Brentford into the Woods as Jim White goes ‘Wolf’ on deadline day

The transfer window has ‘slammed shut’ and with it Brentford fans can breathe a sigh of relief. After a summer that has seen several big name departures and as many other rumours, we now know the make up of the squad. There was no David Button to Aston Villa (one of those heavily touted at various points in pre-season) or James Tarkowski to Fulham. Instead, we have only strengthened further, with the addition of Ryan Woods from Shrewsbury Town.

Joining Brentford for an undisclosed fee (although one believed to be in the £1million ball park) Ryan is described as a versatile player who has played right back, right midfield and even left back. He helped Shrewsbury gain promotion to League One last season and, on the way, was named in the PFA divisional team of the year. Such is his stature, even West Ham put in a couple of bids during the previous window although the Bees have been the ultimate beneficiaries.

Ryan – welcome to Griffin Park. Just take care on the training ground. After that previous business with twigs, more woods are the last thing we need !

Ryan Woods adopts that all too familiar pose

We all know the deadline day routine by now. Jim White getting over excited in the Sky Sports studio, roving reporters doing their thing at stadia and training grounds all over the land, Natalie Sawyer helping see us over the line and Brentford fans sitting on the edge of their seats long into the night in the hope that nobody leaves.

Jim didn’t let us down and even seemed be channeling the spirit of Wolf out of the Gladiators as the window eventually came to a close. However, that was about it for familiarity.

Natalie was again missing for the final bow whilst the absence of WKD fuelled youths, banned after the dildogate affair 12 months previous, gave an almost ethereal quality to the reports flying in from empty stadiums. Thankfully, we were saved five hours of nail chewing with the decision made to stop proceedings at 6pm rather than nearer 11pm as is usual. And even better, nobody left Griffin Park.

Jim White had a new co-host as the window ‘slammed shut’

Given some of the other rumours that had been circulating pre-season, it would have come as no surprise had anybody else joined the likes of Andre Gray, Stuart Dallas or Moses Odubajo in leaving. For me, the fact that we have retained David Button is only excellent news. He has already had a standout start to the season following on from an excellent campaign last time out.

Likewise, with Andreas Bjelland already ruled out, hanging on to the likes of James Tarkowski and Harlee Dean was essential. We’ve done this and with the addition of Ryan, along with Marco Djuricin and Sergi Canos, there are suddenly a host of additional options going forward. Now it’s over to Marinus to see how he can use these to best effect.

The jury remains out for now on whether selling Moses, Stuart and Andre for around £12m will remain shrewd business or a fatal mistake. The fact of the matter is that they have gone and, much as I was desperate to hang on to Andre especially, there’s nothing we can do about it.

Indeed, the ‘in’ door has been a lot busier at Griffin Park over the summer with 12 players joining Brentford compared to the 6 (see also: Tony Craig, Jonathan Douglas and Will Grigg) who have been released or sold.

Have the club ‘over tinkered’ with a settled team? Has the ‘so called’ statistical model played much of a role (good or bad)? Will the new look squad gel to become even better than ever before? Most importantly, will supporters now give Marinus and the new system a bit of breathing space?

At 4 points from 4 games, we are only one ‘worse’ off than last season, when Warbs had us on 5 at this juncture. My main hope is that Marinus has us try to play football. Win or lose, Warbs certainly knew the way to goal.

I’ve got no major worries about the recruitment policy if it gets results. But I’d love to see the Bees start to find the back of the net. And you can only do that by going forward.

Still. The tools are now in place. We await what happens next with extreme interest.

Nick Bruzon

With just six to go, is the unthinkable actually possible ?

Brentford take on Nottingham Forest today, knowing another win will really lock up our position in the play off zone and, with Watford hosting Middlesbrough, possibly even send us on a late surge towards the ‘automatic’ places in the Championship table with just six games left to play.

To read the rest of this article, season 2014/15 is now available to download onto Kindle (and other electronic reading device) in full. Containing additional material and even some (poor) editing, you can get it here for less than the cost of a Griffin Park matchday programme or Balti Pie.

Thanks for reading and all your comments over the course of the season. For now, I need to make more space on the site for any follow up. However, ‘close season’ will continue in full, further on.

A packed house, including 6000+ Bees, saw the 4-1 win at Fulham on Friday . More of the same today would be superb

Matthew Benham (and Luis) make a great weekend even better

It would be fair to say that yesterday’s article attracted a mixed bag of comment from the Leeds United fans after their side had gone down 1-0 to fourth placed Brentford. Some of it fair and sporting; other parts evoking the spirit of John from Wolves (a frequent visitor to these pages last campaign).

That’s football – we all have an opinion and the multitude of options available in cyberspace make it all the easier for us to express it.

To read the rest of this article, season 2014/15 is now available to download onto Kindle (and other electronic reading device) in full. Containing additional material and even some (poor) editing, you can get it here for less than the cost of a Griffin Park matchday programme or Balti Pie.

Thanks for reading and all your comments over the course of the season. For now, I need to make more space on the site for any follow up. However, ‘close season’ will continue in full, further on.

A fair point. But twitter would get even better

Fat fingered spelling aside, this sounds great (and seems popular)

‘Tinpot’ Brentford make it 6 from 6 against Leeds

1974-75. As footballing giants Leeds United were playing Bayern Munich in the European Cup final, ‘tinpot’ Brentford were battling it out in the fourth division with the likes of Workington, Southport, Mansfield Town and Darlington.

How times have changed. Fast forward four decades to where Brentford are the ones pushing for the top flight and, with it, the possibility of Champions League qualification. Leeds, meanwhile, are wallowing in the memories of days gone by as they flirt dangerously with the Championship relegation zone.

To read the rest of this article, season 2014/15 is now available to download onto Kindle (and other electronic reading device) in full. Containing additional material and even some (poor) editing, you can get it here for less than the cost of a Griffin Park matchday programme or Balti Pie.

Thanks for reading and all your comments over the course of the season. For now, I need to make more space on the site for any follow up. However, ‘close season’ will continue in full, further on.

Could Leeds clean up against tinpot Brentford ?

Time to ring the changes ?

Brentford head to Leeds United on Saturday with the news that Warbs has missed out on his second manager of the month award in three months. Instead, as suspected, Aitor Karanka of Middlesbrough emerged as a deserved winner for January. His side’s 1-0 win at Brentford last weekend being the deciding factor (although, by all rights, that is a game that should probably still be under way given the amount of second half timewasting that took place).

To read the rest of this article, season 2014/15 is now available to download onto Kindle (and other electronic reading device) in full. Containing additional material and even some (poor) editing, you can get it here for less than the cost of a Griffin Park matchday programme or Balti Pie.

Thanks for reading and all your comments over the course of the season. For now, I need to make more space on the site for any follow up. However, ‘close season’ will continue in full, further on.

Could the one time ‘hottie of the year’ (right) see more action ?

Fitness questions as another MOTM nomination is earned

Early morning visitors to the official site may have had to check twice after seeing the story that Brentford manager Mark Warburton has not only been nominated for Manager of the Month, but he has also ‘won’ . Whilst Aitor Karanka of Middlesbrough is, surely, a shoe in for the January award after picking up 10 points out of 12 (including victory at Griffin Park) it is testament to Warbs that he has been nominated (along with Neil Redfearn at Leeds United and Steve Mclaren of Derby County).

To read the rest of this article, season 2014/15 is now available to download onto Kindle (and other electronic reading device) in full. Containing additional material and even some (poor) editing, you can get it here for less than the cost of a Griffin Park matchday programme or Balti Pie.

Thanks for reading and all your comments over the course of the season. For now, I need to make more space on the site for any follow up. However, ‘close season’ will continue in full, further on.

The big Forshaw question(s)

Only at Brentford ! With Saturday’s game against Middlesbrough already taking the expectation levels to fever pitch, things went through the roof yesterday with Adam Forshaw making a much anticipated transfer to our opponents following what they describe as “a brief stint at Championship rivals Wigan”.

A mere 17 games (that’s approximately a quarter of one, million, pounds per appearance) followed by a reported cut price sale, suggest that things didn’t work out too well .

To read the rest of this article, season 2014/15 is now available to download onto Kindle (and other electronic reading device) in full. Containing additional material and even some (poor) editing, you can get it here for less than the cost of a Griffin Park matchday programme or Balti Pie.

Thanks for reading and all your comments over the course of the season. For now, I need to make more space on the site for any follow up. However, ‘close season’ will continue in full, further on.

As believable a transfer rumour as the average plot in Neighbours

With the dust settling on Brentford’s win at Norwich City we can ease into the last full week before Natalie Sawyer and Jim White officially declare the transfer window as slammed shut. And typically, as befits this time of year, a rumour has surfaced although this is one more out of leftfield than usual.

We’ll get there in a moment but, first, if you haven’t seen them,  the goals from Carrow Road went up on the official YouTube channel yesterday. Whilst those of us who were able to travel with their friends to the game or caught The Football League show afterwards would have already seen these, the club version have the advantage of being spliced with Mark Burridge’s Beesplayer commentary.

I’ve said it before and I’ll likely say it again but this is one of my favourite things to come out of Griffin Park, off field, this season. So fair play to the media team and creative gurus behind putting this together so quickly.

 

Ok. Transfer rumour time. As you may have read, The World Game website is reporting that Brentford are in the chase for Swindon Town’s Australian international midfielder Massimo Luongo, who is valued at AUD$4m (just over £2.1m at current rates).

David Magrone, the player’s London-based Australian mentor (presumably that’s Antipodean for ‘agent’) is the only person to make any quote in the article, aside from some of the hilarious comments afterwards, saying,” Brentford is an option for him but it’s important that he takes his time because there is plenty of interest from elsewhere also.”

The piece, which you can read here if you want, also notes that that Luongo, currently starring for the ‘Socceroos’ in the Asian Cup is allegedly attracting interest from Wolves, Sevilla and a host of German clubs.

Luongo is on twitter (although Matthew Benham is not a follower)

It’s an interesting theory but I think there’s more chance of me starring in Neighbours than this one coming true. Given that Swindon are currently in the box seat for promotion to the Championship, selling a player rated as one of their top assets would seem an unlikely strategy.

Likewise, have you seen the state of our midfield? This is one area where we are bursting at the seams with quality. From the long serving feet of Jonathan Douglas to the untapped potential of young gun Lewis Macleod, the likes of Jota, Alan Judge, Toumani Diagouraga, Stuart Dallas, Sam Saunders, Jon Toral and Alex Pritchard are all in the mix for a starting place. Nine players! And don’t forget, also, that we’ve had to reinvent Moses Odubajo as a right back given the injury to Alan McCormack.

Still, one thing that Brentford have done is build for the future and we do have a habit of picking out some exciting players. However, I’ll dip my toes into the water and suggest that this one is probably a rumour too far.

Of course, I’m just the numpty on the terrace rather than anybody with any meaningful inside knowledge so do treat any transfer suggestions you read here with a huge pinch of salt rather than as being of any meaningful substance.

And, if you’d like to put the question of any new signings directly to the people that do have the answers, then don’t forget the fan’s forum takes place on Thursday night at 6.30pm. Chairman Cliff Crown, Chief Executive Mark Devlin, Sporting Director Frank McParland, Manager Mark Warburton and Assistant Manager David Weir will be taking questions from 6.30pm in the Hive.

See you there.

I’ve got more chance of appearing in Neighbours