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Here's a collection of the notes I make every other week in Exeter City's matchday programme. I combine my experiences as a City fan with what is going on in the game over here. The Grecian was recently voted the best publication in Coca Cola League Two by Programme Monthly magazine, roll on the new season for the League One award...

Fred Binney and Susanna Dress The Nation

December 19th 2009 21:07
When Pep Guardiola took over at Barcelona he inherited a team undoubtedly already on the up. However he recognised changes could still be made to make the Catalonian outfit an even slicker unit than it already was.

Already a firm fans favourite down at Camp Nou for his playing days as an intelligent midfielder he implemented his new strategy for the club which could yield the club’s sixth trophy in a year in Abu Dhabi today.

But what was Pep’s inspiration for his management style? Well anyone who has seen the Barca boss strutting about his technical area n Europe’s top grounds cannot but fail to see to striking similarities to another dapper chap who has worked wonders at his own Trust run outfit.


The man who clocked over 250 appearances for the team dubbed Més que un club must have seen how donning a three piece could bring the best out of the likes of Logan and co and thought how high style could reap the benefits for him as well.

To win the Club World Cup in the Middle East however Guardiola must beat Estudiantes de La Plata and their manager Alejando Sabella. The Argentine coach took his outfit from a different peg to Guardiola as he wore his lucky brown donkey jacket through Estudiantes’ successful Copa Libertadores campaign earlier this year.

Now I’m no Gok Wan but what Tisdale’s style said to me when he first rolled into the Park is while we may all be in non-league some of us at looking at the third tier of English football.

We held on to his cravat tails as he dragged us towards Wembley a couple of times and his recent leather cap effort is a far cry from Flacky’s hat in hand gestures of yesteryear.

For all the Tisdale’s style however on the issue of headwear you would do well to budge Alan Ball as the most stylish purveyor of barnet covers to grace the dugouts at the Park.


Back over in this neck of the woods another who made his name at the Park has been subject to a few scoffs for his choice of clobber.

Last year during Brazil’s defeat in a friendly to Portugal Dunga came in for a bucketload of abuse for his choice of shirt during the game. The unorthodox touchline attire may have been more at home in an amateur dramatic performance of Saturday Night Fever but it turned out to be simple act of a father trying to lend a helping hand to one of his kids.

Dunga’s daughter is an aspiring fashion designer and made the black and white leopard skin print especially for her old man to wear during the game.

“If parents don't help their children or give them incentives in their work, then it's more likely that they will get involved in drugs and that sort of thing," Was the no-nonsense midfielder’s no-nonsense response. “First of all, it was a white shirt with black flowers on it and I don't think black and white is that colourful.”

Dunga even tried to turn Discogate into an issue of football being to stuck in it’s ways and unable to except change.

“It just shows how difficult it is to change things in football. They expect you either to wear the team tracksuit or a traditional jacket and tie and that's it.”

Well Dunga, when you play us again you’ll find the competition stretches from the pitch to the wardrobe.

Up the City!
Tim
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Here’s a hypothetical quandary for you all which could well happen in the not so distance future. It’s the last game of the 2010/11 League One season and City host Southend United at The Park. A win will see us miss out on the play-offs but could still give us our highest ever finish since 1980.

The thing is Southend sit one place above the drop zone and a win for The Shrimpers will guarantee their place in the league next season. The club a point behind Southend and occupying 21st place in League One is none other than our old friends Plymouth Argyle. The City tutored talents of Mackie and Sawyer are long gone and if Southend beat us on the last day those plucky Pilgrims head back to the basement division.

So as a City fan what do you want to happen? See our boys finish the season in a blaze of glory and etch their names in the history books? Or, field the youth team with the express intention of taking easy on our guests from Essex?

Well tomorrow sees the conclusion of the Brazilian top flight and a similar storyline is dominating the headlines in the run-up to the final round of matches.

Four teams can still win the Brasileirao going into the last Sunday of the season. Flamengo currently sit top the league with 64 points but can still be caught be Internacional, Palmeiras and Sao Paulo who are crammed together two points adrift of the Rio team.

Internacional are best placed to take advantage of any slip from Flamengo in their last game against Gremio in the Maracana. If Flamengo fail to beat Gremio and Internacional win their home match against Santo Andre then it will be they who claim the title.

The trouble for Internacional ahead of the final Sunday of the season is that to win the league they are relying on a favour from their arch rivals Gremio.

“Internacional and Gremio have one of the more bitter rivalries in Brazil.” André Baibich of Goal.com Brazil explains. “In fact, a special report made by Brazilian magazine Trivela elected the Gre-Nal (GREmio and InternacioNAL) as the biggest rivalry in the country. Now, Internacional fans will have to trust Gremio if they want to win the national title.”

The rivalry which divides the city of Porto Alegre near the southern tip of Brazil often manifests itself in violence when the two teams meet and there is little love lost between the sets of fans.

Gremio president Duda Kroeff has assured the press that his team play every game to win but his views are at odds with the majority of his club’s fans. The Internet forums frequented by the Gremio faithful are chock-a-block with calls for their team to throw the game and hand the title to Flamengo.

“If the Flamengo team gets nervous and can not find the target in the game then our players must start fouling them in the box to give them all the penalty kicks they need to win. If that does not work then it will be time for own goals.” A fan of the Tricolor said.

“If Gremio do not gift wrap the title for Flamengo on Sunday I will not be happy. It is out of the question that we should do our enemy a favour which could make them champions.” Is the view of another Gremio fan.

Up The City!
Tim
http://timsturtridge.com/
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Ships that pass in the night

November 27th 2009 19:00
At the grubby end of the A38 a lot is made about some boat that set sail from the docks down there and ended up in a place called America. The football club of that city delight in taking their nickname from that voyage, designing their moustachioed mascot around the trip and even have a stand bearing the name of the boat I believe.

Well bully for them but back in the brighter lights of Devon we have a journey in our annuls which simply blows their tale out of the water.

We not only played Brazil on their patch but took the five time World Cup winners on in their first game and got the ball rolling for the rest of the planet to enjoy Joga Bonito.

I recently had the pleasure of talking to the BBC’s Tim Vickery, a font of knowledge for all football related matters in South America. I posed him the question of how much the name of Exeter City Football Club is bandied about in Brazil and was pleasantly surprised to find out that our place in their history is very much honoured.

The game in 2004 was testament to the warm feeling the Brazilian FA have towards our club and it was very good of them to give us all that barmy summer’s afternoon at The Park. In particular I remember Careca’s movement off the ball just being too much for my brother who had recently spent three hours in a toilet cubicle on the 09:00 from Paddington.

The trouble is with being a football fan a taste of something good just leaves you wanting more.

What with the final places having just been decided for South Africa 2010 (Well done Uruguay!) it is maybe a bit early to be looking forward to Brazil in 2014. However I would just like to share with you that central to Brazil’s winning bid, aside from having no opposition, was the fact that 2014 is their centenary year. 100 years since the first incarnation of a Brazilian national team took the field.

So we not only gave Brazil the platform to become the most successful footballing nation on the planet but also made them a shoe in to host the World Cup.

Now as fans we have to decide what is fair to ask from Brazil in return for all we have given them. Personally the idea of an 18 month loan of Kaka would do nicely but I don’t think that the Brazilian FA have the only say in the midfielder's movements so what else?

What Tim Vickery said he would like to see happen was a match between Brazil and Exeter over in this neck of the woods as a World Cup curtain raiser. I think I would settle for that and will be petitioning the Brazilian FA to try and make sure it happens.

Back in 1914 City played Argentine North, Argentine South, Racing Club of Buenos Aires, Rosarian League XI, Combinadoes, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. Aside from Brazil the team that stands out for me from that list is Racing Club. The Buenos Aires team are one of Argentina’s ‘big five’ and might make a nice little warm-up before the Brazil game in 2014. Plenty of space on my living room floor just bring your own sleeping bags.

Up the City!
Tim
http://timsturtridge.com/
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Another crunch game at The Park today and another chance to get the behind the lads.

I am constricted to listening in on the radio this season but it seems to me that the atmosphere in the ground has been a little subdued of late


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Next Friday sees The Three Amigos roll into The Park for an evening of fun and games with a side order of Argentine chilli.

I thought I´d use my space in The Grecian this week to fill you in on how Pitón and Dios came to the fore in their homeland and the general perception of the duo round these parts


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When two tribes go to war

October 8th 2009 20:51
A week ago I wrote how Paul Tisdale and his management team have far greater expectations of what City can achieve in the near future than I do.

So what am I after this season? An overdue run in the Cup? No. A sniff around the playoffs come the end of the season? Not even


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Coming face to face with a City player is always going to be a buzz whatever the weather.

I remember Dad gushing over a close encounter with Santos Gaia near the lifts in the Centre Spot a few years back. The Brazilian was cornered and asked to keep up his prolific form in front of goal ahead of the trip to Charlton in the FA Cup


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Pack your bags and pack my peace of mind

September 18th 2009 09:28
One of the most difficult things for a successful football manager is dealing with the subsequent expectation their great deeds create.

Up in the echelons of the Premier League David Moyes and his squad are coming under fire from some fans who have grown accustomed to challenging the Big Four


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I was a little young to attend City’s late night cup ties of the 1990 promotion season but I got a taste of knockout football at The Park a few years later with the visit of Aston Villa.

Big Ron fielded the strongest side available to him. Andy Townsend, Steve Staunton and the same Ray Houghton who would shock the Italians at that year’s World Cup were all under the cosh for most of the game


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It’s all gone quiet over here

August 19th 2009 22:40
After chomping at the bit for the League One season to kickoff I wonder if anybody out there is wondering if we would enjoyed an extra week of peace and quiet.

Of course not. Despite a couple of defeats at the start of season Tis and the lads have continued to win admirers up and down the country


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