The Exiled Robin

Including the top three moments of the year, as voted by you 2011 has been a difficult year for all concerned at Ashton Gate.   The club started the year trying to edge clear of the relegation zone and ends it in a similar position.   In the intervening 363 days there has been a change in manager, chairman and board, whilst off the field the new stadium at Ashton Vale seems as far away as ever, despite the focus put on it. The January transfer window is about to open with star striker Nicky Maynard officially up for sale and vultures circling over Ghanaian international winger Albert Adomah.   With losses totalling just shy of £30m over the past three years, there are no guarantees about the immediate future of the club, the squad or the division they’ll be playing in this time next year. City face a number of key issues as Britain enters a golden year and these are reviewed below, whilst the review then finishes on a positive note, with detail of the three favo...

One evening during November four fans of different Championship clubs spent a large part of the evening discussing who they thought had claims to be the best players in the league. An idea was born.  Fast forward a couple of weeks and in a twist to the usual advent calendar format, a series was launched and has spent December working through a different footballer each day, counting through the top 25 players in the second tier. Written partly by myself, in conjunction with three excellent writers, Joe Harrison (Cardiff - View from the Ninian ); John Verrall (Peterborough - Standing on the Glebe ); David Bevan (Leicester - and our esteemed host via The Seventy Two ) we initially took views from fans from all clubs via forums and Twitter to come up with a shortlist, with more than 70 names nominated.  This list was then reduced via voting on Twitter from followers of @the72football, and here it is.  All 25 players, detailed with links s...

My latest article from Bristol City's matchday programme, Red Alert : Nottingham Forest, Dec 19th This week I’m pleased to welcome Forest obsessive Pat Riddell to ‘On the Social’. Pat writes an excellent blog called Seat Pitch covering all things relating to twice European Champions, Nottingham Forest.   The website can be found here:   www.seatpitch.co.uk It’s safe to say you’ve had plenty to write about in the past nine months, with play-off disappointment, the appointment of a former England boss as manager, the resignation of said former England boss and the subsequent resignation of your Chairman. Can you quickly summarise your view of the recent club history? Billy Davies’ ongoing battles with the board saw his departure in June after two unsuccessful play-off campaigns — something which fans were seemingly split about (even more so now). He was swiftly replaced by Steve McClaren who proved to be an unmitigated disaster. Clearly he hadn’t done his homework and...

My latest article from Bristol City's matchday programme, Red Alert : Middlesboro, Dec 3rd This is the full version of the interview, which was edited for the programme due to space constraints This week I’m delighted to welcome Middlesbrough fan Steve Welsh to ‘On the Social’.   You may have heard of “Fly Me to the Moon” as one of the better-known club fanzines – it was started 23 years ago and in its time saw distribution peak at more than 3,000 copies. So, where does Steve come in? Well, amongst a series of ‘Boro related articles and interviews on his blog, Steve has undertaken the quite remarkable task of trying to bridge the gap between paper fanzine and electronic writing by archiving the first 100 editions of FMTTM onto his blog – www.miniboro.com Steve, I think the first question has to be: Why?! I'd toyed with the idea for about 7 years but it just felt like the time was right. There had been so much apathy under Southgate and Strachan that people were harki...

As the Bristol City fans’ bubble of belief continues, and the unbeaten run under McInnes’ leadership extends to six games, Stuart Radnedge takes a look at why the resurgence of luck for the club has come at a perfect time: They all count. Tap ins, rockets from 30 yards, deflections, cross come shots that result in a goal – and yes, O.Gs as well. At 2 nil down, and half time looming, my prayers were answered when we clawed a well worked goal back just before the break. Everyone knows scoring minutes before half-time can make the scoring team feel like they are playing with 12 men.  And just 24 seconds into the second-half City’s twelfth man, Adrian Mariappa, passed back to Watford stopper Scoot Loach who allowed the pass to roll into his net and level the scores. Magician McInnes, who makes Paul Daniels quake in his tiny size 4 boots, has cast his best revival spell which has resulted in the Robins floating out of the relegation zone. With belief back in ...

My latest article from Bristol City's matchday programme, Red Alert : Southampton, Nov 26th The last ‘On the Social’ focused on unknown individuals hiding behind a Twitter shield to racially abuse players (this is a trend that unfortunately shows few signs of abating with James Vaughan and Fraizer Campbell the latest ‘victims’ reporting abuse to the police).   This article will remain focused on the main topic but will feature two far more recognisable names and their use of Twitter. With Anton Ferdinand being one of the key figures at the centre of the row, it should come as no surprise that brother – and serial tweeter – Rio (@rioferdy5 ) should wade in to the discussion.   Although Rio was very careful not to talk specifics – he is one of the more professional Twitter users and typically knows where the boundaries lie – he jumped in with two feet as soon as an interview with FIFA president Sepp Blatter was aired. Blatter’s widely publicised comments provoked ...