The Exiled Robin

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 ...

Take yourself back six years.   For six years ago next weekend, Ashton Gate was packed to the rafters on a sunny day with gloriously happy Bristol City fans, with red shirts aplenty on display in the May sunshine.   Rotherham had turned up for an end-of-season game with fewer than 100 fans so almost every inch of the ground was full of noisy, happy City fans.   Gary Johnson had finally got us promoted and had done so in style.   BS3 was a very happy place to be. Now ask yourselves a question, but before you do just remember the calamity that followed our previous promotion; John Ward’s sacking, Benny Lennartsson’s singularly disastrous reign, expensive signings no-one had ever heard of, Chairman Scott Davidson posting his team selections under the dressing room doors.…. If someone, right at that moment just over half a decade ago, had offered you six unbroken seasons in the Championship, one year escaping relegation, one solid fifteenth place, two tenth-pla...

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'...

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 ...

Last week perhaps signalled the start of a bright new dawn at Ashton Gate, and I’m not talking about the remarkable and dramatic victory at Hillsborough.   When Joe Morrell committed his most formative of years to the club – spurning interest from five-time European Champions Liverpool in doing so – the moment gave the club their launch pad to go on the offensive about the investment in the new Academy. For too many years, millions of pounds have been sunk into an under-performing, unproductive system doing nothing to justify its worth.   Since the class of late-90’s produced the likes of Tommy Doherty, Aaron Brown and Matt Hill, only Cole Skuse has come through and established himself in the first team.   Dave Cotterill & Leroy Lita spent a little time with the Robins before moving on and earning the academy some much needed ‘profit’, whilst recently the likes of Christian Ribiero, Joe Edwards and James Wilson have all threatened the senior squad without ever ...

Stu Radnedge returns to the blog with a view - admittedly prior to the Blackpool match (it's been a busy week!)  - on City's disastrous late-Autumn: It’s all just a little bit of history repeating…? Those are, what I consider to be, words from one of the greatest Shirley Bassey songs ever (the Propellerheads are credited for the track but her vocals are what makes the song, in my opinion). And it’s rather a fitting description for what us City fans are hopefully enduring currently. I say hopefully, as the season after this we should be getting promoted… and not from League One. As pointed out by the board last Monday, we’ve been here before. A string of games this long without a win was last experienced in the 2005/06 season which saw a City legend, Brian Tinnion, be man enough to step down after we were annihilated 7-1 by one of the Welsh teams (I can’t mention the name – it still hurts). Step up Gary Johnson, but the resurgence was not instant. City were 23 rd , wit...