The Exiled Robin

The second instalment in the series re-examining the progress made by the Top 25 players in the Championship, named a year ago . Joe Harrison  and  John Verrall  have once again joined forces with me to review three-quarters of the top 25, with a selection of excellent club writers filling in for the remaining seven on the list.  Throughout this week I’ll publish updates on each player, giving an insight into the progress made in the intervening 14 months. Today's instalment kicks off with another player from our list who would be ineligible from a vote this year, as he is plying his trade in the Premier League.  Rob Langham , lifelong Reading fan and proprietor of the host of the Top 25 archive at  The Two Unfortunates , takes a look at how Jimmy Kebe's career has evolved since his match-winning performances helped the Royals to a late and somewhat surprising surge to promotion. Jimmy Kebe:   Top 25 review from 2011 Club in Dec 2011: ...

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...

Twitter-style summary (max.140 chars): Dreadful start,Coppell quit,bottom in Oct. Millen&signings,esp. Caulker,Stead&Pitman got us to boring mid-table respectability, thank God! Player of the Season: I’m just giving this to Albert Adomah over the Young Player. Albert is the one good thing to come out of Coppell’s short, disastrous reign. Signed from Barnet for a small fee, he has terrorised Championship left-backs all season with his speed of feet, great dribbling skills and an ability to get the ball in the right areas. If he scored more goals then the Premier League would already be beckoning – as it is we might get to keep him for another year and hope he & Maynard can take us into the promised land. Young Player of the Season: Stephen Caulker joined in the dark early days but quickly improved the entire back four with his assured displays, confidence and unbelievably mature positional sense. The teenager has played a massive part in saving the club from releg...