General Football Thread

Webber's podcast interview summarised via Mick Dennis
https://norwichcity.myfootballwrite...e-is-a-prolonged-spell-in-the-premier-league/

My takeaway from this is his views on what he believes we'll be looking for in terms of player traits in the coming years. Speed basically - physical and speed of decision-making. Must be what that Soccerbot is all about.

 

Webber puts it like this:

"The game is going to get quicker. The evidence says it is going to be the players who can make a quicker decision and who can see things quicker (who will prosper)."

But then he goes on to say that you have to begin early, with 13 year olds, instilling mental quickness to go with the physical quickness. Placheta is an example of having one, but not the other. Pukki and Sinani are the opposite as they're not that physically quick but their mental quickness produces goals and assists.

I wonder how much of Sargent's transformation is down to working on this over the summer. He started on the Soccerbot back in Germany and has been able to continue here. This season he reacts more quickly and makes better decisions and suddenly the goals and assists are flowing. We are constantly surprised by young players like Rowe, Springett, Tomkinson and Omobamidele suddenly emerging in the first team looking mature and confident. They don't dither - they make good decisions and act on them. That is where our future lies.

 

Stiepermann was another prime example -- often described as "lumbering", but he had instant appreciation of where the gap was and first time execution of the pass.
Re. your speculation about Soccerbot's role in Sargent's summer transformation, he was apparently a Soccerbot whizz even in his Academy days at Werder Bremen cf. this post of last October:
"Michael Bailey has a more comprehensive article in today's edition of The Athletic. Apparently, when Werder Bremen tried out RB Leipzig's Soccer Bot, using their academy players, "one “blew away” the watching staff with his “effortless” ability to complete the challenges." That was Josh Sargent."

This from the Pink Un at the time of the Soccerbot's unveiling:
https://www.pinkun.com/sport/norwic...cerbot-unveil-josh-sargent-early-test-8395640

 

Players are certainly fitter and quicker today, but the skill level is nowhere as good as it was 20 - 30 yrs ago.

 

Thanks Rob. I think he was on an original 5-year contract with Leicester, so January would be the last chance for us to get something if they sell him.

 

Not sure I totally agree with you there Bure. Overall, in the top European leagues, the ability to progress team wise. the ball is possibly better than 50 years ago is, but the basic individual ball control, and use, is to my mind, at least no better. The speed of p!ay today makes modern players seem better than their predecessors. Pele, Puscas, Di Stefano, Best. How would these players, and many more, have fared in the modern game with modern tactics, training, nutrition etc. Stan Bowles had a couple of pints and a fag at half time.

 

That was what I was thinking of Robbie. Now the trick is to progress it to the PL level.

 

That’s my best guess and I think the basis upon how we work. It is reasonably possible we get the full five years, so this coming Summer too. What I don’t know is how they calculate it, given his value will partly be a function of the new contract he got, so we may only get a premium on the value as if he were still under the old contract.

It’s equally totally possible we kept it simply and managed to negotiate a longer period if they extended his contract and it’s just based on the sale price - but I feel that’s on balance a bit more unlikely given how sophisticated these transfer terms are versus even just a decade ago. And I cannot believe it is ever-green, so seems increasingly unlikely that we have that profit share if the sale is longer than say six or seven years or more after we sold him.

 

I think the very highest skill is not better than today (the likes of Messi and Ronaldo lasting so long shows that they were standout and the tier immediately below them has changed as players rise and fall).

I do think the levels of training and tech means there are more players of higher technical ability, meaning the overall average is higher.

 

I don’t like this at all, personally.

Hammer Russia with sanctions and its oiligarchs, but leave individuals from other countries out of it.

 

This isn't a new decision as the sanction was already in place. I agree with it. How would we feel about an English player playing in Russia during the invasion? For me it sums up Normann as a person and a player.

 

Personally, I would be fine with an English player playing in Russia. I would expect them to withdraw from Russia out of a moral stance against the country’s behaviour, but I would not demand it or sanction them for failing to do so. That would be punishing an innocent victim. They have a livelihood to protect and they may be under contract, it would be damaging to their career - on their conscience be it. We should be sanctioning the offenders, and limiting collateral as much as we reasonable can IMHO (ie, I accept some innocent Russians will be hurt by sanctions, but there is no way of sanctioning the regime without that).

 

Thanks for your responses, Rob. Newcastle was interested in JM in the summer. The Foxes need help in defence and the Mags need help scoring, so I thought something might happen in January. Just a thought.

 

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/62933779

Bournemouth might be getting a takeover too.

This could be a really interesting one to watch, given their owner is also owner of the Vegas Golden Knights NHL team. The Golden Knights have a real reputation problem in the NHL right now for treating their players as tradeable commodities and nothing more, and for bad management of their assets. If this goes through, then there's a reasonable chance that some unhappy Bournemouth players end up moving for cheap next summer.

 

Do you think there is more investment from the yanks recently because the pound is low against the dollar? Probably looks quite inviting especially if they think the pound will rise again once winter is out of the way and if the Ukraine war has quietened to allow lower energy prices

 

I think Attanasio was already committed before that, but it helps to solidify that commitment going forward.

 

Not really; that's too short term a factor to be a major consideration. There's been a steady increase in US investment (and not just in the EPL*) for quite a period now.
*Barnsley, Portsmouth, Ipswich, Wrexham, Burnley, Coventry, Millwall, Swansea, Plymouth, Wycombe, etc., etc., the list of EFL clubs is growing.

 

The exchange rate will definitely have an impact on the initial investment decision. That’s why we have seen much more US investment since the Brexit vote, when the pound started falling.

However, it’s not the whole story - because any further investments later could then be more expensive, so if they have an investment programme they have to take account of future forex.

There will also be other factors (tax…)

 

There's plenty of published stuff on US involvement in English football (at all levels). Just two instances, the second from more than 6 years ago:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/56674024

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...emier-league-clubs-crystal-palace-bournemouth