shame for West Ham fans that they wouldnt stump up the extra cash, they missed out on one hell of a player. I cant say I think much of Karren Brady’s negotiation skills, if it was a task in the TV series she so obviously wants to lead, I think Lord Sugar would ‘with regret’ have been left with no other option.