Carl Robinson's Official Blog

Well i would like to wish everyone a happy christmas and hope that santa bought all the gifts that were wanted. I have had an excellent christmas spending time with the family and playing with the kids although christmas day seemed the longest day known. Christmas is about putting smiles on people s faces and thats what i tried to do.

It still seems strange that over christmas i dont play matches as the league has shut down. I have been visiting friends and old team mates as well as getting to as many games as i can. I must say im happy that my old manager JC has got back into football so quickly at plymouth and has got 2 wins already. My good pal Carl Fletcher says that he has great professionalism, is a fantastic organizer and a top bloke too. ”Tell me something i didnt know’.

Regarding my own future i ve heard that there have been rumors about me being traded, but in football there is not a day goes by when you dont get rumors.

How close and exciting is the premiership this year……. I hope to see it go down to the wire and hopefully 3/4 teams closing in. Roberto mancini now at man city…… Have to say how cool is this guy? I think he will be a big hit at man city and take them into the top 4. Teams will be tested now with the african nations coming up, especially chelsea, but this season is going to be the most open ever.

Finally great to see my pal John hartson recovering after his illness, he really is a true fighter. He made me laugh on tv though when he said that regarding the QPR saga with player and manager, ” there is always one mole at each club no matter where you are” on how the incident came out…….. People might like him or not but what he does do is tell the truth and thats what i admire!!!!

The philedelphia union has formed and they have their first 10 players on the roster after selecting them earlier in the week. The manager peter nowack picked wisely and hardly spent any money out of his salary cap. There were eight of us that were made available during the selection but none of us were chosen on this day. The same day that the selections were made i managed to do a little business deal with parting with my flat that i owned in london after 5 years so it was a very good day.

This weekend has been excellent as i went to watch the wales v australia rugby match at a packed out millenium stadium where wales could of gone up to 3rd ranking in the world but failed badly as the aussies came out on top. Sunday was a cracking day for football as four big games all had away team winners as birmingham, liverpool, ipswich and chelsea gained the upper hand in each tie. Then to the el classico derby between barcelona and real madrid. A pur football match, with silky skills, sending offs, great moves and the one goal. Barca won by a goal from only the second swede to play in the derby match!!!

Back with toronto we have now started our out of season work as windy has sent our programme s through to us to start our build up to return in february. This work is crucial as when returning its not to get fit, its to be fit and ready to go. The work is a slow build up, but its tough, with the aerobic sessions then followed by the strength sessions. We all need to be raring to go as with the new manager in place everyone is starting with a clean slate and trying to earn their spot on the team. Like i have always said, ” Hard work is never easy”.

Only four weeks to christmas….. x

Well its that time of the year when a new franchise gets its identity. Philidelphia union are set to start their pick up of players tomorrow at 1pm. Coach peter nowak starts his team building and has to try and follow the success of Sigi schmid and seattle sounders. Well the questions he has to decide are how does he want to build his team? Where does he want to build his team from? What type of players does he want? Veterans or youth? These are just a few of the questions that will be answered tomorrow.

Toronto published their list of protected players and unprotected players and i was on the unprotected list alongside amado guevara, ali gerba, nicky garcia, pablo vitti, brian edwards, lesley fellinga and gabe gala.

Have to mention that i spoke to my good friend amado guevara earlier and he was getting the stitches out after his operation, which went well. We had a good laugh about a few things and give each other some abuse!!!

Getting right into the A license stuff too now as i ve got the “bug” at the moment.

More to follow…..

Well i have to say that the 90th minute awards dinner last night was fantastic and brilliantly run by breagha Carr Harris. Alot of hard work would of gone into the night and it was a super turn out from everyone giving us the opportunity too chat to the fans and answer some questions. Congratulations to dwayne, stefan and jimmy for the awards all well deserved. After flying in that morning from the uk and attending the awards i wanted to do something while over here so asked Breagha to arrange a hospital visit to Bloor view kids unit.

She managed to arrange and i am so glad that i went their with a couple of the guys. After writing my last blog after deep thought this was something that i was eager to do. The first group of children were absolutely fantastic there and i met a beautiful little girl there called Hope. Now Hope was unable to talk or move around but she could see me. She was 3 years old but had been in there since birth. After finding out from a worker there she told me that she very rarely got visitors and that the staff classed her as part of their family. Another little guy was Joey who i remember from last year and he was full of questions and just wanted to be smiling.

Wesley was so happy to see us all and when we walked in he said ” this is the best thing in my life that has ever happened to me” which made us quiet for a minute. When children say things like that you realize what you mean to them when going to see them.

Now when you talk about special little girls/boys now Hope was the example. She was special in her own way as was everyone there. It was a super day as i went on too see lots of children there and put lots of smiles on lots of little faces. A big thank you to the staff there that welcomed  us there and i will definately return next year if allowed too.

Need to rush now as have to catch a flight back to uk this evening as going to the Wales v Scotland match tomorrow. Its been a fantastic 24 hours and some memorable moments were had.

It had been a cracking weekend of football as chelsea and man united game was tense, tight and niggly, liverpool stuttered again at home to birmingham as arsenal continue to go under the radar while playing some excellent stuff. The biggest game though was swansea v cardiff and it turned into a fantastic game, a game of two styles with swansea eventually coming out winners in the end.

That week was the last club week with the attention now turning to world cup qualifiers and friendlies. Republic face a big test against France but hopefully Keaney and the boys will pull through. England play an attractive friendly against the samba boys and wales face a tough match against the scots! Last time we played them we came out 4-0 winners but i think it might be different this time.

On the mls front the two finals are set as Chicago play Real salt lake at home, while La galaxy play Housten dynamo. Tough games to call but i think it will be a Salt lake v Housten final.

Currently i am back in toronto for an awards dinner and i must say it feels great to be back.

While on the way back i just stared out the plane window for nearly 4 hours. I just gazed at a star as many thoughts went through my head. I  thought that i have got a fantastic life and a beautiful family that i love very much but i must never forget people that used to be part of my life.

My nan and grandad passed away nearly 14 years ago now and they were a big part in my growing up, and my cousin Francine passed away from leukemia which hit me very hard. Back then i wanted to hide my grief and was unable to attend the funeral but she is someone that i will never forget. Her mum and dad coped brilliantly and her sister Jo has been fantastic with the tragic loss. What i am saying is that we must never forget the wonderful memories that we have of our loved ones, and thats what bought the memories back to me as i gazed at that star with a tear in my eye. The song that bought all memories was Boston s “More than a feeling”. This may sound quite deep but after the armistice day and also the incident involving the german keeper robert Enke it puts things into context!

Well it was a disappointing end to the season for us after our defeat in new york and we all feel that we let ourselves and everyone else down. In the end though it was nt the defeat in new york that cost us, it was throughout the season when we threw away points when in good positions that eventually let us down in our quest for the play offs. We are all gutted with the outcome but we must come back stronger  and more determined next year and make sure that it does nt happen again as the feeling of missing out hurts like hell!!! (we should use this feeling to spur us on even more as we know how bad a feeling it is).We have some very talented players in the locker room and its important we all stick together. Football is about ups and downs but most of all opinions.

It has been a difficult few days after missing out on the play offs and then the manager parting ways. I know chris was liked and respected throughout the changing room and will be missed. I ve no doubt he will go on to get another job, probably with jc somewhere.

I have been enjoying spending time with my family back in the uk although getting up very early i have to say. I am about to start my uefa ‘A’ license now in wales with the help of a friend so will be traveling all over wales to get all the coaching hours that i require for this. It is a 2 year course so will take a while.Also i am going to watch games all over the country with my pal dave over next few weeks so will be catching up with alot of my old pals and managers.

Look forward to getting back to toronto, although not the cold weather i have to admit!!!!

Well i have to admit i ve had a terrible few days and just when you think things cant get any worse, they do. After recovering from my ankle injury and working my way back to fitness in readiness for our big home game against san jose earthquakes the unthinkable happened for me.

We had been working in training on tuesday on the shape on the team, and doing some possession phases when disaster struck. One of the trialists we had in ran straight into me with his head, BANG!, i knew something had happened. I continued to train with an ice pack in my hand but went straight to hospital to find out what was going on. After a scan and a second opinion it was obvious that my cheekbone had been fractured but more worrying for me was the dent on the side of my face. The surgeon said that unless i had surgery straight away to push out that dent then i would be stuck with that for the rest of my life. The cheekbone to heal will take between 8-10 weeks so my season is over. Now i know that this was an accident but it should never of happened. In the lead up to one of the most important games of the season,in the history of the club, this incident happened. I am seething with what has happened.

My surgery went well on thursday and i was there to cheer the boys on on saturday in our must win game. Now i know i am unable to help on the field but i still can help in the changing room and that is still part of my job.

Unfortunately the match ended in a 1-1 draw after we conceded in the last minute of injury time. This is not the first time it has happened and is very worrying but we are still in with a shout. We still believe as a group we can make the play offs and that is our aim. I agree with people that we are making it very hard for ourselves but we are not giving up, thats for sure!!!

After a draw against chicago away from home which could be seen as a good result for us but in truth was nt, we then faced a weekend off without a match. Now this has come at a great time for us as we are able to give the boys a few more days recovery, and other lads got some match practice in a private friendly. Some lads went away but i flew home to the uk so see my family. It was a great few days for me and put a massive smile on my face as i returned back to start training today.

We now face a massive three games, but we must take one match at a time. Results this weekend they tended to go for us again but as i have said before the play off spot we are aiming for is in our own hands. Our match at home to san jose this weekend is a must win game! San jose have now hit some form and have a super head coach in frank yallop so this is going to be a tough match. But when teams come to our BMO field it is never easy and our supporters are our 12th man and that will be massive for us in this push. We will be working hard all week to make sure we re ready, and that come saturday we ll come out of the blocks flying.

This weekend is also international week and unless some of the bigger countries pull their fingers out then they will be missing in south africa come the world cup. France and portugal just look out!!

After missing the last few games through an ankle injury its been frustrating watching the boys and not being able to help. Mind you, i think i shout more when not playing than i do when i am! It was a disappointing result for us in LA in a game where i thought it would be a good time to catch them after their 6-2 defeat the previous week. As the game panned out “becks” was fantastic and with a goal and assist was the major influence on the game. Although we had lots of possession we created very little up front and that was a little disappointing. Great to see julian de guzman make his debut, and he will be a great asset for the club for a number of years to come.

So where do we go from here? Well its simple, we need a minimum of 3 wins to have a chance of making the play offs, even then we might need more but that will put us right in the mix. We face a massive match against chicago at the weekend and this will go to have a big bearing on the outcome of our season. Now is the time for players to step up to the plate, and now there is pressure on each match as a any slip up will cost us big. These games are great to be involved in and have that little extra bit of spice. Its fair to say that we have 4 cup finals left!

As for my own recovery, its coming along nicely and today was my first training day. Strength wise its been fine, but the problem has been the ligaments. With them still being sore, twisting and turning is not a good idea as was shown when i broke down in the warm up at our last home match. I felt i was ok, the physio listened to me but it was clearly not right. Since then, carm (physio) has been great to me in my recovery.

Ill keep it short as there were not much to talk about.It was a big game for us as we went to colorado for a must win match. Unfortunately we started badly and did not get any better as we lost by a goal to nil thanks to conor caseys header after 54 minutes. What made it worse was that after playing so well against seattle the previous week we went and performed so badly in a big game. Sometimes there is  nothing that the manager can say or do as when players cross the line then it is down to them. Prior to the match i had picked up an injury and was unable to shake it off as there was still a problem with it, so was unable to get out there and help the boys in their defeat. We must now pick ourselves up and prepare for the next match at home to the rapids in a match that now becomes of even bigger importance.

There are press conferences scheduled for tomorrow and maybe thursday as things are happening. Rumors are coming out but i think that everyone will be happy with the outcome.