Off Topic Bill Nicholson Arms

The thing with moneyball is that it can't differentiate between players who would be great in a fantasy football team and one who would be great in a real-life football team. Notable examples of this for Spurs include Clint Dempsey and Barren Dent.

 

Dempsey was a good, cheap signing for us, in my opinion.
Worked hard, scored goals and didn't go mental when he wasn't starting every game.

Bent, on the other hand, was extremely lazy and it was often like playing with 10 men when he was in the side.
Add to that the fact that we already had a very strong group of strikers and were desperately in need of players in other positions.
No idea how we made our money back on him, to be honest, but I'm glad that we did.

 

The main thing I remember about Dempsey's time at the club was having to check whether or not he'd been subbed, as he regularly vanished from games for long stretches (and he was far less useful for fantasy football teams as he went from a £5m player at Fulham to an £8m player at Spurs, so he stopped being a cheap but useful source of points)

 

Baseball, like cricket, is to a large degree about individual performance. Whilst it is a team sport, you go out to bat alone, the same with pitching or bowling. Those skills are absolutely central to the game whereas real team play is involved in some fielding plays. Similar situations in football would be free kicks aimed at goal and penalties.

Football is mostly about inter-play between a team and collective tactical implementation. There's far less of that in baseball, so assessment of individual talent and worth is more relevant.

 

I thought baseball was all about the interplay between my head and the nearest pillow...

 

That's Formula 1, golf, anything with a horse, cycling, anything with 2 horses, hockey, anything with more than 2 horses............

 

Also anything where somebody stands in one place where someone throws a ball at them for hours on end, yet you rarely (if ever) see anyone actually hit the damn thing.

 

My memory of Dempsey at Spurs will be the winner at United and his equalizer against the same team at home......meanwhile he is still knocking them in for the USA and the Seattle Sounders.

 

Stats are much better indicators of value in 1 v. 1 sports.

 

Some good news

 

Watching Bournemouth and Brighton.Blimey.Wake me up someone...it's 'orrible!!!!

 

Clarke Carlisle has been found safe in Liverpool.
**** me, he must be depressed!!

 

Safe in Liverpool?
That's an oxymoron.
Anyway, glad he's turned up somewhere.

 

Nice well worked goal from Bournemouth.

 

Defoe ! 2-1 Bournemouth lead.

 

Well,that was a story of two halves. Was Defoe injured?

 

RIP to one of the finest character actors
https://www.theguardian.com/film/gallery/2017/sep/15/a-life-in-pictures-harry-dean-stanton

 

He had the right face for the mob

 

'Arry's spent plenty and brought in loads of players, but has 4 points from 8 games.

 

Juande Ramos is looking for a job...