The Exiled Robin

The Exiled Robin recently cheekily asked incoming Bristol City Chief Executive Guy Price for an interview…..and he agreed! Guy talks openly and frankly about the financial situation at the club, the possibility of having Nicky Maynard and Stephen Caulker in the same line-up again next season, the Academy and the importance of the new stadium for the local community. Before we start I’d like to place on record my sincere thanks to Guy for his time in answering these questions – it must have been an incredibly busy couple of months for him yet he’s taken time out to answer these questions for you, the fans, to read. What was your first involvement with City, as a fan or as an employer? When was your first match? I'm from the West Country, so I've always kept an eye on City. I completed Panini's Football '79 sticker album, and although I was very excited about Liverpool's success in Europe at the time, I couldn't help but notice that Bristol City were in t...

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...

When Stephen Caulker arrived on loan at City during the early autumn we were bottom of the league and it almost went un-noticed with the fans still talking about signing Danny Rose - he who scored THAT goal for Spurs against Arsenal last season. A few months on, with eight clean sheets in the last 19 games, and it is Caulker who looks a sure bet for a clean sweep for the player of the season awards. Not since Andy (as he was known then) Cole graced the Ashton Gate turf in the 1992-93 season have so many talked about a "future England international". Whether Caulker ever gets that far is still to be proven, but his maturity and assuredness, allied to his pace, reading of the game and the knack of coming up with the odd goal certainly gives him every chance. However, Caulker's performances have got this blogger thinking...when have I seen a player of such ability that I got that hunch that he would go on to much greater things. This is not a "look-how-clever-I-...

When Bristol City were beaten 6-0 at home by Cardiff in January 2010, it was only a matter of time until Gary Johnson’s highly successful reign came to an end.   That result was followed by a number of lacklustre, defensive performances which culminated in an alleged dressing-room bust-up between Johnson and hot-headed winger Ivan Sproule after a defeat at relegation-doomed Plymouth.   A minority of fans had been questioning Johnson’s tactics, signings and ability to get performances back on an upward curve for some months.   By the time Chairman Steve Lansdown reluctantly decided to pick up the phone and invite his friend to what proved their last meeting, the majority of the supporter base probably felt it was about the right time.   Four-and-a-half years of bouncing around the ground (because Johnson told us to), promotion, play-offs and a sniff of the riches of the Premier League had given way to dire home performances, a succession of loanee strikers who co...