Has anyone watched this movie? If not I recommend you do...As for those who watched the movie, did anyone notice the similarity between the philosophy of Beane and the Oklahoma Athletics with that of AFC? I felt like I was watching a movie about Arsenal, only that it was a baseball team! The whole philosophy of Beane was to change the game, to prove you could win and get success without spending excess cash, and competing on a limited wage. Go watch it if you haven't.
Yes, I have watched it, but in moneyball they pick players who are meant to be 'under valued' by everyone else and they get the best out of them. Our approach was/is to get young players and build the team that way. Not sure we went and got a player who was meant to be 'under valued'.
Off course it's not all identical, but the philosophy of both managers is spot on, they are trying to change the game, to prove a point, against all those big money spending teams who just spend huge amounts of money.
I've watched a game in Washington DC - its not really any better than rounders. The crowd spent more time going out buying food and drinks, and passing stuff along the rows from food sales staff - than watching the bloody match.
After watching Moneyball I did immediately think of AW. The biggest, most depressing similarity though, is that Billy Beane hasn't actually won a major trophy with this philosophy, other larger teams have copied him and they're back to square one. Reminds me of our situation. When AW first got here, he changed the way players ate, the way they trained etc and we had an advantage fitness wise. Now, all of the teams have adapted this way, manager like Big Sam even took it further by making everything technological at Bolton. We're no longer ahead of the curve.
and was it really worth it? Plus the insincere fist to their heart each time the National Anthem was played was sick making. A commercial success no doubt.
I saw an American Football match in 3-COM Park - San Francisco over a decade ago. Became Candlestick Park again later on.
I think that is true, but I think you are about to see another coup by Wenger with the youth program. He is almost a victim of success at the moment. We have so many young players coming through. He does need to clear out a number, but we have a lot of potential stars ready to come through in the next year or two. Put that against Man Utd who are having to bring Scholes out of retirement to play. I think that there are similarities, and that is why we get so many angry people trying to get Wenger to buy big. But we really have just seen from Manchester City that the "Obvious" solution of spending large amounts of money to buy a trophy does not always work.
Which youth players are about to turn us into the next Man Utd? AND MORE IMPORTANTLY- HOW LONG WILL WE HAVE TO WAIT?
