4:04pm Thursday 19th November 2009
The period between a player signing for a football club and then making his debut is charmed.
He can talk in earnest cliches about making a fresh start, showing the fans what he can do, proving the doubters wrong and all that rubbish.
When loan players arrive at a club, the cliché of choice is that he is here to get games under his belt, and Brentford have borrowed our fair share of players in our time to help with this.
Supporters are genetically programmed to get over-excited when their club signs a new player but, as is often the case, hopes elevated by a new arrival are so often brought crashing down to earth by painful reality.
Names such as Fola Onibuje and Steve Jones are still likely to cause Brentford supporters anything from mild panic to a full-on stroke.
Of course, it is not all bad news – far from it. Brentford have, particularly in recent times, benefited from the services of some extraordinarily talented loan players.
As small clubs have got poorer and poorer in the past few years, the loan system has become more important, and we are lucky that Andy Scott has the contacts and knowledge that allow us to regularly sign quality players, albeit temporarily.
James Wilson has again been magnificent at the back this season and, along with Jordan Rhodes, has probably been Scott’s best loan signing. Until last Saturday, that is.
It was something of a surprise when it was announced we had snapped up teenager John Bostock on a month’s loan the day before the Millwall game and, as usual, hopes were high before kick-off.
To say Bostock put in a barnstorming debut, the likes of which has rarely been seen at Griffin Park, would not be overstating things.
He was magnificent – strong in the tackle, able to dribble round defenders at will and whip in crosses with both feet.
He also seemed to galvanise the team, who put in their best performance in weeks.
It is probably against the Geneva Convention to sympathise with Simon Jordan but, after seeing Bostock play, I can understand why he was so livid that Spurs nabbed him from Crystal Palace for a pittance. Okay, his second goal was a fluke and his haircut is a disgrace but this is not a time for nit picking.
Let us hope Andy can work his magic and sign Bostock for longer than a month. If he does, we will then be in a priveliged position of being able to sit back and enjoy a very special talent strutting his stuff.
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