Bees Stumble in Pre-Season Opener
Dean Smith tried out more than just two starting elevens in Brentford’s 2-1 defeat to Boreham Wood on Friday. He also trialled a new formation.
During the first half Smith stuck with a tried and tested 4-3-2-1 but then went to an interesting 3-5-2 formation for the second half which may have something to do with Brentford trying to accommodate three centre backs in one position or another – with the return of Andreas Bjelland to the fold and the addition of John Egan.
Back at the start of last season before Bjelland got injured, he was quoted as saying he would look to “kill the opposition”.
Steady on Andreas! Looks like there’s a place for you now.
In other news, Lewis MacLeod scored his first goal for the Bees in the match – returning to the first team after a protracted start to his career due to a series of injuries.
Brentford Back on German soil
It may only be a temporary goodbye but the squad flew out to Germany straight after the Boreham Wood game. They will be embarking on a gruelling one week conditioning programme which will also see them take on Bundersleague 2 side VFL Bochum in the tiny town of Dulmen on Wednesday evening.
Beesotted will be heading back to Europe, after their Euro 2016 tour was rudely cut short by a pathetic England display, to bring you all the news, videos and podcast action from the Rhine region. Catch them on www.beesotted.co.uk.
After returning from Germany the team will play Wycombe Wanderers before heading to Millwall for Tony Craig’s testimonial. Next up will be Peterborough and Bundersleague Div 1 team FC Kaiserslautern at Griffin Park – with the German team accompanied by a bus-load of Ultras making the trip to the capital for the weekend.
By the time the Ultras pile into The Griffin pub, we should have a better idea of who Dean Smith plans to line up against Huddersfield in the first game of the season.
Millwall Knock Millers’ Striker Bid
Rotherham have had their efforts to sign Millwall’s Lee Gregory rejected. A £1.2 million bid was rebuffed for the Lions’ forward with Millwall obviously desperate to keep hold of their star man.
Gregory scored 27 goals last season as Millwall narrowly missed out on an instant return to the Championship losing in the playoff final.
Gregory was rumored to have handed in a transfer request but this has since been denied.
Further reports that Gregory was on the phone to Tarkowski to get tips on how to hold industrial strike action are as yet unproved.
Leeds Raising the Price on the Roofe
Leeds have revealed their new transfer model is to simply have a look at who Brentford are chasing and then offer them more money. It’s not a bad idea in truth as Brentford’s recent history in recruiting young players is particularly good.
Last week, long time transfer target of the Bees, Kemar Roofe, signed for the Yorkshire club and rumours have followed of another payer of interest to the Bees is heading north.
Rico Henry, another one of Dean Smith’s former players at Walsall, has been cited as a Jake Bidwell replacement but there is strong interest from Elland Road with the full back looking destined to leave the Saddlers.
One player out of the door at Leeds though is Lewis Cook, who completed his move to Bournemouth
Villa Decide Against Pushing the Button
It would appear the Aston Villa may have cooled their supposed interest in our very own David Button, signing shot-stopper Pierluigi Gollini from Serie B side Hellas Verona.
Villa boss Roberto Di Matteo moved to sign the 21 year old after Brad Guzan came in for heavy criticism during last season’s ill fated campaign.
Villa were relegated from the Premier League without much of a fight – losing ex Bee and goalkeeping coach Tony Parkes who rated Button highly – in the reshuffle. But the new boss will be looking for a little more back-bone from his new side and has already added Tommy Elphick from Bournemouth for a reported £3.6m and Reading’s Aaron Tshibola to his side for a fee in the region of £5m.
Fulham Chasing Derby Midfielder
And finally our beloved neighbours F*lham have submitted a bid for Derby County’s influential midfielder Jeff Henderick. It would be something of a surprise to see Henderick move to Craven Cottage as there is apparently strong interest from the Premier League in the form of Burnley and Middlesborough.
The 24 year old Irish midfielder who played in Euro 2016 for Martin O’Neil’s Boys in Green is not going to be sold on the cheap by a Derby side desperate to keep hold of him and push for promotion this time around.
Carl Massey
@thebeesblog
Button is a quality player but there are a lot of quality players around as the premiers league’s foreign incomers generate a fallout of home grown footballers. What is puzzling is that Wales, etc managed to play on further than England even though they had supposedly inferior players from the Championship in their sides, while England only considered the Premier league. If a player is a good footballer he will ‘step up’ when required, yet England were very short on quality in all areas. They had no one who could cross a ball and apart from the full backs their wing play was pathetic. Perhaps the next England manager will look at clubs like Brentford, QPR etc and use their players like Button who could provide a backbone that England sorely needed.