The transfer window has closed. Hot off the back of thumping Aston Villa 3-0 at Griffin Park on Tuesday night, Brentford announced that goal machine Scott Hogan had, finally, been sold. Not to long time suitors West Ham – a club who would have, in the short term, fulfilled his Premier League aspirations – but instead to none other than Villa themselves. Championship rivals to the Bees and now sitting below us in the table.
Aston Villa announce their side of the deal
Good luck to Scott, genuinely. I’m sure we’ve all seen his message to supporters , sent via club Captain Harlee Dean. We’ll miss his goals, no question, but Lasse Vibe showed once more that he is more than capable of stepping up. Moreso given the new look formation employed by Dean on Tuesday night as Aston Villa were put to the sword.
I suppose we’ve a lot to be thankful to Villa for. Brentford have received a record club transfer fee whilst West Ham have been put firmly back in their box. On the pitch, we’ve picked up four points from a possible six over the course of the current season. Our record against Villa now reading:
P2 W1 D1 L0 F4 A1
Not bad, for a pub team.
Then, of course, we’ve got ‘tweet of the season’ from quite possibly football’s angriest fan. This beauty appeared prior to Brentford visiting Villa Park back in September. Fair to say that Master Hateley is probably looking for a new team to support at present. I hear Birmingham City are worth a look. Similar current form and a former Brentford goal machine up front.
The other reason to be thankful was that it has freed up funds to let us sign Sergi Canos.
Looking at the player’s post on Twitter it would be fair to say he seems as excited as the Brentford supporters about a permanent return to Griffin Park, telling the club that his move was, “Amazing. I feel full of happiness” before putting his motivation down to the supporters themselves for believing in him.
The whole piece is on Brentford official and well worth a read through. And , for Beesplayer subscribers, there’s even a video. Do take a look, You won’t be disappointed.
Equally good news about the Canos transfer is that we didn’t use that most cringeworthy of social media devices, a hashtag.To be fair, after #bignewambitions (never, ever forget), #Novemberkings and #trophyfriends, it would be fair to say that the club have been a lot more judicious about the use of such devices.
Instead, Brentford fans have looked on and laughed as other teams fall prey to this trap. The season has already given us QPR with #Jakejoins. Now, we have had #WelcomeScott from Aston Villa.
As correspondent Luis Adriano note on Twitter yesterday, it looked as though he was standing in front of a TV weather map, Carol Kirkwood style. All that was missing were a few magnetic stickers. Personally, I’m more a Michael Fish fan – from a meteorological perspective – although do think Luis may have a point.
That said, looking at Scott’s stance – classic Antoine de Caunes – he is perhaps more kitted out to stand in for the host of early-90s pop culture show, Rapido. Whilst I can’t imagine Scott ever cracking out the “Rap, Rap, Rap, Rapiiiidoo” (kids, ask your dads), he does have a certain Je ne sais quoi about him.
In all seriousness though, there’s nothing but genuine good wishes toward Scott. We all know the 18 month injury hell he went through which now seems well behind him whilst his goals saved us on more than a few occasions.
I’m sure he’ll continue to find the back of the net for Villa. Indeed, I hope he does. There’s more than a few ’Scott Hogan – leading Championship goalscorer’ bets that are still well alive.
For research purposes, of course.
Nick Bruzon
BrentfordFC 
Looking forward to seeing Sergj Canos link up with King Jota possibly on Sunday !
Nothing but praise for the lad up until Jan. Disappointed he didn’t want to play against Newcastle / Wigan but understand his reasoning. He wasn’t going to stay past summer anyway, we’ve got good money for him and some of thats been put to good use already with another Spaniard for Jota to chat to in the mother tongue (both of those two making a mockery of the ‘never go back’ saying). Also the flying Dutchman who’s really set the bar high on his debut. If (big IF!) we can play like we did last night for the rest of the season, with a certain Alan Judge coming back and the unknown capabilities of Rico Henri then I’m starting to look upwards at the table again….
We take £12m and 3 points off a so called big club like Villa, things are looking up. A fantastic performance by all the team on Tuesday night, a real privilege to be there and I certainly feel a lot more positive today than I did after that debacle at Stamford Bridge. I hope Dean Smith keeps the same formation or something similar for Sunday’s game. Brighton looked vulnerable to pace at Huddersfield tonight and I’m Disappointed that Dunk got sent off when he normally does that against Brentford. Bruno should have also been sent off tonight – perhaps he is saving himself for Sunday?!