There’s a fine line between quirky and ridiculous

We will get to Brentford but first, Spanish football and the new Cultural Leonesa shirt. If you hadn’t heard of them before then don’t worry, nor had I, but they’ve certainly made a name for themselves with what is possibly the most ridiculous shirt ever.

I hadn’t planned on even giving this the time of day but, such is the impact it seems to have had amongst several of the ‘Last Word’ readership that perhaps I am alone in loathing this? For reasons unknown, they’ve chosen to go for a ‘comedy’ tuxedo-effect design.

Why???

Don’t get me wrong, I love a quirky kit and Spain seem to rule when it comes to these. This season has already seen splendid efforts from Deportivo Lugo – with their lager top (presumably a link to the sponsor) and the Octopus emblazoned fifth kit – although only room for two arms. Likewise, last campaign saw La Hoya Lorca scoop the honours with their broccoli inspired outfit.

At least those two teams were able to call on , albeit tenuous, links to their region’s heritage and sponsor but, short of an Andrew Sachs ‘Spanish Waiter’ tribute (and Leon’s not even that close to Barcelona) , I don’t get the Leonesa effort .

Quirky kits CAN work

As ever, if in doubt take your lead from 007. I love the Roger Moore James Bond films but this pun filled rickshaw chase from Octopussy has to be proof that the Tuxedo and sport (tennis, in this instance) should never mix)

 

Getting back to TW8, this weekend see the first home friendly against Nice on Saturday. It’ll be great to catch the team in action at Griffin Park and then, the following day, to actually meet them.

Sunday sees the annual ‘Family Open Day’ where all the players will be in attendance. This is always a great event and you never know what will happen – last season a chance encounter with Buzz and Buzzette end up on the ‘family ticket’ flier.

Buzzette looking radiant, as ever

The big draw this time round seems to be also centered around kit. Not only will the away shirt be officially launched (I’d still love the club to have gone for a ‘Blackburn style video’) but anybody wearing the new home shirt will have the chance to participate in one large team photo.

As yet, there’s no word on whether tuxedos will be allowed. I doubt it.

And if you can’t wait for the new season, why not catch up on the last one? ‘Celebrating like they’d won the FA Cup…..’ (The story of Brentford’s 2013/14 promotion campaign, amongst other football related chatter) – is now available as a digital book. Featuring the best of the not so bad columns from last season, and some new content, you can download it here for your kindle / digital device.

 

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A 5-1 win, shirt news and who had an unusual pet?

Brentford continued preparation for life in the Championship with a 5-1 win over Barnet on Tuesday night. The score speaks for itself although hopefully the missed penalty (and I blame myself for bigging up Mr. Reliable less than a week ago) will get less mention than that other one, which certain areas of the media (i.e. all of them) saw fit to mention a few times (i.e. every week) last season.

The club site has the full match report for those that didn’t catch it live or on Beesplayer. You can find it here. However, for me there were a few other things to catch the eye yesterday.

Being a shirt geek, I was pleased to see that the trend of the club releasing quality kits this season has continued with the latest in the retro range. Mark Devlin released pictures to twitter yesterday of retail manager Maz holding up what appears to be a variant on the 1974-75 top. Black cuffs, long sleeves and the castle badge are all present in what will make the battle for my ‘shirt budget’ this year an even harder fought one than before.

Coming soon to a club shop near you

I really am a fan of the castle badge – it was the one on the shirt when I first started watching the Bees – and so was always sad when it was replaced in the mid 90’s by the current effort. The turreted shield made no real sense to me as to how it tied into the club but, regardless, it has always been synonymous with Brentford.

That said, it will still be going some to beat the latest efforts from Spanish outfit, Deportivo Lugo. With Espanyol no longer visiting next week, I’d have paid good money to see Lugo named as our new opponents – sporting either their Octopus shirt or lager…top.

I like the castle but I love the octopus

The other thing to catch my eye was the search for a picture of Kenny Sansom in Brentford colours. He’d received a mention in yesterday’s article about new signings but I’d been unable to finds such an image on the interweb.

Thankfully, Ray Biggar has since come to the rescue (and that’s a line I never though I’d use about the chronologically challenged referee). Not only did the Notts County 1993 matchday programme (from ‘that game’) have a centre spread on the former England international but it also had a number of personal facts about the man himself.

If the media team are reading (you never know) then what chance the ‘player’s pets’ feature reappearing this season? Although I’d be impressed if any of the current team can better Kenny’s.

Kenny Sansom – as seen in the programme

And if you can’t wait for the big the new season, why not catch up on the last one? ‘Celebrating like they’d won the FA Cup…..’ (The story of Brentford’s 2013/14 promotion campaign, amongst other football related chatter) – is now available as a digital book. Featuring the best of the not so bad columns from last season, and some new content, you can download it here for your kindle / digital device.

Can The Bees make it (lager) top against MK Dons?

Brentford had a brief taste on Boxing Day but with Wolves hosting Leyton Orient at Molineux today, something has to give at the top of League One.

Until Wolves wrapped it up in the 90^th minute against bottom side Crewe and Late-on Orient also won at the death, Brentford had led the table for the first time this season. This is some progress from the twelve-point gap of a few weeks ago and, should the Bees win at home today, at the very least we will end the year in second place.

MK Dons are no mugs, of course. Their mid-table position disguises the fact that they have taken the full nine points on offer from the last three games. This also included doing us the favour of winning 2-0 at Wolves. Chuck into the mix the return of Karl Robinson, after last year’s bizarre incident

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.