Pre-season continues for Brentford with the visit of LOSC Lille on Saturday afternoon. Tickets available from all good retailers / the BFC ticket office. There’s an awful lot more happening though with little over a week until the Premier League begins in earnest for the Bees with the visit of Tottenham Hotspur. The main topic of discussion remains whether anyone will make a bid for David Raya – Arsenal and Bayern Munich the most recent names served up by the rumour mill after Spurs lost interest in the £40million price tag. Championship side Leeds United have launched a new away shirt whilst Tottenham are doing their best to…. drum up an atmosphere for their own home games.
First up though, pre-season for Brentford. The tournament in the US has finished with the main takeaway being that any takeaway is irrelevant. Whether supporters want to get overly excited or wet their beds over what was nothing more – at least, in footballing terms – than a glorified PR stunt and run around in the sunshine – needs to take a reality check. Nothing has ever been won, lost or decided in these warm up events.
Sure, the XG may be good. The situation in nets remains open. The results, mixed. Yet the most important thing from a strange tournament played out amongst teams not wanting to show each other too much of a full hand is that we came back with all players intact.
The visit of Lille on Saturday will be more of the same. A wonderful opportunity to see old friends in the stands and our heroes on the pitch. To go for a few beers and really whet the appetite for what comes next. That’s it, though. It won’t mean a thing if we win 7(seven) – 0 or were to get humped by a similar margin.
As my good friend Jonathan Burchill (happy birthday?) has already observed on Twitter, this time of year has rarely proved the happiest of hunting grounds. Should that change against Lille then happy days but nothing else actually matters until Spurs come to town.
All being well, they’ll not be bringing their drum. Their. Drum. As my good friend Ali Mullaley (happy birthday?) has shared on Twitter, they are actively advertising the fact that they are looking to create a drum group made up of , and I quote: ‘50 like-minded fans who are particularly focussed on creating atmosphere’.
A fu@&ing drum!! Please. No. As anyone who has been to the North London stadium before could attest, they could have 50,000 like minded fans involved and it would still have the atmosphere of a funeral parlour. There’s more noise made by the sound of Daniel Levy opening his wallet.
Give me the Gtech anyday. Fans on top of the pitch and making the noise without the need for percussion based noise to ‘prompt songs and chants’. Pathetic, Tottenham. Absolutely pathetic. For a club that has the advantage of being able on stick on a bit of Chas & Dave then be done with it, the desperation of needing a drum is a sad indictment of just how out of touch with reality they are.
Talking of which . Levy’s negotiating tactics for David Raya had all the finesse, and success, of a nervous teenager on a first date. Instead, David remains a Brentford player and was spotted in town. See below from my good friend Tina Donovan on Twitter (happy birthday?) .
It seems David is still here for now, albeit if you believe transfer gossip/click bait, Arsenal are now looking.
We can’t change what happens but the one thing I would say is, as before. If David is on our books when Brentford line up against Spurs then he starts. Simple as. We know he wants away but we also know that he is quite wonderful. Many think he’ll never play for us again and will do nothing more than await a probable exit. Fair enough. I’d always pick the strongest possible team and with only two better ‘keepers than him in the Premier League , why wouldn’t you? Mark Flekken’s time will undoubtedly come – probably in the league cup for now, if things remain as is.
Then again, what do I know? Arsenal could well be lining up a bumper offer right now. No. Seriously.
Finally, the new Leeds United away kit is out now and on Twitter. If any kit nerds are interested it’s below . I’m not, but as they are in The Championship it’s our only real chance of seeing it.
Mind the gap, Thomas Frank indeed….
Nick Bruzon
BrentfordFC 
Ah bless, small club mentality
Oh my goodness, the drum thing is real? I thought it was a satirical post faked by some subversive comedian …
Surely The Bees are the best team in Europe. Man City may have won a treble but we beat them home and away. QED.
Let’s not forget West Ham won a European trophy….and we did the double over them too…….