The Exiled Robin

I'm delighted to welcome back Stu Radnedge to the pages of The Exiled Robin to analyse the potential impact of the forthcoming Financial Fair Play regulations in light of City's latest jaw-droppingly large annual loss and the redirection clearly signalled from the top. Over to Stu...  The £14.4m loss recorded by Bristol City , in the financial year ending May 31 st 2012, was described by our Chairman as reflecting “a disappointing and difficult year for the club” and he went onto explain that it “illustrates how much work is required… to comply with the new Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations”. So what is FFP? Basically my interpretation is it will ensure football clubs are run more like a business – a good, solid business.   A business that can make a loss, but only up to a specified amount. It applies to all three leagues (Championship, League One and Two), although the first will adopt a “ breakeven approach ” according to the football league’s website, whic...

For this final instalment of Sean O'Driscoll week on The Exiled Robin I take a look at the short- and medium-term challenges that will face City's latest manager, sorry, Head Coach and also try to understand why Ashton Gate was his preferred destination ahead of Blackpool and Barnsley. This week has felt like a watershed moment for the club. If you incorporate the statements made around transfer policy and the future aims, match them with the players we've signed or been linked with and extract certain angles from the interviews with O'Driscoll and Jon Lansdown, you'll start to be painted a picture. Let's make one thing clear - this board, and the club as a whole, desperately want to be able to shed an ever-enhancing image of a struggling Championship side that appoints a different manager each season. By appointing O'Driscoll - whose biggest managerial achievement consisted of a (relatively) long and steady building up of Doncaster Rovers. I'...

For the second of the three posts on Bristol City's new manager this week, I'm simply going to let others do the talking.  Settle in, they're all well worth a read! I have found and sourced a series of excellent and descriptive posts from the most well regarded bloggers of Doncaster Rovers and Nottingham Forest, O'Driscoll's last two clubs, (I'm ignoring his Crawley holiday) regarding O'Driscoll and what he might bring to Ashton Gate. First up, chronologically, is a writer whose work I always love reading for a fluid and eloquent style.  Glen Wilson , once of the excellent Viva Rovers is still the major contributor to their matchday fanzine. These were his thoughts for the top football league blog, The Two Unfortunates... http://thetwounfortunates.com/sean-odriscoll-a-primer/ ...which followed this masterpiece on his own site, portraying a crystal clear level of dismay at the sacking that started the decline of Doncaster, and which kicks-off ...

So, it's SOD. The Bristol City board acted quickly today to snare their man and appointed Sean O'Driscoll to the position of head coach.  This new title befits a club with a new, you could say modern approach to squad building and transfer policy .  Although he's a name known to many, I plan to offer some additional insight into our new gaffer (I'm sure he'll be called that, head coach or not!) on these pages over the next few days. The first in a trumverate of posts on the appointment of Sean O'Driscoll on The Exiled Robin comes from a previous, and always welcome contributor to the site.  Steve Wright , from 'Mist Rolling in from the Trent'  has been kind enough to pen (or key) his thoughts on City's latest appointment, reflecting on what O'Driscoll brought to Nottingham during his albeit brief, abruptly shortened, stay at the City Ground. "The great thing about Sean O’Driscoll only being Nottingham Forest manager for 5 brief...

That may seem a strange title for an article that will go on to evaluate the sacking of a manager of a club bottom of their league and booted out of both cups at the first hurdle this season, but let me explain. I was midway through writing an article entitled ‘Back, Sack or Crack?’ this evening when my phone started buzzing.   It appears the Board, and one suspects owner Steve Lansdown in particular, have managed two of the three tonight. After a strikingly up-and-down 15 months, Derek McInnes reached the end of his personal road following yet another desperate display and meek surrender of three points at Ashton Gate.   And this is at the crux of the timing question – the Board cracked under pressure of another defeat.   But let’s be clear, this wasn’t just another defeat. Will Jones, in his excellent blog ‘To the left of Ross’ http://totheleftofross.blogspot.co.uk/ spoke last week of his mild surprise of the sudden increase in calls for McInnes head after the ...