Palace and Arsenal write a chapter for our next season as Bees beat QPR. Again.

With Brentford safe in the Championship for another season and the playoffs a leap too far, thoughts turn to who we’ll be facing in 2017/18. Last night’s Crystal Palace – Arsenal game has given more than a few clues as to how that’s going to pan out. Elsewhere, there was sad news for QPR who have had to make a somewhat embarrassing retraction (stop sniggering) whilst local news site Get West London appear to have finally jumped the shark.

First up Crystal Palace. For a time it looked as they were being slowly sucked towards the Premier League relegation battle. A 0-4 thumping by Sunderland, swiftly followed by a reverse at the hands of Stoke City, had eyes lighting up in West London as the Eagles slid down, down (deeper and down). Could we have another local fixture, with the Bees going to the Palace next season? Would there be a kit obsessive programme feature including that most iconic of shirts, the red and blue sash sported by Brentford legend Neil Smillie?

Then Big Sam and his troops got their act together, won four in a row and despite hitting a bump at Southampton, had the pleasure of playing Arsenal last night. And what a pleasure it was for the neutral. A 3-0 win for Palace makes their own safety a lot more likely and, with it, a straight shoot out between Hull City and Swansea City for the privilege of joining all but mathematically doomed Middlesbrough and Sunderland at Griffin Park next season.

It’s a shame from one respect. I was quite looking forward to the prospect of a hop across London to Selhurst Park next season. It would have been a new ground to see Brentford play at but instead we can do nothing but offer Palace congratulations on a job well done in recent weeks.

The other factor is the listening to those self-entitled numpties at Arsenal TV and Piers Morgan, somehow thinking that because they had that run back in 2003/04 when they were dubbed the undateables or whatever it was, they are entitled to be any good over a decade later. Yawn. Seriously yawn.

Anyone thinking Brentford fans moan or give our managers stick needs to look to North London. There, they take expectation to a new level with ‘Wenger’ receiving 128K worth of tweets on the UK trend list as at the time of writing (6.30am).

The biggest irony being the silence in the Emirates when they are playing. If they made half as much noise mid-game as they do once the team has lost then perhaps Arsenal might be an intimidating place to come rather than the glorified library it is so derided as being.  For the neutral, it remains wonderful, if slightly nauseous, unintentional comedy. No supporters in the land are as full of their club’s own self-importance relative to its actual ability (I know , I know – they won the FA Cup). Long may it continue.

Twitter: Come for Monkman; stay for Wenger

On the subject of unintentional comedy, we only need to look a few miles up the road to West London rivals QPR. Already 6 points behind the Bees in the League table, now they’ve lost out to us in the player of the year awards stakes.

Whilst Brentford’s own event all but sold out within days, the not so super hoops have been forced into an awkward climbdown within a week of tickets being made available for their £119 a head do. In a brief article on the clubwebsite entitled ‘POTY EVENT CANCELLED the club has been forced to admit that, “a lack of sales has resulted in the event being cancelled”.

Here’s to Saturday week when we can really hope to compound a miserable season for our near neighbours. Fifty years on; never forget.

And finally, Get West London. Whilst it would often be easier just to follow the player feed on Twitter than read their stories, yesterday saw things reach a new low. The aforementioned journalistic jumping of the shark, if you will.

Brentford fan wears Bees shirt with BREXIT 16 on the back .

Thus proclaimed the headline on one of yesterday’s post Cardiff pieces. It went on to add – The shirt about the decision to leave the European Union sparked debate on social networking site Twitter.

Sorry, this is news how? This is a story because? Stop the press  – Football fan has political opinion. This is Donald Trump levels of news. Or lack of.  It was something that ‘sparked debate’, apparently. Or, in actual fact, led to a few references to it on Twitter.

What next. Man wears jaunty Castle Badge jumper to winter game? Transfer exclusive: Jugde to sign for Brentford?

Coming next, on Get West London

Now I’m the first to admit writing drivel from time to time. Then again, I’m neither a journalist nor paid for the privilege. Just a self-confessed numpty on the terrace with an occasional blog column.

Come on Get West London, you can do better than this. Supporters deserve better than this. With five games and two local derbies to come, things aren’t at Arsenal levels of quiet. Just yet.

We’ve got all this to come still

Nick Bruzon

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Forget West Ham. Now is the time for Scott to do his thing at Chelsea.

It has been a week of surprises and a week of shocks. Scott Hogan is still a Brentford player (at the time of writing) whilst Mrs Browns Boys won ‘best comedy’ at the National TV awards on Wednesday A bigger voting shock than Donald Trump or the Brexit result, and about as funny as Lee Hurst tied to a bomb for an hour. Yet the unfathomable success of the alleged comedy means we will only be subjected to more of the tedious Agnes Brown (for years to come). And it meant my  mind has been elsewhere rather than laughing at West Ham’s inability to prise our star man away or, of course, looking forward to the FA Cup fourth round with Chelsea on Saturday.

But if Scott is going nowhere, as it stands, then will he play against Chelsea on Saturday? Surely our best hope of beating the team that Dean Smith described yesterday as “The current leaders of the land, away” (promptly forcing me to recall the point where the draw paired us with a visit to Westminster and the Bees running out against Theresa May’s cabinet – get stuck in, Macca) is by playing our strongest XI. And that includes Scott.

Dean was in belligerent form at Thursday’s Brentford press conference, telling the media that ”Scott is available for selection. He has trained all week as he did last week” and that “we made it abundantly clear after the game last week that my decision about whether he plays or not will be final”

Dean speaks to the media on Thursday

If he’s been training and is available then, surely, he starts? Or at the very least makes it off the bench if Chelsea are looking like clawing themselves back into it after an hour and we need to turn the screw?

I can’t believe a player would suffer a minor injury for a second week in succession and so with that excuse out of the window, will Dean pick his main man?

The words used were very careful. Dean hasn’t said he will pick Scott. Just that he is available and that he (DS) will be the one to make the call. Nobody appears to have pressed him on the question – will he start? A shame, as at times our media would do a better job grilling bacon than grilling a head coach with the questions that everybody wants to know the answers to.

At the same time, keeping the cards close to the chest is no bad thing. If Brentford fans don’t know and the press don’t know then you can be sure that Antonio Conte and his Chelsea team don’t know.

On a personal note, there wouldn’t be a better stage to impress his would be employers than at Stamford Bridge. If West Ham needed any further incentive to loosen their purse strings and get into the real world, then a goal scoring performance in the backyard of the Premier League leaders would surely be the perfect audition.

Should Dean start him given all that has gone on? Forget Lee Hurst’s nonsense from yesterday – something that The Guardian took apart in such wonderful style. This is a real world situation and a genuine dilemma. Would you pick Scott?

For me, it is an absolute yes. We can’t be held to ransom. If nothing else, one could call it squad rotation. Especially with the Aston Villa game coming up on Tuesday.  But what a way to rotate a squad, brining the likes of Scott Hogan and Jota into starting XI.

If Scott remains at Brentford then he’s going to play for us anyway, so let’s just carry on that he’s ours until such time as a proper offer comes in. Frankly, if he does the business against Chelsea then we’d be well within our rights to chuck an extra couple of million on the valuation

As Dean noted, “We know the pool of talent that they have but we will be going all-out to win the game. You only have to look at who could play.”

In my book, ‘all out’ means picking your best players. And that includes Scott Hogan. He’s 17/5 to score at any time.

Now where are the deeds to the house?

Nick Bruzon

Is the transfer klaxon about to go off? Which way?

Is Jake Bidwell leaving Brentford for QPR? Another two days of rumours going into overdrive suggest July 1st could see a move go through. Is there any substance to them? Who knows? For me, its all about the door swinging the other way and the latest issue of ‘The Buzz’ newsletter. Specifically, the feature on Josh McEachran where the fact his picture was one sporting a Chelsea shirt wasn’t the main talking point from the article.

“Perhaps they got confused with our away kit” noted one New Road observer in an attempt to explain why Josh wasn’t photographed in red and white stripes. Whatever the reason, ‘The Buzz’  continues to excite when it hits the inbox. And no more so this time around from the throwaway line at the end of the article…..

Does this mean we can expect transfer news today? Will it be one of the hotly tipped trio of John Egan (Gillingham), Daniel Bentley (Southend United) or Romaine Sawyers (Walsall) ? Could we even be living in dreamland and harbouring secret hopes of a return from Liverpool for Sergi Canos?

With the fee for Canos being reported as £2.5m, surely that has to be way beyond our wildest dreams. It would need more than selling Jake Bidwell to cover that one. Chuck in Alan Judge, David Button and Harlee Dean before the numbers even started to crunch.

Then again, all I can do is speculate. The closest I get to being a source ‘close to the club’ is walking my son to nursery past Griffin Park each morning. However, probability suggests that any available expenditure will be spread out over a number of players rather than most of the eggs being chucked in one basket.

If there is to be disappointment about Jake to QPR, or anywhere else, hopefully the blow will be softened by this implication of inward news. Interestingly, Wikipedia had Romaine down as a Brentford player on Thursday evening although, equally, we all know that is hardly a reliable means of confirming anything ahead of the facts. Had somebody been a bit premature on the updates or is it simply a terrace wag indulging in a spot of high jinks?

Last season saw a lot of people upset about the huge turnover to a squad which almost reached the Premier League. Understandably so – football is an emotive game and these players had got us to where we finished on merit. Moreso when the new recruits took their time to bed in (much like that pitch). Again, understandably so, although it would be fair to say that some of them are now absolutely nailed on starters. Likewise, don’t forget the FFP related reasons that necessitated those sales.

Besides, nobody could deny we finished in some style. Ninth place, and clear of both QPR and Fulham, was a stunning denouement to the campaign. Moreso with that wonderful return from injury for Scott Hogan. Has that late run masked early / mid season ‘challenges’ or will we pick up where we left off? Either way, expect a further changed squad with that restructure seemingly set to start.

Is Jake Bidwell going? Is Romaine Sawyers coming ? Or, after May’s somewhat random suggestion about Josh going back to Chelsea (which Dean Smith dismissed saying “I have heard nothing at all about this. Is that to help him with his treatment?“) could the biggest transfer clue be right under our noses…..

IS Josh going back to Chelsea? No.

Nick Bruzon