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02 Oct 2015

What is going on at Brentford and what is needed right now

After the farcical events of the last month we need to briefly recap.

We employed an unknown manager and he has been sacked after 8 games.
The results were not the issue but other factors which have not been specified.
Mitigating factors include an unforseen series of injuries
The new manager given the role till the end of the season does not want the job permanently.
Brentford are heading for the relegation places, potentially this saturday.

What has gone wrong? Last season the fans were all together as a unit. Crowds were growing. The ground was sold out most games. Away travelling fans increased in numbers. This season that is all in reverse with 126 fans travelling to Middlesboro for a midweek game. My own view is this. The results have been poor but the performances poorer. A definite lack of tempo compared to last season ( this translates in my language to lack of effort), lack of leadership on the field. Would any away fan during the game be able to spot who the captain was? The quality of the play has been poor. The new players have mostly failed to be as good as the departing ones and certainly not better. And the defence has got worse, and frankly it was bad last year. Brentford are regularly conceding two or more goals each game.

So we need this

A clear statement from the board about the long term managerial situation
A statement from Matthew Benham regarding these matters, his plans and an explanation for what has happened
A new captain on the field.
A new defensive coach
A far higher tempo to the play
some stability for the next 6 months such that we can avoid relegation.

Anyone who thinks we are immune from relegation please think again. We have beaten only two of the poorest sides in the division so far and lost to sides that frankly are mediocre. But importantly we need to see something from the players. management team and board that we as fans can identify as an explanation for what has happened. We need to be able to get behind the team again and give them support. This is not easy when we have no clue what is going on.

Putting out the fires at Griffin Park?

The sun going down on Brentford dreams?

Posted in football and tagged ADHD, airport, art, aviation, BA, barcelona, beach, beer, bees, benalmadena costa, benham, birds, birds of prey, breakfast, brentford, brentford fc, brentford fc issues, british airways, burger, cars, carshalton, carshalton fc, cayman islands, charity, chelsea, cobham, cricket, death, dinner, FA, FA Cup, farne islands, food, football, gaming, garden, grand cayman, griffin park, Heathrow, hedgehog, hedgepig, holiday, hotel, iceland, imber court, indianapolis, italy, jake bidwell, kingston, league 1, lionel road, london, london city airport, marinus dijkhuizen, mark devlin, marriott, marriott hotels, matthew benham, Met Police, met police fc, motspur park, murder, music, nature, new malden, nonleague football, northumberland, painshill, painshill park, paintings, peter gilham, phil giles, photo griffin park, photography, photos, police, premier league, rain, rasmus ankersen, ryman, ryman league, ryman league crowds, ryman premier, ryman south, school, scotland, slovenia, snow, soccer, spain, sports, Sri Lanka, stockholm, sun, surrey, sweden, terminal 5, tooting, transportation, travel, UK, USA, uwe rosler, vacation, vincent van B, walton, walton and hersham, walton and hersham football club, walton casuals, weather, winter | Leave a comment

01 Oct 2015

Unusual Sculptures from United Kingdom

Wisley RHS sculpture exhibition

Sculpture in Edinburgh. Princes Street

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged art, beer, edinburgh, edinburgh sculpture, fencing, fencing sculpture, funny photos, gardeb, gardens, horse, horse sculpture, odd things, photo sculpture, photos sculptures, plants, princes street, RHS Wisley, scotland, sculptors, sculpture, sun, surrey sculpture, UK, united kingdom, unusual sculpture | Leave a comment

30 Sep 2015

Reflections on Essen – a small town in Germany

Essen seems a pleasant enough town with a nice shopping centre and nice cafes. The striking thing about my visit related to the trains and the people on them. So maybe a photographic treatise here is better than so many words. But two questions. Firstly, how common is it to not wear any shoes on a train especially in the rain? Secondly, what wonderful graffiti both on the train and around the station. Far from imagining this as a negative thing I became convinced that it is a positive thing and added value to both the train and the station. Not everyone’s thoughts maybe.

Essen is the 9th largest city in Germany with a population just under 0.6 million. Although it is the (in total) most indebted city in Germany, Essen continues to pursue its redevelopment plans. Notable accomplishments in recent years include the title of European Capital of Culture on behalf of the whole Ruhr area in 2010 and the selection as the European Green Capital for 2017.

The train station is an important hub.Of the Rhein-Ruhr S-Bahn net’s 13 lines, 5 lines lead through Essen territory and meet at the Essen Hauptbahnhof main station, which also serves as the connection to the Regional-Express and Intercity-Express network of regional and nationwide high-speed trains.

Essen it can be said is not an obvious mecca for high quality football.The biggest association football clubs in Essen are Rot-Weiss Essen (Red-White Essen) and Schwarz-Weiß Essen (Black-White Essen). Rot-Weiss Essen is playing in the fourth tier of the German football league system, Regionalliga West, and Schwarz-Weiß Essen in the fifth tier, Oberliga Nordrhein-Westfalen. Other football clubs are BV Altenessen, TuS Helene Altenessen, SG Essen-Schönebeck.

Tourism is not such a large aspect to the city but commerce certainly is. At international trade fairs and public shows and exhibitions, Essen international trade Fairs welcomes over 14,000 exhibitors and up to 2 million visitors each year.

There are however some interesting things to see, presumably for those shoe wearing denizens of Essen. The Soul of Africa museum is one such place.

http://www.soul-of-africa.com

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged africa, africa photos, airport, art, aviation, BA, barcelona, beer, bees, birds of prey, brentford, brentford fc, british airways, burger, cars, carshalton, carshalton fc, cobham, curious people, DB, DB bahn, deutsche bahn, dusseldorf, essen, essen museum, essen station, essen timetable, food, GBV, german graffiti, german weather, germany, graffiti, graffiti on trains, griffin park, Heathrow, holiday, no shoes, photo graffiti, photo train, railway essen, rain, ryman south, soul, soul of africa, soul of africa museum, spain, strange photo, surrey, train, travel, vacation, wearing no shoes, weather | Leave a comment

28 Sep 2015

Brentford Sack Marinus Dijkhuizen. Some Thoughts

News emerged a few hours ago that Brentford had sacked Marinus Dijkhuizen after only 8 games in charge. The reasons may be fairly clear. Not only poor results ( for which he cannot be soleley to blame), but the insipid manner of the performances with a lower work rate and tempo than under Mark Warburton gave cause for concern very early on. Visually Marinus failed to motivate from the touchline, often giving the impression he was simply a spectator at the game rather than an active component to what was going on on the field. Any coaching that was done,and their was precious little evidence of it, came from his coaching assistant. His failure to bond at all with the fans was also notable.

in hindsight at the Bees forum last week, not only was the atmosphere flat, suspiciously so, but the lack of obvious communication between Marinus and Rasmus Andersen, Phil Giles, Cliff Crown , was obvious to the watching eye. they hardly spoke to each other and some of the questions that were addressed to others normally might have gone to Marinus. This was both before the forum, during and after. The bond I hoped and expected to see between coaching staff was absent. Again in hindsight, a dead man walking. Crowds were also falling, and after 3 sustained seasons of increased crowds with incredible support for the players, this was starting to vanish. Numbers of away fans were frankly minimal compared to last season. Atmosphere at home games was nothing like last year. Put simply we have gone backwards. Where we have exciting talent on the bench, Sergi Canos, there were reasons/excuses why he did not start a game. The interaction between players and coaching staff at games looked poor and minimal. A few tweets from senior players also caught my eye, sometimes what they did not say as much as what they did.

There will be debate over this, and already comment has been made that we do not want to be ” another Leeds” but if something is wrong then it needs to be changed. Marinus seemed an intelligent and likeable man, but did he motivate me or inspire me, not at all, and one wonders if that at the end is the simple aspect that was wrong. Brentford fans demand clear high work rate on the pitch, they forgive mistakes, but will not forgive insipid performances. I wish Marinus well, but do imagine that the Football League is not the right place for his talents and maybe a return to Netherlands might be the best option.

Marinus Dijkhuizen at Bees Forum 2015 Sept

Marinus Dijkhuizen and Cliff Crown at Bees Forum 2015 Sept

Marinus Dijkhuizen at Bees Forum 2015 Sept

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged art, aviation, away fans, away fans brentford, beach, beer, bees, bees forum, bees forum 2015, birds, birds of prey, brentford, brentford fc, brentford sack manager, Canos, chairman brentford, championship, cliff crown, dijhuizen sacked, griffin park, imber court, lionel road, liverpool fc, marinus, marinus dijkhuizen, marinus dijkhuizen sacked, marinus sacked, mark warburton, matchbook, matthew benham, nonleague football, peter gilham, phil giles, rasmus ankersen, sack manager, sacking manager, september 2015 bees forum, sergi canos, smartodds, warburton, why dijkhuizen sacked | Leave a comment

28 Sep 2015

Supermoon 2015 In Sequence.

Supermoon 2015 UK Copyright Chris Bushe

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged ADHD, airport, art, aviation, BA, barcelona, beach, beer, bees, benalmadena costa, birds, birds of prey, breakfast, brentford, brentford fc, british airways, burger, cars, carshalton, carshalton fc, cayman islands, charity, chelsea, cobham, cricket, death, dinner, eclipse, FA, FA Cup, farne islands, food, football, gaming, garden, grand cayman, griffin park, Heathrow, hedgehog, hedgepig, holiday, hotel, iceland, imber court, indianapolis, italy, kingston, league 1, london, london city airport, london supermoon, lunar eclipse, marriott, marriott hotels, Met Police, met police fc, moon, motspur park, murder, music, nature, new malden, new malden supermoon, nonleague football, northumberland, painshill, painshill park, paintings, photography, photos, police, premier league, rain, red moon, ryman, ryman league, ryman league crowds, ryman premier, ryman south, school, scotland, slovenia, snow, soccer, spain, sports, Sri Lanka, stockholm, sun, supermoon, surrey, surrey eclipse, sweden, terminal 5, tooting, transportation, travel, UK, USA, uwe rosler, vacation, vincent van B, walton, walton and hersham, walton and hersham football club, walton casuals, weather, winter | Leave a comment

27 Sep 2015

Peterborough United and Graham Westley

Interesting musings from the football club and their new manager. Just curious is the only comment I will offer at this stage.

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged art, beer, bees, brentford, brentford fc, football, graham westley, league 1, london road, peterborough united, posh | Leave a comment

27 Sep 2015

The Last Redcurrants of 2015 from UK

One single plant has produced around £100 worth of redcurrants this year. I was somewhat amazed to find a few more the other day at the tail end of September. Tasted amazing. Thoroughly recommend a redcurrant plant for 2016.

Redcurrants from surrey

Posted in architecture, food, food photos and tagged ADHD, airport, are redcurrants illegal in USA, art, aviation, BA, barcelona, beach, beer, bees, benalmadena costa, berries, birds, birds of prey, blueberries, breakfast, brentford, brentford fc, british airways, burger, cars, carshalton, carshalton fc, cayman islands, charity, chelsea, cobham, cricket, death, dinner, FA, FA Cup, farne islands, food, food photos, football, gaming, garden, grand cayman, griffin park, Heathrow, hedgehog, hedgepig, holiday, hotel, iceland, illegal USA fruit, imber court, indianapolis, italy, kingston, league 1, london, london city airport, maine, marriott, marriott hotels, Met Police, met police fc, motspur park, murder, music, nature, new malden, nonleague football, northumberland, painshill, painshill park, paintings, photography, photos, police, premier league, rain, redcurrant, redcurrant photo, redcurrant plant, redcurrant plat, ryman, ryman league, ryman league crowds, ryman premier, ryman south, school, scotland, slovenia, snow, soccer, spain, sports, Sri Lanka, stockholm, sun, surrey, surrey redcurrants, sweden, terminal 5, tooting, transportation, travel, UK, UK fruit, UK fruit cultivation, United kingdom fruit, USA, uwe rosler, vacation, vincent van B, waitrose redcurrants, walton, walton and hersham, walton and hersham football club, walton casuals, weather, winter, yoghurt | Leave a comment

25 Sep 2015

Brentford Bees Forum With Manager and Sporting Directors

An excellent forum was held where all questions were answered as best as reasonably they could. The only difficult moment was a late question again about Mark Warburton and his departure. The fans were given good updates on all aspects of the club. These were maybe the main points:

Promotion to Premier League within 3 years. This is Plan A. There is no Plan B
The new ground should be ready, just, for start of 2018-19 season
Signing a couple of players on loan has not been ruled out to cover injuries
We need to remember than until we move ground we are limited by the small turnover in comparison to other Championship clubs. Last season Brentford turned over 8 m £ in comparison to a Championship average of 17m £
Although signing many EU players, players in the Football League are on our radar even down to Conference level
Football league rules do not allow differential pricing of games for away fans. The example cited of Leeds charging £24 for a junior away ticket for example could not replicated at Griffin Park
The squad is stronger than last season.

In attendance answering questions were

Mark Devlin
Cliff Crown
Marinus Dijkhuizen
Rasmus Ankersen
Phil Giles
Peter Gilham

As a small bit of background Rasmus ankersen and Phil Giles are the co-directors of football at Brentford, Cliff Crown the chairman, Mark Devlin CEO and Marinus Dijkhuizen the manager.

Phil Giles worked at Smartodds – a company owned by Matthew Benham which provides statistical sports modelling services – for eight years and had been their Head of Quantitative Sports Research since 2010
Rasmus Ankersen was Chairman of FC Midtjylland the Danish Superliga team owned by Matthew Benham and author of a book ” The Goldmine Effect”.

Marinus Dijkhuizen and Cliff Crown at Bees Forum 2015 Sept

Cliff Crown at Bees Forum 2015 Sept

Marinus Dijkhuizen at Bees Forum 2015 Sept

Rasmus Ankersen at Bees Forum 2015 Sept

Mark Devlin CEO Brentford FC at Bees Forum 2015 Sept

Rasmus Ankersen and Phil Giles at Bees Forum 2015 Sept

Rasmus Ankersen at Bees Forum 2015 Sept

Marinus Dijkhuizen at Bees Forum 2015 Sept

Rasmus Ankersen at Bees Forum 2015 Sept

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged art, aviation, BA, beer, bees, bees forum, bees forum 2015, brentford, brentford chairman, brentford fc, brentford new ground, brentford premier league, Canos, championship, cliff crown, death, denmark, FC Midtjylland, football tickets, forum, gold mine effect, griffin park, jota, leeds fc, leeds high price tickets, leeds tickets, lionel road, london, london football, london pride, marinus, marinus dijkhuizen, mark warburton, matthew benham, peter gilham, phil giles, premier league, rasmus ankersen, real football, september, smartodds, sporting director, sporting director brentford, statistical sports modelling, statistical sports modelling brentford, the goldmine effect, the hive, warburton | Leave a comment

22 Sep 2015

2 Comments

Eat Blueberries to live for 1000 years ? Maybe

Blueberries are one of the few fruits that are native to North America and In terms of U.S. fruit consumption, blueberries rank only second to strawberries in popularity of berries. The US cultivates around half of all global consumption of blueberries with another 30% from Canada. Maine produces around 25% of all US cultivation of blueberries.

Cultivation of blueberries was widespread among the Native American tribes throughout North America. European colonists learned about blueberries thanks to these Native American traditions and brought blueberry species back to Europe. Yet commercial cultivation of blueberries in Europe has been a relatively recent phenomenon limited to the 20th and 21st centuries. Thanks to increasing cultivation in the Southern Hemisphere — including South American countries such as Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay as well South Africa, New Zealand and Australia — fresh blueberries are now enjoyed throughout the year on many of the world’s continents.

One interesting current trend in history of blueberries has been their dramatically increased consumption within the U.S. In 1997, the average U.S. adult consumed about 13 ounces of blueberries per year. Ten years later, in 2007, that amount nearly doubled and reached an average level of 22 ounces.

There are plenty of myths about eating blueberries but there is little doubt of one fact that simply they are good for you. They have one of the highest antioxidant capacities amongst all fruit. Blueberries are a good source of vitamin K. They also contain vitamin C, fibre, manganese and other antioxidants (notably anthocyanins). Valued for its high levels of antioxidants, some nutritionists believe that if you make only one change to your diet, it should be to add blueberries.A number of clinical studies have tried to prove that eating blueberries reduces cancer rates, heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular disorders. Also helpful is that we can freeze blueberries without doing damage to their delicate anthocyanin antioxidants|.

To prove a huge health benefit such a reduction in deaths or longer life expectancy might be difficult in a trial situation as all these illnesses have multiple causes. But will you live longer if you eat blueberries? Probably yes you will.

Blueberries

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13 Sep 2015

Brentford 1 Huddersfield 2 Under-18

Despite threats of rain the sun came out and gave decent conditions for this saturday lunchtime game. The reality was that this was an easy win for a Huddersfield team that showed more physical strength than Brentford but all 3 goals were scrappy, with some doubt over the second Huddersfield goal which looked offside.

For those not familiar with this standard of football it is mostly played in decent spirit however Huddersfield did resort to timewasting from their goalkeeper as early as the 60th minute and a few cynical tackles from both sides. The last 10 minutes was frantic after Brentford scored a scrappy goal and four yellow card in four minutes summed up the frenetic nature of this last 10 minutes.

The standard of football is good with a lot of skill but it seems that physical strength plays a large part at this level in terms of results when the average age of the side is low. One player stood out on the pitch, the Huddersfield number 7, Jack Boyle. He displayed stamina, strength, skill and and effort. He is the player to watch here.