A week where the phrase ‘blown out of all proportion’ has been front and centre finally comes to an end for Brentford. Thomas Frank has been fined £8000 for his full time contretemps with ‘referee’ Peter Bankes after the game against Wolves. There has been a suggestion that his choice of language to earn that second yellow card may have been a tad stronger than the initial update given by our head coach that, “I turned around and said to Peter, You can just give me another one, because I was very irritated”. An explanation that may well rival that of Crystal Palace fan Matthew Simmons when he invited Eric Cantona to “Go on number seven. Take an early shower”. An offer that promptly earned the big mouthed liar that infamous karate kick from the Manchester United legend.
Likewise, Ivan Toney has now issued the obligatory message to supporters after being on the wrong end of the biggest stitch up since the Great British Sewing Bee whilst on a well earned break in Dubai. The almost universal reaction amongst Brentford fans all Saturday to the video thing was that nobody gave a damn about a clip that was so out of context as to be almost irrelevant. Only the social media pile on and usual click bait mongers making something out of nothing. So both Thomas and Ivan have now performed their Little Britain style acts of contrition, apologised and, all being well, we can now move on.
All of which has distracted from Dominic Thompson going out on loan to Ipswich Town and Mads Bidstrup completing a similar move to Nordsjælland. The meltdown from certain quarters around both of these moves has been as hilarious as it has been predictable. No cover at left back. Phil Giles hasn’t got a clue. Why get rid of Mads? Transfer strategy, of course, being something determined in public by social media and, in part, why Rasmus Ankersen has moved on to Southampton. His role now redundant.
To be fair, the wing back situation is an area of focus and has been all season. Sergi isn’t the permanent solution (in that position) but for all those wailing and gnashing teeth about Thompson being farmed out, let’s not forget that he was as awful against Brighton as he was awesome against Manchester City. I saw one voice of opinion slating the move in one breath and in the next saying he was League One at best. Go figure? Debate is a wonderful thing and certainly keeps us all hooked. It’s not an ideal situation by any stretch and feels like we are gambling on both percentages and Rico’s health. I suspect that unless we have any 11th hour, under the radar moves occurring then this is the path down which we now walk.
Equally, let’s not forget either that room needs to be made in the squad. Something has to give when Josh Dasilva is ready and Christian Eriksen comes in. There’s talk also of Tariqe Fosu and Charlie Goode both heading out on loan, too. With the transfer window due to make its semi-annual slam shut on Monday at 11pm, the time for any permanent moves is fast running out. To be honest, I don’t think we’ll see any either. Brennan Johnson from Nottingham Forest is as dead as a parrot whilst the noises around Hull City’s Keane Lewis-Potter have now turned into barely audible whispers. We’ve more chance of signing Harry Potter than Keane.
But the imminent returns of David Raya and Josh will, in themselves, feel like brand new signings. Oh how they’ve been missed. David in particular. Chuck Christian Eriksen into the mix and it could be a very different looking Brentford team when Crystal Palace come to visit in mid-February. An incredible looking Brentford team.
The reports coming out of Ajax where Eriksen has been training are certainly sounding like Boy’s Own stuff. The story still sounds just about the most incredible thing ever – moreso if you rewind six months – yet still it seems that we are all systems go with the formal announcement expected early next week. Wow. Just wow!
The other news that has largely passed by this week (these pages at least) has been the announcement of Bryan Mbeumo joining Christian Norgaard and Pontus Jansson in signing contract extensions. Along with Rico, Ivan and Christian, Bryan has been amongst our very best players this season. He’s at the business end of our regular player review (which you can check out here – the fall out from the crazy, crazy fame with Wolves ) and has been wowing the crowds as much as he did when first bursting onto the scene at Griffin Park.
As ever, Brentford looking to continue the strategy of tying down our hottest talent to long term contracts. It is a shrewd move for both parties and one can only presume he’ll push on to bigger and better things with the Bees. Hey, the BBC might even pronounce Mbeumo correctly by the time we play Man City or Palace.
So let’s close up here. As ever, we could ramble on for hours but with a trip to the gym imminent (the paunch isn’t going to fix itself) and the laptop fast running out of charge, its seems an appropriate place to finish. The coming week looks to be about as exciting as they come if, for no other reason, we get the chance to do our talking on the pitch once more.
Everton in the FA Cup on Saturday. See you there.
Nick Bruzon
BrentfordFC 
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