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The return of Marcello Trotta to the Brentford squad certainly got tongues wagging yesterday – for those who have been living in a cave for the last six months, Marcello Trotta is the on-loan Fulham player who wrestled the ball from the Brentford captain Kevin O’Connor in the 94th minute of the final game of the season to take a penalty. Scoring that penalty would have promoted Brentford to the Championship. He missed.

Since the announcement, the Beesotted website and @beesotted Twitter timeline have been teetering on meltdown, with fans’ opinions ranging from ‘delighted’ to ‘not coming back to another game until he leaves’. Such a diversity of opinion is also split amongst the @beesotted crew, which shows how emotive a subject this is. With so many people asking us what our view are, we decided to throw them down on paper. And as you can see, and quite unusually in has to be said, we don’t have a unified opinion.

 

I can see both sides

I’m surprised Uwe brought him back – although he did state at the start of the summer that Trotta was a target. The easy option was to cut adrift the single defining moment of last season, but Rosler has brought back an undoubtedly talented player that he clearly believes in.

The doubt for me over the striker has always been his application – his absolute desire to score goals, to put his body where it hurts for the sake of the team, to chase down that last man in the hope of an error. I remain to be convinced on that one. His finishing and first touch, however, are an asset to the squad.

Let’s hope that this season is filled less with the “fucksaketrotta”s that passed my lips, often involuntarily, as he repeatedly and cheaply gave away possession . Of him half-heartedly jumping with disinterest towards a ball lofted in his general area by a team-mate under pressure. Of the dissapointment of his performance at Wembley so soon after he’d given his all against Swindon at Griffin Park.

Let’s hope it’s filled instead with the sense of euphoria that filled my body when he fired home from an acute angle against the Champions of Europe. Of the pride I felt in his redemption as he ran Swindon ragged both physically and technically. Of the togetherness I felt with other supporters as we bounced up and down with Marcello at our core on the pitch at Griffin Park.

Support Marcello I will. Forgive Marcello I will – I did that in May. But he needs to prove his worth to this team, perhaps more than any signing I can remember.

Condorman
@condorman

 

Trotta’s Return Brings Bad Karma

Let’s not beat about the bush, Marcello Trotta’s re-appearance at Griffin Park was always going to divide the fans – the very word Trotta is engrained into our memory banks and has very negative connotations. For Uwe to bring him back took some nerve and I admire him for that bravery and his belief in making a tough decision. Whether that was borne out of confidence in the player and the knowledge that he is the right man, or desperation that his other transfer deadline irons in the fire had gone cold, only time will tell. The player himself is obviously clearly confident that he can come back ‘and put things right’, something that, if harnessed, could be a powerful and potent goal-scoring combination.

But whatever side of the Trotta divide you sit on, you can’t tell me the news didn’t come as a shock. A good shock or a bad shock depends on your outlook – Uwe must have been aware that passions still run deep over Trotta and he and the player are going to have to deal with that. Pro and anti Trotta rhetoric has been exchanged on all the Bees media outlets since the news broke, and the Beesotted.com server saw huge traffic.

To date, most debate has been very heated, but, once the dust has settled, I am sure most fans will become a little less entrenched, but either way, Uwe, at the end of a very eventful week for the Brentford manager, has really stirred the Bee hive with this one.

I am not going to sit on the fence, despite being rounded enough to respect both the ‘get over it, he’s a good player, get behind the team’ and ‘what the **** is Uwe playing at?’ trains of thought – but I will say to those calmer, more understanding souls out there, the ones that had completely justifiably suggested that, as a club, and as human beings, we simply have to put that penalty behind us and turn the page… We had done! I’ve never known a more positive pre-season vibe wise. We had moved on I feel. We had forgiven the player. We had fully got behind the manager. We had turned the page. But old wounds have now been re-opened, fact. Which has made us to confront differences that were filed away last May. That’s why I wouldn’t have re-signed the lad.

Much has been made of the player’s maturity in dealing with his penalty miss, but it should not be forgotten that the reaction of the fans towards Marecello Trotta in the play-off matches against Swindon, and at the Big Red Ball the very night after the ‘Donny Disaster’, was exceptional. He wasn’t demonized or booed; there were cheers and even songs when his name was called out over the Tannoy. But, for all parties concerned, the best thing that could have happened was for him to return to Fulham and a lid put on the subject ahead of a whole new, fresh slate of a season

My fear is not that we have signed a poor player –Marcello is a very good player, more than good enough to play for Brentford Football club – he’s not the finished article, of course not, but there are at least ‘known unknowns’ about his ability. My fear related to karma and disharmony. This move unsettles and divides at a time when we should be further underpinning and uniting as we push on towards promotion.

Who knows though, perhaps come May 2014 we will look back at this being an inspirational deadline-day coup – in the meantime however, the only certainty, inevitably, is that it has sparked a massive debate. For me, it’s not about his ability, it’s more about the vibe.

Dave Lane
@beesotted100

 

Thumbs up for Trotta

If I were Uwe and the world was my oyster, Marcello Trotta would not have been my first port of call for a striker. Not because of his playing ability. But because I would be looking at all the other options available to me.

But time isn’t on our side. And sometimes I think as fans we forget the situation we are in and lose track of reality. We’re a club who has invested heavily in playing staff over the past 12 months. Some more business-minded people would say over-invested if one takes into account the number of people coming through the gates each week.

Not even four weeks ago, Uwe was happy that he had all the players needed to spearhead a promotion-winning campaign. A horrible injury to the promising McAleney somehow scuppered his plans. But lets not forget, our squad is already bigger than last season’s. And the reality is our lead strikers were always going to be Donaldson and Grigg, with McAleney playing a winger-type role. Farid and Hayes were clearly back-ups.

With the prospect of Hayes always leaving for pastures new (that’s another story), Brentford were no doubt constantly keeping one eye out for another back-up striker to replace him. But the reality is, in our position unless we were prepared to throw loads of cash at him, we would only manage to lure an A-grade striker at this stage if we could pretty much guarantee him a place in the starting team. And that was only likely to happen if Donaldson were to leave. Maybe that’s the reason why the deals we were looking at before the transfer window shut closed all fell through … Who knows?

As a fan, it’s extremely easy to get emotional about the Trotta situation. But lets remove emotion from the situation and look at the facts. Yes Trotta may have missed that penalty. Yes Trotta may play his football in a particular unenthusiastic-looking kind of way. Yes Trotta may come from Fulham (probably his biggest crime).

But he’s a quality up-and-coming striker. He’s got big-game experience. He’s young. And most importantly, he knows our team, knows our players and knows the way we play.

The problem we have with bringing new players in is that they are always an unknown quantity. We expect big things from them immediately and get disappointed when they don’t hit the ground running. Personally, I would much prefer bringing in someone who knows what Brentford is about, that the management know, and is prepared to fight for his place in the team.

Trotta could have walked away from Brentford for good. With Championship teams like Charlton apparently chasing him, he no doubt thought he would have a greater chance of gaining match-time in a team that he knows rather than sitting on the bench for some other team. And he obviously likes us … enough to shoulder the wrath of Brentford fans baying for blood.

OK, the guy made a mistake. But I’d like to think he’s learned from it. He’s not a horrible bloke. In fact, meeting him at the end of season ball he seemed quite decent. And seeing the way that Will Grigg brings players into the game, I am actually excited about the prospect of him feeding the ball to Trotta who, when he actually gets chances in open play, certainly knows where the back of the net is.

And to use an old cliche, he’s got a point to prove. I like that. Better than some journeyman striker coming down here to rinse more money from a team with a bit of cash that they know are desperate to add to their strike-force. No thank you. We’re better off sticking with what we know. I trust Uwe Rosler to get the best out of young Marcello.

I’ve already had cocky Sheffield Utd fans on the phone this morning claiming that we’re only warming Trotta up for them to nab him. Let them dream on. Coz Trotta is a Bee ‘til Christmas and I’ll back him to stay with us for the duration.

But it has to be said, if the fans do let him back in and give him that second chance … And he does start banging the goals in … and other clubs come sniffing … he better remember when that transfer window opens in January that he owes us one big time ….. And I don’t care if David Moyes is calling ….. he ain’t going nowhere.

BillytheBee
@billythebee99