Roll on August. Please. As tumbleweed continues to blow through the Championship, something actually happened yesterday. Brentford haven’t signed/sold anybody although Aston Villa have – and it would be fair to say they are wetting themselves over picking up a past his prime John Terry from Chelsea. Elsewhere, we’ve dodged the TV cameras with the latest fixtures up until the end of September. And there’s shock news there for Leeds United fans.
Clanggggg. The sound of a name being dropped. This week I wrote the annual season preview for FourFourTwo magazine, looking at the good and bad of Brentford, along with a number of other Championship based questions. One of which being – Who will be the biggest pantomime villain in the Championship this season?
I did think about Aston Villa super fan Simon Hateley – still smarting from all his bravado last season coming back to royally bite him. What was Villa’s record against the Bees? Ah yes, P 2 W0 D1 L1 GD -3 and £15m handed over – thanks for that.
But then it really would be too niche and, besides, Hateley fits more in the category of unintentional comedian rather than poor man’s Christopher Biggins. That said, he’s still going strong on Twitter at the moment, declaring his own Scott Hogan a ‘bag of shite’ this week. And you can follow him etc at @simonchateley.
Sadly, magazine deadlines ahead of an August publication got in the way of choosing a player who would surely have won the poll hands down. Aston Villa new boy, John Terry.
In the most cringeworthy of press releases – a simulated WhatsApp conversation between Dr. Tony Xia (the man going neck and neck with Vincent Tan as the Championship’s poor man’s Bond villain) – the news was released yesterday. In it, (current) manager Steve Bruce was given the news that Villa had got their man from Chelsea.
Oh, you couldn’t make it up. Toes are curling just looking at this news now. I’m not sure what’s worse. The cheesy press release or the fact they’ve signed this most disruptive and washed up of players. No premier League club have touched him. No MLS side – surely the standard cash cow for any past their prime ‘name’ – have made an offer he can’t refuse . No side challenging for Championship promotion have gone near him. I can’t wait to see us run rings around the rusty old legs. September 9th can’t come soon enough.
There were multiple hashtags for this one. #WelcomeJT and #PartOfThe Pride. Still nowhere near #Bignewambitions or #Trophyfriends but at least we’ve dropped all that nonsense now. Good luck to Villa, seriously.
Whilst Hateley was unusually silent on the subject, comments on Twitter from other fans included: “Most high profile signing at Villa for years.” ,”Im over the moon with this, great signing, leading by example, UTV” and “Can not wait until I see the legend he is at villa park, what a sight that will be!” I fear this is a massive gamble that will only end in disappointment – whether for Terry’s new admirers or his team mates.
Give me Harlee Dean, any day.
JT is a Villan. Indeed
Elsewhere, the latest round of TV fixtures has been announced. Brentford have managed to swerve the cameras whilst perennial Sky favourites Leeds United only appear once. Not a typo. The club that have had more appearances than Steve Claridge has had clubs have only been picked for their trip to Sunderland. Infact, there seems to be a real mixture of teams being shown for the games prior to 9 September.
That said, we’re not out of the woods yet with 14 July being the final date for the last September games to be announced. Fulham and QPR are amongst those to also avoid rearrangement, so far. Surely West London won’t avoid selection come the next round.
This is all part and parcel of being in the Championship, of course. Griffin Park has been a popular place for the cameras over the last few seasons and it’s no doubt a matter of time before our number is up. At least we can do some train booking in relative confidence though and with Sky having opted for Sheffield Wednesday v Nottingham Forest on September 9th, at least our trip to see Scott Hogan, John Terry (assuming not dropped, suspended/injured by that stage) et al remains as is
The full list of TV fixtures to date on ‘official’ .
Brentford will return to Villa Park at 3pm on 9 Sep
AUTHOR’S PLUG – (it’s all for charity).
And if you’d like to read more about last season including those wins over Villa and Leeds, amongst others then please don’t forget (how could you?) that the regular season review e-book is now available for download. This one is titled ‘Welcome home, King Jota’ and this time around it is for a great cause. All funds raised are being given to the Brentford FC Community Sports Trust. Likewise, any subsequent sales from the previous versions.
Containing the least bad of the blogs from May 2016 to May 2017 and a bit of new material too, you can pick it up, here. It’s just £1.99.
So why not do something great to help our club. What else will £1.99 get you? What better way to spend some time on the commute to work, the beach, by the pool or even hiding out in the toilet at the office?
For less than the cost of half a pint on match day, it’s the season review that has been designed to fit in your pocket (if you are using an i-phone).
Nick Bruzon
BrentfordFC 
You seem a bit bitter about Villa for some reason. Not sure why as, like you said, you did well out of us last season.
I’m sure if Terry had been pulling on the Brentford shirt all of a sudden it would be a good signing. Also he did have offers from the Prem, MLS AND China but turned down more money to sign for us.
Finally on the WhatsApp tweet I thought actually it was inventive (something our media team isn’t normally!) and quite funny. The joke is more for Villa fans with the defenders leaving the group (which seems to have gone over the head of many non villans) and made a welcome change from the default hold up the shirt photo.
Bitter about Villa? Not at all. A great name in English football. That said, we took a lot of unjust flak from some of your fans last season and it’s nice to just look back at how that all finished. It was the same with Leeds United. Historically big teams with wonderful stadia – no question. But we’re all in the same division now . The Championship is no cake walk and I’m loving how well we’ve done – competing with, and often bettering, some former top flight ‘giants’.
JT – massive gamble. Massive. Genuinely, I can’t wait to see how that turns out.
As for the press release, I’d agree with you it’s hard to be original. And in this age of social media there’s always a slant on things. I still love a signing shirt/scarf photo. Perhaps accompanied by the pen over blank contract in the boardroom. I do cringe when it comes to hashtags. Can’t deny the whatsapp was different. Perhaps it hit a chord to Villa fans. For those of us looking in, it was all a bit much .
Thanks for commenting. Appreciated.
Absolutely no cake walk, couldn’t agree more and I was never in the camp that expected us to tear it up and saw promotion as a given. Had a feeling we would struggle (even after spending more than Real in the summer!)
I get why people see JT as a gamble (especially looking from the outside in), even on Villa boards there are still some people debating it. The way I look at it he brings something we sorely needed for a few seasons now, leadership on the pitch and a white hot desire to win. Too often our players have tried to hide on the pitch when things haven’t gone our way.
It may appear arrogance (or outright delusion!) but sometimes playing for a club of the stature as Villa seems to be a bit much for some players, especially at home in front of the Holte End. That certainly won’t be the case for JT. He won’t accept anything less than 100% from whoever is out there with him and that for us could be the difference this season. For the reported £60k a week and promotion bonus on a 1 year contract for me it’s no gamble, it’s a no-brainer.