Friday, August 05, 2011

INTO JULY AND THERE WAS NO LET UP FROM ME ....



Written July 11th : I will take this opportunity to re-update the situation at Brentford, all of my original comments about the Bees are reproduced at the foot of the page. Since writing the last of those, Uwe Rosler has supplemented his squad further with two more fantastic looking signings, adding Clayton Donaldson and Niall McGinn to a group of players that compares favourably with any at this level. Donaldson was the top scorer in League 2 last season, scoring 28 goals for Crewe Alexandra, Alex paid a six figure fee for him three years ago and after impressing everyone last season, that value was unlikely to have gone down, but he refused to sign a new contract and he has chosen Brentford over a host of clubs looking to sign the proven lower level goalscorer. McGinn has signed on a season long loan from Celtic, the 23 yo winger is a full Northern Ireland international and won two young POTY awards with Derry in the IPL, it is doubtful the talented winger would have been allowed to move away from Celtic Park, but he was the player who also had "suspicious packages" sent to him along with Hoops boss Neil Lennon and that, quite understandably, affected his game in the second half of last season. A year South of the Border will suit him perfectly and this is another real coup for the Bees.

Rosler has also found his first team coach in Peter Farrell, who has worked for a number of years with the youth/reserve team squads at Bolton Wanderers where he helped the development of many now established EPL players. There have been a number of other important and very promising appointments made, including a well thought of youth team manager and a General Manager, who has worked at much bigger clubs in the past. Gunnar Halle attended the afternoon coaching session in Lillestrom on Sunday, not sure if this means anything or if he just popped into say hello. But I do know the Bees have been working incredibly hard in early pre season and all players returned from the off season in good shape.

This is probably the most optimistic Brentford fans have felt going into a new season in at least two decades . The 33-1 quote to win the division has gone, but 25-1 is still offered in a place or two and the 8-1 for promotion, which I am very keen on, remains, but for how long ? Once the word gets out and people fully analyse the business down at Griffin Park, I am sure that these quotes will drop considerably.

Good Luck.




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