Will these strikers hit the right notes in the Championship?

Another day, and another ‘local rag’ rumour shot down (See also: ‘Bees boss plans double swoop’, which appears more often than a Keith Stroud yellow card) as, rather than Brentford, Callum Wilson will be plying his trade in the Championship for Bournemouth next season. With the fee reckoned to be £3million (or 1 x Lewis Grabban….) the deal to take him from Coventry was confirmed on Friday.

If true, then even if Warbs had been looking at him one could only presume a transfer of that size being well out of our range – certainly without Grabbanesque sales – and nobody wants to see our prize assets leaving. Especially not before a ball has been kicked.

Still, with Northern Ireland International striker Will Grigg as the only front man on the Brentford books with regular league experience, it does beg the question as to if anyone else will come in (are you reading, Marcello?).

Of course, the untapped potential of Andre Grey is a wonderful option for Warbs to have up his sleeve. I’m intrigued to find out if the leap from Conference to Championship will be a giant chasm or a simple step for the free scoring goal machine? If what we’ve heard and seen about this young man is correct then the smart money has got to be in the latter camp.

One thing we do know about Andre is that he can’t sing. Although, to be fair, that’s a trait common to footballers in general. And you can see this on the clubwebsite at the moment where visitors have a double treat.

First up, is the next installment of Peter Gilham’s tour diary. Another fascinating read as to life on the pre-season tour. I was particularly curious about the Florida weather of which, by breakfast time, we have been told, “already the temperature was in the 1930s.”

Art deco conditions and storm clouds gathering across Europe? Still, if it means the Bees preparing to jump to the top flight (a feat we last achieved in 1935) then I’m all for that.

And as for the singing, well it’s not just PG’s diary that we are being spoiled with. The club have taken thing to Ambassadorial levels of excellence with the launch of Brentford X-Factor.

As you may be aware, any new members of the Bees set up have to perform a song on tour in front of the established staff. Not only has this fine tradition continued but the evidence is now on line. More importantly, the ‘singers’ are looking for you to ‘vote’ them through to the next round in a X-Factor style vote. Albeit through the medium of twitter, rather than premium rate phonelines.

Thankfully, it is the fans who are the judges…

I think it’s a great idea and, if you can cover your ears long enough, the link to the videos and votes is here on the clubwebsite. I’ll say one thing for Andre, he certainly doesn’t lack confidence

 

And just catching up on a few points from yesterday, given the article on Peter’s diary, I was contacted by Andrew Cooper (Hong Kong Bee) who has noted: “I was pleased to see PG calling his diary Letter From America. There’s a missed oppo here… “Donaldson no mooore. Norris no mooore. Trotta no mooore. Saville no moore.”

I also posed the question that with Nice due to visit Griffin Park later this month , and their goalkeeper David Ospina of Colombia playing against Brazil last night, it would be a wonderful opportunity to see who could put most goals past him – Will Grigg or Brazil International, Neymar?

Neymar promptly drew a blank and, despite his team winning, the local hero has also been ruled out of the World Cup with injury.

Will – over to you to go one better (just not the injury, please).

‘Celebrating like they’d won the FA Cup…..’ (The story of Brentford’s season 2013/14 amongst other things) – is now available as a digital book. Featuring the best of the not so bad columns from the last ten months, and some new content, you can download it here for your kindle / digital device.

Moses gets a chance to ‘celebrate like’ etc etc as Bees play numbers game

The flurry of transfer activity at Brentford this week as we prepare for life in the Championship has got me thinking. What is the protocol when recruiting a new player? That is, once the niceties of negotiating terms, signing contracts and posing for a photograph with the shirt are done away with?

Specifically, how does he choose his squad number? Indeed, does that even form part of the contract talks or is it simply handed down by the manager from the pool of available ‘spares’?

And would the current squad get first crack at any new opening? With Clayton Donaldson heading to Birmingham City (although, like Marcello Trotta, his profile still remains in the ‘team’ section on the Bees website) that coveted number 9 shirt is now available.

New boy Moses Odubajo, who was announced on Friday as having joined from Leyton Orient has already bagged number 10. Rumoured to be for a fee over GBP1million, per the East London press, this is great news. Who knows if the sight, and Russell Slade’s subsequent talk, of those ‘FA Cup like celebrations’ helped sway his decision?

One would presume that yesterday’s other new signing (announced along with contract extensions for David Button and Stuart Dallas), the free scoring Andre Grey from Luton Town, has his sights on that vacant ‘9’.

Was it a wasted opportunity for the likes of Alan Judge (18)? Could James Tarkowski (26) and Adam Forshaw (4) have negotiated between them to give the central defender that position’s traditional 4? Indeed, does it even matter to players or are they the superstitious sort that, once allocated a number, keep it until they leave a club (or beyond)?

Does a squad number make a difference?

Obviously, it makes no real difference to what happens on pitch but, whilst I’m all for progress in the game, I’m ‘old school’ at heart. Seeing a team line up numbered 1-11 gives me a certain reassurance that it ‘looks right’. An additional little ‘good luck’ omen (to sit alongside the lucky shirt, magic pants and pre-match pint). Or perhaps I just have OCD?

Watching the (so far) all-conquering Netherlands in the World Cup they have achieved this feat despite the permutations possible in a 23-man squad. Has their manager Louis van Gaal (real name: Aloysius Paulus Maria van Gaal) just ‘got lucky’? Or has he had the balls to name his first choice starting XI well in advance and then allocate 12-23 amongst the rest?

The all conquering Netherlands team , numbered 1-11 on the BBC website

I can only hope it is the latter and if so, whilst I don’t care a jot about the tribulations at Manchester United, then self-confidence of that nature is sure to work wonders after the debacle of the David Moyes era when he arrives at Old Trafford.

Still, for Brentford fans, they are opponents’ for 2015/16. This season, let’s concentrate on getting out of the Championship.

Forget ‘survival’ – I’m aiming high. And with Matthew Benham’s cryptic clues now being unravelled (they were obvious, really…), we are certainly putting together a young, exciting and attacking squad to start that charge.

‘Celebrating like they’d won the FA Cup…..’ (The story of Brentford’s season 2013/14) – amongst other things – is now available as a digital book. Featuring the best of the not so bad columns from the last ten months, and some new content, you can download it here for your kindle / digital device.