DE.

It's a shame it ended the way it did. Under another set of owners Travis may have been a part of a return to the PL - although I don't think he's good enough to play at that level. Alas, under Venky's it was never going to happen. Have to hope this Baradji fella is the real deal.

Interesting who Trav did thank... and who he didn't. Curious that the club spent time creating that video if there genuinely was some bad blood at the end.

I personally wouldn't call anyone signed during the Venky era a club legend. We've achieved fuck all in that time save for a 2nd placed promotion from League 1. Outside of that we've either finished mid table championship, spectacularly thrown away chances to get in the playoffs more than once, or narrowly avoided relegation a couple of times. Granted the criteria for legend will be different for younger supporters who don't remember or weren't around for the pre-Venky era. I guess the likes of Dack or Trav would be closest to fitting the bill.

There was a period of the game when Newcastle players just seemed to collectively lose their heads. Gordon's tackle was definitely a red. Thought Slot's post-game comments were a bit disingenuous, suggesting Newcastle were hoofing & fouling their way through the game. Other than a small period where they did seem to lose a bit of control, I don't think that was a fair reflection of the game at all. I can only assume he was deflecting from another questionable performance from his team. It could be the old "good team winning games whilst playing badly" trope, or it could be warning signs that there are things that need to be addressed in that team.

Unless he absolutely tears it up in Saudi I can't see him coming back to England any higher than League 1. Could see an SPL club taking a punt on him in a few years time whenever his contract over there expires, but possible another middle eastern club will take him on if his current team doesn't renew. Presumably the wages on offer over there would beat offers he'd get over here.

I think the UK sports media fawning over him plays a part in the general dislike. There was a MOTD last season where Southampton had lost again, were bottom of the table and I believe winless after 9 or 10 games, and the pundits were raving about the bloke like he was the second coming Ferguson or Wenger. It was absolutely ludicrous and not the first time it had happened. They were basically affirming this modern day belief that style is better than substance - and with RM it's the concept of a style because his teams are usually utterly boring to watch and rarely get consistent results. I will say I have nothing personal against him. He comes across as somewhat arrogant in interviews, but his media persona may not match his private persona. I just wish I could be so mediocre at my job and fall upwards with such unstoppable momentum.

Don't think De Neve is or ever will be up to the required standard, but conversely initial impressions of Alebiosu are good. He lacks somewhat in technical ability but he's got good energy and I can see him making things happen on the flank. Far too early to tell if he'll be an adequate replacement for Brittain, but there have been some promising signs. Not sure about Taveres yet, but think he'll be OK. McLoughlin and Miller should be steady signings, whilst Henriksson has shown he will need time to adapt. Baradji and Morishita are, on paper, excellent signings. Remains to be seen how they perform. We haven't been too bad defensively so far, but 2 of our first 3 games were pretty dire attacking-wise. The Hull match was a massive improvement, and hopefully we'll see that Rovers side turn up again against Norwich. I don't rate Norwich very highly, so I think if we put in another Hull performance we could win by 2 or 3. Otherwise a draw or narrow defeat. Certainly don't see the current Norwich team turning us over.

Didn't foresee Bucko going to Saudi, but good luck to him. He had potential here but for reasons only truly known to the coaching staff and himself, he never really got going here and successive managers didn't see enough in him to ever give him a solid run in the team. I think when he flopped on his loan to Sheffield Wednesday that was the point of no return. It'll be interesting to see how his career unfolds from here. I think it's possible he'll spend the rest of his career abroad.

I would respectfully argue that's an optimistic view of our first two matches. We played 85 consecutive minutes combined in those matches without having a shot on goal, although neither Brum nor WBA were much better and neither could have complained if they hadn't walked away with all three points from those matches. The Hull match was the first game where I thought we genuinely looked good, but it comes with the caveat of Hull's squad being badly hit by some kind of virus during the week, so, difficult to read too much into the match other than to say we got the job done and got it done in style. I think Saturday's match at home to Norwich will be a good indicator of whether the Hull match was an outlier or something to genuinely build off. Norwich are nothing special and there's no reason we shouldn't be able to beat them if we put in the same performance levels as we saw against Hull. It'll be very interesting to see what transpires.

Duffy's two "accidental" own goals and red card against Cardiff, coincidentally when he was rumoured to be trying to force a move away, should disqualify him from ever returning.

Hiring Selles was a baffling decision.

Return of the Roon?

Genuinely stunned by that performance. Time will tell whether it was a case of Hull just being horrendously bad or Rovers realising some hidden potential within the existing team. I liked a lot of what I saw today.

Uh, wow. Shut my mouth. Didn't expect this.

The amount of years we've comfortably remained in the second tier despite being owned by Venky's seems to suggest there's a lot of terrible owners tbh.

I just have no confidence in this squad at all. I think they'll put the effort in, no concerns there, but I just don't think the sum of our parts is anywhere near the level needed to compete effectively in this division. We are utterly devoid of creativity, outside of Cantwell, which means we'd need to rely pretty heavily on set pieces. But we're terrible at those as well. Can't see how the current team is expected to achieve anything other than relegation. Other than that, looking forward to the game.

Lol. The precursor to shit results is hiring a shit manager.

There can't be many clubs where sales have 0% impact on the transfer budget. It's a ludicrous statement unless the club is in deep financial peril and needs every penny to keep the lights on.

I visited the Brentford forum to gauge the mood and was surprised to find the majority optimistic and happy with Keef in charge, even after the weekend. They really seem to trust their decision makers, even if from the outside it looks like lunacy.

3 shots on target in two league games, I believe. Roughly 85 consecutive minutes across both games where we didn't register a single shot. You notice now people are saying we're decent and doing OK just because we aren't getting hammered. It's brutal.

Chaddy's probably still correct tbh.

Keef in charge alongside multiple sales seems like a recipe for disaster. Wouldn't be surprised at all to see Brentford drop this season.

Billionaire owners, club apparently can't afford a Sky Sports subscription. Lol.

Based on what? We didn't have a shot on goal for the first 35 minutes of the opening match and none until the 50th minute of this one. Going to be difficult to put up a fight if we never create any chances. Running around a lot isn't the same thing.

Think there are still a lot of fans who have not grasped how catastrophic this summer has been for us. The loss of Championship experience and leadership is going to really take its toll as the season goes on. Cheap replacements from foreign leagues will not be adequate. I truly believe we are in deep, deep trouble. Of course, I would love nothing more than to be wrong and hope that at the end of the season this post will be quoted as being totally ridiculous.