Andre Gray going to Burnley as Hull and Bristol City remain frustrated.

“Andre Gray’s move to Bristol City still not complete but told it’s likely to go through later today”. Not my words but those of our esteemed local sources on Wednesday as yet another rumour surrounding Brentford and Andre has subsequently fallen flat. And next he’s off to Burnley. IF you believe what you read.

Andre – remains a Bee (again)

This is all getting somewhat tedious. Whether it is just Andre’s agent hawking him around like a spare Panini sticker, a genuine desire from the player to leave or Matthew Benham even making an improved contract offer behind the scenes, all we actually know so far is that: Hull City have had their enquiry for the player politely declined whilst Andre did not want to join Bristol City – despite their incredible bid. Whilst one would assume there is no smoke without fire, Steve Cotterill at Bristol City won’t be dialing 9-9-9 (million pounds, that is) for a while.

Indeed, the BBC (another source convinced the Bristol deal was ‘done’) have now had to reference Marinus as saying that Andre is back in training with the Brentford – although their story seems more about the frustrated desires of Steve Bruce (a specialist publication if ever I heard one) at Hull City.

Yet no sooner had the heat around the Bristol story been extinguished than Burnley have become the latest Championship rival being linked with a bid for the player. And you thought this was getting tedious earlier?

Well, it IS true. In one sense. I fully expect Andre will be going to Burnley. Albeit on Saturday, with the Bees travelling to the Lancashire club for our latest Championship fixture. Just as the in-demand striker started at Ashton Gate last week, and scored, I’ve got everything crossed (that can be) in the hope that the same thing will happen this weekend.

The irony of Brentford travelling to Turf Moor given the current state of our pitch has not been lost. I’d certainly settle for any, let alone more, turf although at least repairs are finally underway.

Visitors to Griffin Park on Thursday would have seen the contractors hard at work (below) whilst the club published a full update in the afternoon where they clarified, amongst other things, that the specialist ‘Motz’ turf we are using will be put down between Monday and Wednesday. They further added that this, “ Is usually match-ready 24 hours after it is laid” (again, please disregard any Steve Bruce imagery).

Brentford beach – our latest attempt to persuade Andre to stay?

Anyway, as ever you can get all the proper facts about the pitch on the official club website. I’ll certainly be vising later today as the fallout from yesterday’s press conferences is published.

I’m very much looking forward to what the always straight talking Marinus Dijkhuizen has to say about Andre, Burnley and Griffin Park life in general. If nothing else, we might actually get some proper facts about what is going on.

As I’ve said before, I can’t blame the local journalists for running with transfer rumours. It is the nature of electronic media these days, where information (whether accurate or not) is instantly accessible to everybody and visitors to websites are key. But they are in serious danger of losing any credibility they may have had if they cannot be taken seriously.

I don’t envy the journos from that respect – its much easier to sit here and write a blog where its nothing more than opinion on what we can see going on around us. But I just think we all need to learn to take a deep breath and not treat everything in the media as 100% Gospel.

Blah. Who needs a lecture from me? Nobody. Instead, we’ve got a cracking game lined up as Championship action returns. Let’s focus on that instead of rumour.

Roll on Saturday. See you there.

At times, these club sauces would be more reliable

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Is this Matthew Benham’s toughest challenge yet?

With Brentford now settled in Portugal for their customary pre-season training camp, you could be forgiven for wondering if Matthew Benham’s attention was elsewhere on Tuesday night. His ‘other’ team, FC Midtjylland, discovered their Champion’s League second round opponents following the game between Lincoln Red Imps of Gibraltar and FC Santa Coloma of Andorra.

Whilst we’ll get to that intriguing battle shortly, we can only begin on the Iberian peninsula where there have been two notable updates in the last few days.

Firstly, news that is sure to excite Brentford fans – the return of Northern Ireland International Will Grigg following his prolific season on loan at promoted Milton Keynes Dons.

To read the rest of this article, season 2015/16 is now available to download onto Kindle (and other electronic reading device) in full, as :   Ready. Steady. Go Again. : Brentford FC season review 2015 – 2016

Thanks for reading and all your comments over the course of the season. For now, it’s the annual clean up to make more space on the site for the inevitable follow up. However, ‘close season’ will continue in full, further along.

But wait, like all the best infomercials, there’s more. The last three seasons of the Last Word : Celebrating like they’d won the FA Cup; Tales from the football village and Ready. Steady. Go Again are also available in one combined volume as: 

Brentford Football Club – The Bees are going up. Season reviews: 2013/14, 2014/15 & 2015/16 

We did. And we still are ! 

 

Golden balls but where were the Bees?

My social media time line was nothing but Ballon d’Or, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi as the results of the FIFA player of the year, goal of the year and World XI (amongst others) were announced on Monday. Whilst undoubtedly prestigious awards, the accompanying hot air and time taken to string it out was as painful as listening to a Steve Evans post match interview. But nowhere near as funny. Besides, the whole thing was rendered largely meaningless to me by the lack of any Brentford players in contention for selection.

Where was Jonathan Douglas jostling with Ronaldo for the main prize or David Button forcing Manuel Neuer out of the team? Much as Brentford have come on leaps and bounds, we are still some way off being forced to don the dinner jackets and meet Sepp Blatter. Which, given the hype and tedium of all that surrounded this, is probably no bad thing.

Instead , I gave up on it to read about the Creme egg scandal gripping the nation and wonder what will happen, should the club perform their annual ‘programme and confectionery’ promotion for season ticket holders later this season.

Creme eggs – all change at Cadbury

But catching up this morning on the fall out from the ceremony, I noticed one honour that had got little or no mention at the time, certainly relative to the shootout between Messi, Neuer and Ronaldo – Sepp Blatter’s Presidential award. Rather than being the right to host the World Cup for whoever handed over the biggest bag of cash (because, of course, that would never happen) this rank is, and I quote, “bestowed upon a person or institution that has made a superlative contribution to football without seeking to monopolise the limelight”.

And whilst long serving Peter Gilham was not up for nomination (yet) it went to a 90 year old former Japanese player and current journalist, Hiroshi Kagawa who covered his tenth World Cup finals last year. So modest is Kagawa that, talking about the event, he said “I was sceptical about coming to this ceremony today. But my friends in Japan said I must come – even if only to meet Manuel Neuer, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, and bring back some autographs”

Does FIFA have a decent heart amidst all the rumours of corruption and self-serving? One can only hope.

 Long serving Kagawa receives his award (no autograph book for Sepp, though) 

Embed from Getty Images

Thanks Fulham! Trotta’s (independent) trade pays dividends for Brentford.

Are you going to Carlisle with Brentford tomorrow? One person whom we can say should be is Marcello Trotta after the club broke the habit of a lifetime and commented on speculation, telling us that:

” Contrary to earlier suggestions, Marcello is not required to join up until Saturday evening.

Therefore he can play in Brentford’s Sky Bet League One match against Carlisle United on Saturday.”

This can only be good news for The Bees. Since returning from Fulham for a second loan spell, Trotta really has found form. Previous criticism leveled about the Italian’s perceived ‘laziness’ has been well and truly dispelled.

The player affectionately known to the Griffin Park faithful as ‘Rodney’ can now be seen putting himself about with more energy than the Duracell Bunny on a Red Bull binge.

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.