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The blog of a travelling psychiatrist and football lover. Who happens to be a halfway decent photographer. Takes a cynical view of the world

Archive for the tag “warburton”

Football Joy to end 2015. This cheating has to stop. Why should Fraser Fyvie not be banned from football for 3 years? What is wrong with players and supporters of our great game?


A few pieces of football news just floated by on various media sources. All highly depressing.

  1. Sheffield United are investigating allegations of racism by their fans at their home game with Bradford City last monday.
  2. Coins were allegedly thrown by Bradford City fans towards Sheffield United striker Billy Sharpe in the same game.
  3. Stuart Milleker, an alleged ” Notts Forest fan” has been banned from attending football matches for three years after entering the field in the game versus Derby County and attempting to grapple a Derby player.
  4. Fraser Fyvie, a Hibernian player, has been banned for two games for feigning a face injury in a successful attempt to get a Rangers player sent off. 

The most depressing part of this story above is the cheating by Fraser Fyvie and the even more depressing part is that few saturdays go by where I do not visualise cheating in this guise in a game that I see. Sometimes total simulation and more commonly gross exaggeration of an injury, usually timed to help the team in a difficult or final moments of a game.

What occurs to me is that often the punishment does not fit the crime. Players, managers and fans all are quick to point out the failings of referees. Myself included. Keith Stroud in his performance in the Reading v Brentford game two days ago was exceptionally poor. However what chance do they have with the ” clever” feigning of injury by players like Fraser Fyvie? One also presumes this is the not first time he has attempted this party trick and presumably been successful before. His behaviour also means that if becomes more difficult for referees to stop a game for injury if in the back of their minds is a ” cry wolf” scenario. Why has he not been banned for three years? Why only two games?

Football is a game and is played both on and off the pitch with volatile emotions. But it is a game. Players should not cheat, fans should not try to harm players and racism in 2015 is simply moronic. IMG_0998

 

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 at Bees Forum 2015 Sept

Marinus Dijkhuizen at Bees Forum 2015 Sept

Marinus Dijkhuizen at Bees Forum 2015 Sept

Marinus Dijkhuizen and Cliff Crown at Bees Forum 2015 Sept

Marinus Dijkhuizen and Cliff Crown at Bees Forum 2015 Sept

Marinus Dijkhuizen at Bees Forum 2015 Sept

Marinus Dijkhuizen at Bees Forum 2015 Sept

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:

  1. Promotion to Premier League within 3 years. This is Plan A. There is no Plan B
  2. The new ground should be ready, just, for start of 2018-19 season
  3. Signing a couple of players on loan has not been ruled out to cover injuries
  4. 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 £
  5. Although signing many EU players, players in the Football League are on our radar even down to Conference level
  6. 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
  7. The squad is stronger than last season.

In attendance answering questions were

  1. Mark Devlin
  2. Cliff Crown
  3. Marinus Dijkhuizen
  4. Rasmus Ankersen
  5. Phil Giles
  6. 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

Marinus Dijkhuizen and Cliff Crown at Bees Forum 2015 Sept

Cliff Crown at Bees Forum 2015 Sept

Cliff Crown at Bees Forum 2015 Sept

Marinus Dijkhuizen at Bees Forum 2015 Sept

Marinus Dijkhuizen at Bees Forum 2015 Sept

Marinus Dijkhuizen at Bees Forum 2015 Sept

Marinus Dijkhuizen at Bees Forum 2015 Sept

Rasmus Ankersen at Bees Forum 2015 Sept

Rasmus Ankersen at Bees Forum 2015 Sept

Mark Devlin CEO Brentford FC   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 and Phil Giles at Bees Forum 2015 Sept

Rasmus Ankersen at Bees Forum 2015 Sept

Rasmus Ankersen at Bees Forum 2015 Sept

Marinus Dijkhuizen at Bees Forum 2015 Sept

Marinus Dijkhuizen at Bees Forum 2015 Sept

Rasmus Ankersen at Bees Forum 2015 Sept

Rasmus Ankersen at Bees Forum 2015 Sept

Rasmus Ankersen at Bees Forum 2015 Sept

Rasmus Ankersen at Bees Forum 2015 Sept

Are the Police the only way to stop Brentford scoring?


Fulham 1 Brentford 4. By the end this looked the only way to stop Brentford scoring more goals.

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The Mystery of Warburton and Brentford. What exactly do we know?


Brentford fans woke up tuesday morning 10th Feb to a large article in The Times that announced that Mark Warburton would be leaving the club at the end of the season. Today 11th Feb it seems Sporting Director Frank McParland may well be also leaving. Why? Behind these unexpected and unwanted developments it seems there are two strands of thinking. Matthew Benham wants an all-powerful sporting director who makes all the decisions regarding new signings, unlike the current situation where Warburton does this. McParland is not seen as the man. The second issue relates it seems to the desire by Benham to want to bring in a free-kick coach and a sleeping expert. Warburton does not want to change things when things are moving so well this season. Further confusing aspects that may be primary or secondary problems relate to the news that Warburton it seems is on the radar for the Leicester City job, but seemingly not yet approached, and his name is mentioned in relation to the currently vacant QPR position, where any degree of interest is not reported on.

So what does this mean to Brentford? At the moment it is just a huge fog. Brentford have been in discussions with a potential Spanish manager of Rayo Vallencano, Paco Jemez. Again it is unclear what the sequence of temporal events might have been, but the comments yeaterday by Warburton that he will see the job through this season, is suggestive that he was being pushed before being potentially pulled for other roles.

The last piece of news relates to a posting by Benham on facebook this morning, where he says ” Its been a very difficult 24 hours. I will try to explain the situation more in the next couple of days. I’ve been a genuine fan since 1979 and try to honestly act in the best long term interests of the club”.

So the saga has a long way to go and might unravel in any direction. Lets see.

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Mark Warburton

Mark Warburton

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Brentford Fans Forum. A photographic record


Enough has been said about the excellent forum and the transparency with which questions were answered. There was also restraint shown by the fans in not asking any negative or difficult questions that also may have been on their mind. Please enjoy a few basic photos all sadly I Phone standard but nonetheless may give a view to those who were not there of what it was like.

The atmosphere was great, supportive and at times amusing, with the witty Peter Gilham in charge as always. Cliff Crown looking every inch a Premiership chairman. Honest and meaningful answers. David Weir looking like and sounding like a football coach. Great evening.

photo 1-1 photo 1-2 photo 1-3 photo 1

Mark Devlin

Mark Devlin

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David Weir

David Weir

Cliff Crown laughs at Mark Warburton budgetary ideas

Cliff Crown laughs at Mark Warburton budgetary ideas

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Mark Warburton

Mark Warburton

Brentford 2 Stevenage 0. Farewell to League 1 and Hello Fulham.


Too late to write much. But a real celebration today of all that is good about Brentford football club. In truth a meaningless game but one which meant everything to Bees fans. Farewell to League 1. Having watched Brentford for 51 years this season has meant a lot to me and surpasses any of the previous achievements. Brentford have gained promotion and equalled a club record since 1930 of 28 wins in a season. This is not the time to reflect on the season, that will come, but today we saw a decent game with a decent result 2-0 to Brentford. We saw good celebrations  and we hope that we did not witness any farewells to Marcello Trotta, George Saville nor Alan judge. We long ago forgot they were on loan. Just enjoy a few photos to remind us of a great day. action Bees Bees2 Bees22 Champagne Momen2t Champagne Momen22t Champagne Moment goal IMG_8233 IMG_8270 KOC KOC2 top of game Tr5otta Trotta Trotta2

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