The Exiled Robin

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. ...

Just when City’s attempted activities in this transfer window appeared to be heading towards a similarly disastrous outcome as the summer’s opportunity, then the signing on loan of ex-Peterborough forward Lee Tomlin from Bournemouth certainly ignited some excitement into proceedings. Warmly welcomed almost universally, the temperamental character who tends to play just off a main striker, joins with a point to prove having been given little chance on the South Coast during the Cherries’ hugely impressive start to life in the big time. He is somewhat notorious to the Ashton Gate faithful already, of course, having been sent off in the opening quarter of an hour in a game against ‘ The Posh’ during Derek McInnes’ time in charge, for an elbow on Greg Cunningham. We went on to win 4-2 against a tiring ten-man side, and it’s not the first, and probably won’t be the last time that Tomlin’s fiery nature causes him problems on the pitch.  However, despite a far from spotless ...

The prospect of raiding the under 14’s for squad members seemed  to finally jolt City into transfer action this week, as they swooped for the double loan signing of Derby County centre-half, Alex Pearce, and QPR’s ex-Swindon attacking midfielder, Ben Gladwin. To say caretaker boss John Pemberton moved quickly is perhaps masking the truth somewhat as I have it on very good authority that the Pearce signing in particular was lined up by Cotterill for last Friday morning, only to be delayed following his dismissal the evening before. We all saw what Gladwin could do last season, in the games against us in particular, but also in Swindon’s other televised games during the run-in. His challenge is two-fold; to prove that the great run of form at the end of the season wasn’t a flash in the pan, and, if it wasn’t, to prove he’s got the intelligence, pace and ability to show it at Championship level. With Alex Pearce, however, our experience is probably more limited, aside from reme...

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 ...