Does Geography impact on City's hopes?

Stuart Radnedge returns with a post-Reading view on matters and an interesting angle on whether geogrpahy affects the calibre of player City can attract - something I've certainly felt for a number of years.

"I realised quite a few things when I heard ex-Gashead Jason Roberts had scored against us on his debut for Reading on Saturday. And it wasn’t anything to do with my hatred for him being reignited.

I began reflecting on footballing situations.

Roberts is one of many former Premier League (he did somehow get that far!) footballers who take a step down a league and ply their trade in the Championship. But why is it that these players always seem to join other clubs aside from us?

Is it the London, Manchester, Midlands factor? Players join a club near those areas because they’ve already set up home nearby and are hoping to stay at the club, like Reading, or alternatively play well and then move on to another not too far away? Maybe.

But by that rationale does this make West Country hopes of playing in the Premier League that little more difficult because the bigger players will always want to keep their options open for moves to clubs that are located more preferably.

Let’s be honest. If you play for City and you move on you’ve got a local selection of Swindon, Yeovil, the Gas, Cheltenham, Argyle, Torquay or Hereford. Oh and Exeter (sorry Uncle Dave).

Anywhere else in the country and you’ve got the option of playing for clubs varying from League 2 to the Premier League.

But does this mean we have to accept mediocrity. One word answer – no.

We can accept that it would have been a good result for us to come away from Reading with a point. But we should never stop believing maybe, just maybe, we could come away with all three points.

If we looked at the league this year before a ball was kicked and said who we should expect to beat we would all probably pick the three clubs that came up from League One, plus one or two others.

But that’s not the beautiful game. Anyone who’s ever picked a nine-match accumulator and tried to predict how the results will go to make their fortune will remember the one match that ended in a draw after a 94^th minute equaliser and cost them £874 for a £21 bet (I’m speaking from experience here – it’s how I could afford to eat at Uni)!

I don’t even think we were unlucky on Saturday. With a new month around the corner all I’m looking at is how we can ensure survival in the Championship.

Then we can give the gaffer a fair crack of the whip and allow him the summer to build a squad that could win us a one way ticket to the promised land…

Thanks to Stuart for his contribution.

Follow me on Twitter: @TheExiledRobin

Why Cotterill was sacked

In the end, it was very sudden. In a season where pressure has increasingly grown on Steve Cotterill for all sorts of reasons, an unknown combination of a lacklustre, exhausted-looking performance at home to Preston, an unsavoury altercation with an abusive ‘supporter’ at the end of that game, or perhaps a behind-the-scenes disagreement over transfer policy look to have ultimately curtailed his time at Ashton Gate. No manager these days can win just four out of 28 games in a season, be in the bottom three, and expect to be impervious to the threat of being sacked. But given such an incredulous level of success last season, Cotterill was surely closer than most to having a level of credit in the bank to be given until the end of the season? I share views with many as a general principle where I wish all clubs would give mangers more time to build, but the days of giving a manager the luxury of years of under-achievement, of the type Alex Ferguson enjoyed, resulting in a ...

The Inside Line: MK Dons (substituted) 24/08/2013

This new series on The Exiled Robin threatened to come a cropper in its early days with a fixture against Franchise FC, as I wasn't prepared to seek an opinion on a club created in such a fashion. Not that I doubt that those supporters who follow them do so in the same irrational and desperate manner we all do with our clubs, but the way they came about, with the corresponding direct negative impact on another community-based club, manes they are - ironically enough - disenfranchised from the football community as a whole. Anyway, as a result I decided to instead focus on their predecessors, a club reborn and one that has found it's way back into the football league for a second time. Chris Lines, (NOT the ex-Gas player, as far as I know!) writes his own blog and occasionally offers his view for the fabulous Two Unfortunates, as well as spending his weekends following the fortunes of AFC Wimbledon. You can follow Chris on Twitter @NarrowtheAngle : ...

Scott Golbourne: He's Coming Home - a Wolves view

The signing of Scott Golbourne (not Goldborne, Goldbourne or Golborne!) must have been as much a relief for those in the club’s hierarchy as it was for us supporters. Constantly barracked and ridiculed over the past few months for the seemingly disastrous lack of transfer activity, Golbourne is only the second permanent signing for the senior squad in 18 months since we embarked on our hugely successful League One title-winning campaign. Plenty of loans have been tried in the meantime, but only Jonathan Kodjia’s bolt-from-the-blue signing from Angers in the summer has caused the editors on Wikipedia to move a player's full time club to Bristol City in that time. Any fan over the age of 17/18 or so will fleetingly remember Golbourne, of course, as he spent his formative years with us but his opportunities were limited at that stage so I knew little about him, other than he’s looked like a pretty solid looking traditional full-back in the games I’ve seen him in since. ...

The Exiled Robin

Search This Blog