A Typical Brentford Week; the Transfer Rollercoaster

Another poor performance at home, Karleigh Osborne looks like he has packed his bags and is ready to leave, and Peterborough have pulled out of the deal for their striker David Ball. Another week in the life of a Brentford fan I guess.

The 0-0 draw at home to Walsall was a particular hard blow to take, especially after a blistering start with Marcus Bean denied by a fantastic save from the Walsall stopper.  Although a game to forget, we can pick up some huge positives, the first being a star performance from Leon Legge.  It is horrible to think that without Legge we would most likely be in the lower half of the table. Without Leon Legge’s towering headers and bone-crunching tackles I’d say we would easily concede far more than we do at the moment. Brentford without Legge is like Adam without Eve. Impossible to contemplate.

Moving on from Leon Legge, we are at a point in time where it seems that his centre-half partner, Karleigh Osborne, seems set to leave. This is a shame I think, especially seeing as Osborne came up through the ranks of the Brentford youth team, and you would hope that players may have a bit more loyalty than that. Osborne had the speed and strength that made him a superb partner for Legge, although he was vulnerable to the occasional lapse in concentration and fight with his own team mate (Bournemouth 13/4/09). All in all however, I wish Karleigh the best in the future as he is a fantastic player and person, and I am more than sure he will do well at whichever club snaps him up. I just hope to the footballing Gods that it’s not Charlton.

I fear I have to once again talk about Clayton Donaldson. In my last article you would remember that I announced I had complete faith in Clayton and he proved me right in the 2-2- draw with Tranmere, scoring an absolute screamer into the top corner from 20 yards out. Unfortunately, certain fans at Griffin Park seem to use the poor bloke as a scapegoat for the team’s sometimes dire performances, and although he did miss a good chance he was everywhere against Walsall, and in my personal opinion one of the best performers on the park. Brentford FC is a club in progress, and our players are also progressing, so we need to stick by them and they will come good for us. All good things take time. 

The lack of goals however is a concern for me, and it is still a shame to see Mike Grella not making the bench at the very least. We have a player in Grella who would run and run until his legs dropped off and yet we still do not fully utilise his ability. Also, the potential loan singing of David Ball was met with mixed reactions at Griffin Park, and I can see why. Ball may have scored 4 at Rochdale, but that is hardly prolific. I am not one of the dreamers that reckon we can get a player like Jordan Rhodes or Bradley Wright-Phillips but I am one that believes we can get better than David Ball. 

I do hate to do this, but there seems to be a lot of “fans” at Griffin Park that turn up to just boo. If the players are playing badly, they boo. If the ref is having a bad game, they boo. If we’re winning by 3 goals and their seat is cold, they boo. Cut it out. If you’re a fan of the club you would get behind your team instead of booing them. It’s quite simply disgraceful. 

Looking ahead to a very tough game at the Galpharm on Saturday, which is live on Sky. A very tough game at the best of times, but we have a sensational away record and I hope we can keep that going. Let’s just hope Rhodes doesn’t do what he did the last time he played in front of the Sky cameras!