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

Ten days is a long time in football...the new era is dawning

The last couple of weeks has been quite a period in Bristol City’s long history. It’s been chaotic, troublesome and concerning. There’s been anger and abuse (more on that later), antipathy and arguments. And, as is the way with football, things tend to move very quickly. There is now more than a murmur of excitement (not quite full-blown, mind) and significant nodding of approval at the choice made by the club this week. In between all of this City won a game of football, albeit against a team bottom of the league playing with ten men for most of the match. But they won, and got three points and moved back into the top half of the table. Underperforming and not where the club wants to be…? Margins are fine, that’s for certain. So, what has been learned, with the announcement of Liam Manning as Head Coach on Tuesday and what myths do need to be busted? Firstly, the club communications are like Jekyll & Hyde. The engagement pieces, insight videos and some of the fun nonsense

Bright Knight of the City

The lesser-spotted blog post... The string of summer signings has inspired the first post in a year, with a focus on new £2m(ish) signing, Jason Knight. He has been likened by some to Korey Smith, his former team-mate at Pride Park, whilst his high-energy approach has been praised widely. To get the real lowdown I spoke to avid Rams fan, Cory Hancock , of top Derby pod Ram's Review . Picture from Bristol City www.bcfc.co.uk Tell us about Jason Knight. What type of player are we getting? An energy player who will run all game long. Knight’s engine is second-to-none. He will run hard for the team and do the work of two players. That’s not to say he runs around like a headless chicken, but he will go box-to-box for 90 minutes. He’s also a solid and consistent performer who rarely lets the side down. He’s played a few different positions, I think most expect him to be straying centrally for us as one of two holding midfielders. Woul

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 dyna

The Exiled Robin

Search This Blog