That is generally true but if our target is to be top four then it is a bit weird to say that we should learn from clubs who don't produce or hold on to their best players. Kante and Mahrez are good examples of Leicester having similar success though.
Another thought. What if it's our club ethos that is the problem? Perhaps the game has moved on and you simply can't be successful playing exciting attacking football?
Any clubs not using data-based recruitment will be left behind. All the top clubs use it, I assumed your club would have it in place, too.
I think you missed my point. The only thing that gives us an edge over multiple teams who until recently were firmly in our rear view mirror is the fact that we have Kane and Son. The chances of a club of our size producing one world class player from our academy and another by signing a promising young player from a foreign league are one in a million, if not less. Where we have faltered is we expect lightning to strike pretty much every time we want it to. Other clubs, such as those I have mentioned, understand that chancing upon world class talent or developing it from within is, as said, one in a million, and so they plan and recruit accordingly, aiming to build a team whose whole is far greater than the sum of its parts. Your mention of Mahrez reinforces this point. He truly shone at Leicester where the system and the whole suited his talents to a tee. At City, he simply hasn't kicked on despite being surrounded by supposedly better players and coaching staff, and has often found himself a bit-part player. So, with regards to the fact that lightning at our level rarely strikes once, let alone twice in one cycle, it does seem entirely appropriate to learn from teams who are themselves striving to circumvent that issue. We used to know how to. Under Poch we had a clear vision with a clear style of play and recruited accordingly. If anything, the whole we built was too good compared to the sum of its parts, which meant as soon as cracks began to appear in the unit, things unravelled spectacularly quickly. Fortunately for us, it was precisely at that time that Kane and Son took their games to another level and have pretty much carried us ever since. In other words, the sum of our parts has been greater than our whole for at least 2 years now.
Of course. That's why I don't think we can get an edge. The best possible outcome is that we have no disadvantage against those with more money and a bit of an advantage against those who can't afford the best data.
I think your odds are miles off. There are around 30 world class players around at any time and there are fewer than 30 clubs with academies like ours so I would expect our academy to have produced one and it is quite likely we should have signed another.
I believe it's too simplistic to imply that you couldn't use data to your advantage against the top clubs in England as they'd be working from the same reports. I'm no expert but surely the sheer amount of data could be viewed and worked in many different ways. It's fair to say that there would have been clubs in the Championship more than capable of attracting better players than Brentford, however, the way Brentford worked it has paid off for them.
Where you are talking about hundreds of players of apparently equal standard costing less than 5m who could sign for hundreds of clubs, a sophisticated data analysis scheme is bound to win. When you are fishing in the pool of the top 30 prospects in each position I think everyone will be using the same data and money will talk.
If you guys want a creative midfielder who can score goals look no further than our academy player, Dan Neil. He's better than Henderson ever was when he was 19. He'll go to the Premier league in January or at the end of the season. This was his first goal on Saturday before legging it to the end he used to stand as a supporter. He's going to be a star. No doubt about it. Goal Assist
Almost exactly what I've been thinking. It looks like the biggest factor working against Spurs becoming a Dortmund or Ajax may be Levy's desire for a high profile manager. As it happens, the search for a high profile manager last time became farcical and resulted in someone who was neither high profile nor particularly attacking. We'll have to see how Nuno works out, but the push for high profile managers, rather than ones who have a certain philosophy, seems counterproductive, not to mention very expensive. "If they are not ashamed of the folly, can they not at least shrink from the expense?"
As that footage has been removed, here are the highlights: Top of the table clash between Sunderland and Accrington Stanley. Genuinely. That Tom Carroll-esque assist for the opener came via our own Dennis Cirkin. Seems to be settling in nicely and doing well. Good luck to him. Cracking finish from Neil. Nicely worked winner, too. Should've killed it off, though.
We lost our identity and ethos a few years ago. We are adrift in stormy seas. I wish Nuno and Patici well but have no confidence that they can address what ails us. Until the owners of the club decide to run us like a football club and not a multi-layered investment opportunity, we're going to be neither one thing nor another and success will continue elude us.
Must be an all conquering center half (or 2) on this planet for us? That's what every club needs to be successful....if you have a couple of goal scorers!?
I’m still pissed about Saturday but have come down off the ceiling now. I think Nuno has done a lot right since arriving in difficult circumstances, the atmosphere around the dressing room (from afar at least) seems an awful lot better than under Jose and he had 3 clean sheets to his name in the PL with a CB pairing of Dier and Sanchez, two players who were almost universally written off. He’s integrated Skipp well into the midfield and the balance of the team looked to be a good start in those PL games, defensively at least. That balance was obviously all over the place on Saturday and while this was to an extent forced on him so I’m not worried too much about it, he didn’t react quickly enough in the game. Obviously the red card, overall performance of the ref, and the Dier injury also didn’t help but managers are partly judged by how they react to the circumstances the game puts them in, not just their plan from the start. Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face, or something like that. And we took a few straight rights on Saturday and in the buildup, to be sure. That said the original lineup was staggeringly defensive though, although again, I think it was somewhat forced on him. What I want to see from Nuno in the coming weeks is: - a better balance between defence and attack in the midfield, whether allowing Alli more creative freedom with the base of Skipp and PEH, or using Gio (once available) or even Tanguy with those two behind them. - getting Kane into the game more. I do think he was dropping a bit too much (both for England and Spurs) last season at times but in the first half at the weekend he was so isolated and we needed a bit more from him coming deep given Son wasn’t playing and Lucas wasn’t running behind (as he was also being forced to come deep). - continuing to integrate the new signings, especially Gil and Romero, though this is of course dependent on their availability and fatigue. Some of this will depend on things like the Son injury (and the Dier injury may affect us too, though apparently it’s not as bad as first thought) and the availability of the South American internationals, but it took Poch half a season or more to get the team singing from his hymnsheet so although Nuno has in many ways gotten off to a promising start, I’d want to temper expectations and expect and hope for continuous improvement. Getting back to winning ways and ensuring we get a positive result at the weekend would be a good way to get positive vibes going again.
