Beware of Greeks bearing stretchers as ‘you know who’ takes a tumble

I’ll keep this brief today. Whilst the main weekend column focused on Brentford beating Rotherham United, there was plenty of other incident further afield than Griffin Park. Primarily involving Keith Stroud in the game between Sheffield Wednesday and Hull City, where Arsenal loanee and former Bee Chuba Akpom flattened the card happy official. Accidentally, of course.

Chuba Akpom didn’t seem happy to join the Bees from Arsenal.

In a rare twist of fate for a Stroud game, it was the referee himself who was forced to leave the field of play early as he was unable to continue after the collision. He’d already shown four yellows by this point, although Akpom escapade unpunished. Given his reputation, I half expected a ‘red’ to be shown as a final act but it wasn’t to be.

Out of interest, in eleven games this season Mr Stroud has ‘only’ (and remember who we are talking about) shown 43 yellows and one red – that coming in our game at Bristol City. Could we see him turning over a new leaf? Time will tell.

For now though, here’s the moment. No sniggering, Brentford fans

Nobody likes to see an injury of any nature

Next up, who doesn’t like to see a goalkeeper finding the back of the net?

It happened on Saturday as Wycombe Wanderers lost out at Stevenage. Jesse Joronen was the man in the right place at the right time to open the scoring after ten minutes.

Red faces in defence?

And finally, Greek football. Surely everbody has seen this now but it would be rude not to include it. To be quite honest, I’m still convinced this is fake footage. The PG Tips Chimps did a better job moving their piano (kids, ask your dads). Surely nobody could be this clumsy?

However, just when the second division game against AE Larissa couldn’t get any worse for Ergotelis midfielder Leonardo Koutris, this happened,,,,

Where’s Keith Stroud when you need him?

Nick Bruzon

Advertisement

Are Brentford about to unveil MT today?

With the evening’s football being overshadowed by Luis Suarez and his latest bite, you could be forgiven for missing the other news. I won’t repeat the column on Suarez, suffice to say that the graphic I’d put together left me having nightmares – with the miniaturised head of Russell Slade protruding from the Uruguayan’s mouth, much akin to the eponymous creature from the Alien movie.

However, what I will repeat is Matthew Benham’s proclamation that Brentford should be announcing a new signing today – initials MT.

Mr Benham loves a cryptic clue (see also: Mark Warburton replacing Uwe Rösler – one I still can’t work out, even knowing the answer). Of course, whichever name I suggest is sure to be wild speculation and miles off.

Moreso, as Matthew has not started following any ‘MT’ on twitter (much as he did with Alan Judge or Chuba Akpom). Chelsea and Ghana’s Christian Atsu being his latest ‘follow’, although that would be a CA.

Could one of these be pictured at Griffin Park today, holding a new Adidas shirt?

 

 

View from the terrace – Marcello Trotta scores from the penalty spot against Gillingham

And if BBC Manish is reading (he isn’t) I very much enjoyed your coverage of the Japan – Colombia game on BBC 3 last night. However, was there really a need to make a point that it was women aged 18-24, more than any other gender group, who watched the Croatia game?

Come on Manish, this is the 21^st century – who cares? Women play and watch football, too. Besides, the men were probably all busy doing the washing up and ironing.

‘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.

Will money talk or the owner walk? Either way, this won’t end well.

From Brentford to Bournemouth, Sheffield United to Hull City and more good news coming out of the club – it’s been a busy mid-week period for all things Bees related.

The good news is still no news – on the transfer front, that is. None of the current first team have left Griffin Park whilst, tellingly, there aren’t even any rumours circulating. Although, understandably, the club would never comment on these things until they are fact (or sometime after, in the case of Farid and his paper work) they have been pretty much on the mark so far.

Chuba Akpom, and Alan Judge have both joined although all the talk of Rob Kiernan – as it stands – is yet to reap any material evidence. However, I’ll take that none of the usual ‘non-club’ sources are talking about any of our players leaving as a very positive sign.

That said, a very interesting piece of business is going on a league above us

To read the rest of this article, season 2013/14 is now available to download onto Kindle, in full. Containing previously unseen content, you can do so here for less than the cost of one matchday programme.

 Thanks for reading over the course of the campaign. For now I need to make space on this page for any follow up.  The ‘close season’ / World Cup columns continue in full, further on in this site.

No news isn’t, necessarily, good news. Transfer update

Visitors to the Brentford website on Monday would be forgiven for thinking they had déjà vu.

The phrase, “Following the completion of his loan spell at” cropped up three times, with the news that Ben Nugent has returned to Cardiff City (Ole Gunnar Solksjaer making an immediate impact?) whilst Aaron Pierre and Josh Clarke are now back in the Brentford fold.

However, the three names we have been most interested in remained conspicuous by their absence.

To read the rest of this article, season 2013/14 is now available to download onto Kindle, in full. Containing previously unseen content, you can do so here for less than the cost of one matchday programme.

 Thanks for reading over the course of the campaign. For now I need to make space on this page for any follow up.  The ‘close season’ / World Cup columns continue in full, further on in this site.

More loan action for Brentford…and our rivals?

With the  transfer window now officially open, the rumour mill is in full effect.

In the case of Brentford, for once the talk is about players coming in rather than those who could be snapped up by teams in the Premiership or Championship. So far.

Top of the list is Arsenal striker Chuba Akpom. Whilst the club is yet to say anything definitive this is being widely reported in various media sources. Even Matthew Benham, as he has also done with Blackburn winger Alan Judge, has now started to follow the Arsenal youngster on twitter.

To read the rest of this article, season 2013/14 is now available to download onto Kindle, in full. Containing previously unseen content, you can do so here for less than the cost of one matchday programme.

 Thanks for reading over the course of the campaign. For now I need to make space on this page for any follow up.  The ‘close season’ / World Cup columns continue in full, further on in this site.