A quote I’ve recently taken to repeating at every opportunity is from legendary college football coach Bear Bryant: “Have a plan, follow the plan, you’ll be surprised at how successful you’ll be. Most people don’t have a plan, that is why it is easy to beat most folks” But what Read more…
All long-term team performance graphs are produced on FootStats Summary: Design – What do you want your club to look like in 5 years time? Align – get the people and processes in place you need to reach that point. Build – building is disruptive and messy but necessary to Read more…
Sack the manager. Get him out of the club. Absolutely clueless. You don’t have to go far into the realms of twitter, forums, or Youtube channels to find someone ranting about how their football club is being let down by a manager so useless he can surely only have been Read more…
Single points of failure ensure chaos A single point of failure is a part of a system, that if it fails, will stop the entire system from working. Everyday life is full of single points of failure. A broken piece of equipment may shut down a building site, a closed Read more…
The twelves steps to a successful football club takeover. 1: Realism – What does success look like on the resources you can provide? So many takeovers fail because there is such a mismatch between what the new owners think they can achieve (trophies, success) and the resources they can provide. Read more…
We hear a lot of talk of the growth of analytics in football. It seems everyone has read “Moneyball”, has a strong opinion on the usefulness of xG, and has scouted French Ligue 2 for the next Benrahma or Mahrez. In the last few years many people (like us) who Read more…
Two hundred and forty three (243) players with South American passports have played in the Premier League since 1992. The arrival of Juninho and Asprilla to the North East in the mid 1990s sparked excitement like few signings before. Entertaining, flamboyant, unpredictable footballers. Over the next 25 years every team Read more…
How do you win a football match? Easy. Score more goals than the opponents. How do you do that? By consistently creating more, and better quality chances than you allow the opposition. How do you do that? By having more skillful, fitter, and better coached players? It doesn’t take many Read more…
Replacing the EU players The implications of the changes made to the football work permit scheme have yet to be fully appreciated. Instead of the potential player pool being determined by the nationality of a player (EU passport) the player pool is determined by a points-based system that takes into Read more…
