Brentford News
The major Bees news of the past week saw a trio of players leave for Birmingham City at the end of the Transfer Window. Harlee Dean, Jota, and Maxime Colin all headed up the M40 to St Andrew’s while Jan Holldack and Manny Onariase also departed for KFC Uerdingen 05 and Rotherham United.
On the pitch there was no action for either the First-Team or B Team with nine of The Bees squad away with their nations.
Sky Bet Championship news
Last Thursday brought about the usual flurry of movement as the summer transfer window slammed shut. Harry Redknapp was by far the busiest manager bringing in six players in the final 48 hours of the window. Other notable moves in the second tier saw Nouha Dicko and Dave Edwards leave Wolverhampton Wanderers for Hull City and Reading respectively. Winger Sone Aluko swapped Craven Cottage for The Madejski Stadium while central defender Grant Hanley joined Norwich City from Newcastle United and Burton Albion received a club-record fee as Jackson Irvine headed to Hull.
Football news
It was a relatively quiet end to the Transfer Window around Europe with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s move from Arsenal to Liverpool, Serge Aurier’s arrival at Tottenham Hotspur from Paris Saint-Germain and Kylian Mbappe’s controversial loan swap between PSG and Monaco the main pieces of business done at the end of the summer.
On the pitch, Belgium became the first European nation to book their spot through qualifying for next summer’s World Cup in Russia after Sunday’s 2-1 win in Greece. Roberto Martinez’s side join hosts Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Iran, and Japan as the early qualifiers for Russia 2018.
France’s hopes of winning Group A were dealt a blow after they were held to a 0-0 draw by lowly Luxembourg, 126 places below them in the world rankings, in Toulouse while victory for Wales, and Ireland’s draw in Georgia, mean that the top three in Group D are now separated by just four points.
England can all-but book their passage to Russia 2018 with a win over Slovakia tonight at Wembley. Scotland too will be hoping for an Auld Enemy win as that could see them move within a point of Slovakia in third place, if they follow up Friday’s win over Lithuania with a win at home to Malta later today.
In Group E, Andreas Bjelland and Henrik Dalsgaard kept a Robert Lewandowski led Poland quiet during their 4-0 win on Friday, which keeps their qualifying hopes very much alive while Spain beat Italy 3-0 on Saturday in the battle of the Group G giants.