Category: London

The season is up and running

This weekend is round 2 of the premier league season. An early start because of the world cup being held in winter because of the oppressive heat.

So this weekend is the first home game against the well- known Manchester United, who were poor in their first match and the Bees pulled back to get a good draw.

Erikson is gone- to Man Utd, and maybe a fine replacement has been found?

Brentford snap up Mikkel Damsgaard from Sampdoria for €15m

  • Danish international joins Bees on five-year deal
  • Damsgaard could make debut against Manchester United
Mikkel Damsgaard at Sampdoria
Mikkel Damsgaard made 49 appearances for Sampdoria but his last season there was beset by injury. Photograph: Getty Images

Fabrizio Romano and Joel MiansWed 10 Aug 2022 12.55 BST

Brentford have agreed a deal to sign the highly rated Denmark midfielder Mikkel Damsgaard from Sampdoria on a five-year deal for a fee of €15m (£12.7m).

The 22-year-old has completed his medical and will become the club’s sixth summer signing.

James Blake

This is very late in the day but…..never too late?

EQ bough tickets for James Blake at the Alexander Palace for Shaz’s birthday. However in the end- EQ decided to go to Croatia with the baby. So I filled her shoes.

It was on a Tuesday night, 10 days ago now, but a school night…so a little dangerous.

The journey there was in truth quite straightforward with an easy walk from Wood Green tube.

And the event-not bad. I like a lot of his music but I am not sure how well it transfers to the live settling. There were 10,000 people there who seemed very relaxed, white, coupled and not raucous.

A good event but not the best.

And a few extracts of music:

Another win

And it must be enough for safety. By far the better team against West Ham. A 2-0 result. A good performance- the best that I have seen in a long time. A return to proper football with accurate passing on the floor.

And the crowd were happy.

Survival?

Eriksen’s class can guide Bees to safety

Ivan Toney delivered victory for Brentford against Burnley, who were resilient for 86 minutes – yet the new box office Bee, Christian Eriksen, was the creator. The Brentford head coach, Thomas Frank, stated that his Danish compatriot could become the club’s best ever signing. Fresh back-to-back Premier League victories will ensure likely survival for Brentford. If others hesitated on Eriksen, Frank trusted his intuition. Four Burnley opponents were left rigid by a clip of an Eriksen boot for Toney to head home. And the Bees can look forward to similar manoeuvres in their nine remaining games. For Sean Dyche’s side, aiming to avoid the drop, it was harsh. For Brentford , with Eriksen’s trademark calm amid edgy moments, improvements appear guaranteed. Julian Taylor

Good feeling

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“[Christian] has found a place where he feels confident to take the next step in the fight to get back on to the field. I’m super-happy that he is safe and happy and looking forward to playing football, and that we can all see him play again” – the Denmark coach, Kasper Hjulmand, on Christian Eriksen finding the right club in Brentford. Read his Q&A with Bart Vliestra here.

Walk along the Thames

Last week ( the bog as been inaccessible- host changing)

Anyway nice walk with EQ from Putney to the Tate Gallery along the river bank. Of note, it was the first time I have been up close to Battersea Power station.

It has been close and then under re-development ever since I was doing my daily trips to Bridge Lane. It has been developed for high-end accommodation and of course has the run of shops just by. This is where we sat for coffee and bun. The whole area is a construction site. Seems a concrete desert to me, with so many blocks going up- all the same.

Boxing Day

A suite of activities with chats EQ and JQ who is of course in Wellington.

The activities included watching London Scottish play in Richmond with IQ and Anthony. It is good to see ‘real rugby’ or maybe old-fashioned. The players are not all uniformly the size of houses and subtlety seems to play a bit more of a role.

Next it was a trip to Kew Gardens to see the light show. A team of three this time with Shaz and IQ.

Next after that fun ti was off to the pub to watch Brentford play BHA. Not a good performance and not a good result.