The Exiled Robin

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 ...

I was invited by top football website The Hard Tackle to write a post on the start made at Bristol City by Derek McInnes, and this is the result: Sacking a manager in early October, as Bristol City did recently, often seems like a knee-jerk reaction made with far too much haste. After all, what can you possibly infer about the season ahead after just ten matches? There are plenty of games left, new ideas and tactics are still being established and anyway, what could a new manager do with the much-hyped transfer window not opening until January? At times, however, it just feels like the right thing to do. This was certainly the case at Ashton Gate following the 5-0 humiliation at Blackpool on October’s opening day. It wasn’t the score-line so much as the manner of defeat. With three goals coming in the last few minutes of the game, it was clear the players’ heads had again dropped and confidence was rock-bottom. This followed a catastrophic finish in the previous home game aga...

My latest article from Bristol City's matchday programme, Red Alert : Burnley, Nov 5th The days when John Barnes, John Fashanu et al regularly had banana skins thrown at them and monkey noises were common-place seem many moons ago.   Those that run the game today are often keen to point out that racism in the game has been virtually eliminated and occurred before the formation of the Premier League and the Champions League.   Prior to multi-millionaire owners, before the fences came down and we had new all-seater, family-friendly stadia. There have been persistent flashes abroad, with Southern and Eastern European team’s fans in particular causing disgruntlement amongst those within the English game.   The fact that UEFA seem unwilling to deal with these issues with any more than a financial slap on the wrists is another story for another day. However, the topic has returned with a vengeance to dominate English football headlines in the past couple of weeks. ...

The signing of Stephen Pearson seems like a marker for new manager Derek McInnes.  An experienced campaigner of the type he has already identified we need to get out of the relegation scrap.  A Scottish international with 10 caps and more than 250 games under his belt he is relatively well-known, but I asked Ollie (follow him on Twitter here ), from the excellent " The Derby County Blog " to give his views on our newest loan signing - and it sounds largely encouraging. And with a goal, an assist and a Man of the Match on his debut in our 3-1 home win against Burnley things have certainly started brightly! "Stephen Pearson was brought to Derby from Celtic in January 2007, as the club surged towards promotion under Billy Davies. Pearson commanded relatively big wages and Davies claimed that his energy in midfield would make him a huge asset.  And of course, he scored the goal that got us promoted.  In the play-off final against West Brom, he converted a Gil...