The Exiled Robin

My latest article from Bristol City's matchday programme, Red Alert : Southampton, Nov 26th The last ‘On the Social’ focused on unknown individuals hiding behind a Twitter shield to racially abuse players (this is a trend that unfortunately shows few signs of abating with James Vaughan and Fraizer Campbell the latest ‘victims’ reporting abuse to the police).   This article will remain focused on the main topic but will feature two far more recognisable names and their use of Twitter. With Anton Ferdinand being one of the key figures at the centre of the row, it should come as no surprise that brother – and serial tweeter – Rio (@rioferdy5 ) should wade in to the discussion.   Although Rio was very careful not to talk specifics – he is one of the more professional Twitter users and typically knows where the boundaries lie – he jumped in with two feet as soon as an interview with FIFA president Sepp Blatter was aired. Blatter’s widely publicised comments provoked ...

I was invited by top football website The Hard Tackle to write a post on the start made at Bristol City by Derek McInnes, and this is the result: Sacking a manager in early October, as Bristol City did recently, often seems like a knee-jerk reaction made with far too much haste. After all, what can you possibly infer about the season ahead after just ten matches? There are plenty of games left, new ideas and tactics are still being established and anyway, what could a new manager do with the much-hyped transfer window not opening until January? At times, however, it just feels like the right thing to do. This was certainly the case at Ashton Gate following the 5-0 humiliation at Blackpool on October’s opening day. It wasn’t the score-line so much as the manner of defeat. With three goals coming in the last few minutes of the game, it was clear the players’ heads had again dropped and confidence was rock-bottom. This followed a catastrophic finish in the previous home game aga...

My latest article from Bristol City's matchday programme, Red Alert : Burnley, Nov 5th The days when John Barnes, John Fashanu et al regularly had banana skins thrown at them and monkey noises were common-place seem many moons ago.   Those that run the game today are often keen to point out that racism in the game has been virtually eliminated and occurred before the formation of the Premier League and the Champions League.   Prior to multi-millionaire owners, before the fences came down and we had new all-seater, family-friendly stadia. There have been persistent flashes abroad, with Southern and Eastern European team’s fans in particular causing disgruntlement amongst those within the English game.   The fact that UEFA seem unwilling to deal with these issues with any more than a financial slap on the wrists is another story for another day. However, the topic has returned with a vengeance to dominate English football headlines in the past couple of weeks. ...

The signing of Stephen Pearson seems like a marker for new manager Derek McInnes.  An experienced campaigner of the type he has already identified we need to get out of the relegation scrap.  A Scottish international with 10 caps and more than 250 games under his belt he is relatively well-known, but I asked Ollie (follow him on Twitter here ), from the excellent " The Derby County Blog " to give his views on our newest loan signing - and it sounds largely encouraging. And with a goal, an assist and a Man of the Match on his debut in our 3-1 home win against Burnley things have certainly started brightly! "Stephen Pearson was brought to Derby from Celtic in January 2007, as the club surged towards promotion under Billy Davies. Pearson commanded relatively big wages and Davies claimed that his energy in midfield would make him a huge asset.  And of course, he scored the goal that got us promoted.  In the play-off final against West Brom, he converted a Gil...

My latest article from Bristol City's matchday programme, Red Alert : Birmingham, Oct 23rd With more and more people using Twitter, reading blogs and viewing a tranche of news websites, finding what you want to online can be an arduous, confusing and time-consuming process.   To help you out if you’re just stepping into this labyrinth, or just want to explore further afield, I have identified some of my favourite destinations and will run through these today, and in some future editions.   BLOGS Part 1: As you can imagine there are a copious number of blogs and no-one could read them all.   I’ve excluded any Premier League specific blogs for the simple reason I don’t really read them.   There’s more than enough space dedicated to the behemoth of English football as it is, so instead I’ll focus on four of the most interesting, varied and well written sites that concentrate on the Football League and its members: The Two Unfortunates ( thetwounfortuna...

"This time next year...." Never mind Del-boy's famous quote from Only Fools & Horses, a week is a long time in football.   Seven days ago there was still an expectancy of Dave Jones, Billy Davies or even Gianfranco Zola being appointed as the next manager of Bristol City and few were talking seriously about Derek 'Del' McInnes.   Those that had him on their radar were mainly saying “Derek Who?” and accusing the board of taking the cheap option by looking at him.   They wanted a big name, and they wanted them quick.   Check out my views on those excessive demands here: http://exiledrobin.blogspot.com/2011/10/how-long-does-it-take-to-get-new.html Since it became evident that McInnes and former City player Mark Robins were the shortlisted two it appears Wikipedia has taken a battering from eager City fans desperate for information on the man soon to be installed as Keith Millen’s successor. The reaction since 5pm tonight has been remarkable.   Widespread ...

The latest publication of my 'On the Social' column from the Bristol City matchday programme, Red Alert : Peterborough, October 15 th 2011 This week I’m privileged to welcome Peterborough Chairman and regular Tweeter Darragh MacAnthony (@DMAC102 ) to ‘On the Social’ as he gives his views on tweeting, rows with fans, blackmail, lawsuits and getting the truth out into the public domain. You are one of only a handful of football club Chairman to use Twitter. Did you have any doubts as to whether it was a good idea? I have never been a big fan of social media sites such as Facebook, Myspace or even Twitter. My wife loves that stuff as do many millions of people. It was actually an employee who is trying to help rebuild my online reputation who insisted I give it a go. She thought that my honest and direct views would give people an idea who I was and that the nonsense written about me online wouldn’t be so easy to believe. I started using Twitter whilst away for 20 day...