Carl Robinson's Official Blog

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!