stozo

I think Sam Allardyce has taken things to the extreme with some of his tactics. A very good example given in the article is using analysis to work out where on average the ball is most likely to land when cleared from a corner so you can work out where best to postition players. On this point as well I think it is a bit naive to think it is only people like Sam Allardyce who use this stuff - I've no doubt clubs who play the beautiful football we love to watch such as Barcelona use these analytical techniques to pinpoint weaknesses in sides. On Comolli I think you can hype up one individual too much as being the standard-bearer of these techniques. I'm not sure why he has bought Suarez, Carroll and Henderson but I'm sure we will see in the coming years whether he was justified.

I think this is probably a reason why things have slowed down on our side from the transfer point of view. I imagine we are not too keen to go hard after Erdinc until we definetely know there is no chance of us getting Gervinho.

On the contrary to your last comment Jordan Henderson is a very non-Moneyball signing. The theory behind Billy Beane's Oakland As as highlighted in Moneyball is that you buy players who are considered for whatever reason to be undervalued. Indeed, I would say we are in fact pursuing a more Moneyball-like theory. Cabaye was clearly "undervalued" at £4.8m and both Marveaux and Ba are both clearly undervalued on free transfers. Regarding the Barcelona point. Yes, statistics and analysis will only get you so far and are not a magic bullet but I've no doubt they do give teams an advantage. This is more than about stats as such. It's about taking a much more modern approach to the game in terms of talent development, scouting, the medical side, conditioning and tactics.

Word on the street is Neil saw the amount of pages the Cabaye, Gervinho, Gameiro threads had on here and decided he wasn't going to complete the move until his thread hit 20 pages.

Will be really happy for him if he gets it. He didn't deserve what happened to him here at the end and if he goes there I genuinely will be hoping he can get Birmingham back up.

He has played right midfielder of late, and is definitely worth the money. Why should it be one or the other? Because is it really sensible from a business and football perspective to be spending a vast amount of money on a player who won't be able to play in his primary position? Due to the nature of the wingers we have he is also not a lock to get a game on the right side as Ben Arfa, Jonas and Marveux can all play on the right as well as Barton. The reality is we have a budget to keep to and it is not a good idea to spend a large amount of that budget on a player for a position that is already well staffed.

I'm quite happy we are not going after him to be honest. £10m is a lot of money for a player who's primary position is left midfield where we now have four players who can play there. He is a quality player but I think the £10m could be much better spent on a striker.

Would be very happy with those two.

I think it is clear to everyone that the opening post is ridiculously negative. I really do not see the problem with restructuring the squad after we have finished 12th in the league. Yes, we had a positive season seeing as many believed we would find ourselves in a relegation battle but that doesn't mean the players we have are good enough to take us to the next level. In an ideal world within the next three years we will be in, or at least have come close to getting into, Europe. We need to look at things critically and think about who in our current squad is good enough to be part of the squad of the next three years challenging for Europe. If we are being honest a player like Nolan who is 29 and, despite his goals, has come in for some critcism for some of his performances should ideally not be part of our plans. On the rest of the "exodus". I expect both Barton and Enrique to leave but I can accept it. Barton because he wants a longer contract than we will give him (rightly so) and Enrique because he will get an offer from a "bigger" club than us. Like I say there is no problem with these players leaving, as long as they are replaced. I am so optimistic about the squad restructuring because it is clear from the summer so far that we have identified several targets and are moving to acquire them.

The club, or his source inside the club, will be happy to leak things to him in the future.

I that's the case I'm pretty sure it is Moussa Sow.

Mark Douglas report that Cabaye landed in the North East last night.

Some rather more scathing quotes from Rodgers to the Swansea press. http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/Rodgers-hits-Taylor-talks/story-12748502-detail/story.html BRENDAN Rodgers has expressed frustration over the handling of Newcastle's bid for Neil Taylor and insisted: "I only want players who want to be here." Taylor has asked for permission to speak to Alan Pardew after the Toon boss lodged a £1 million bid for the left-back. And while Swansea will demand a bigger fee before agreeing to sell, the likelihood is that Taylor will leave for St James' Park this summer. Rodgers is disappointed that the young defender wants to go just a year after arriving at the Liberty from Conference side Wrexham. But he has stressed he is not interested in working with players who are not fully committed to the Swansea cause. "What I will say is that there will be no player at this club who does not want to be here," Rodgers warned. "If a player does decide that they want to speak to another club, they can go, simple as that. "I only want players who want to play for Swansea City. "We are in one of the greatest eras in this club's history. "We are going through a wonderful journey which started last season and we are going into the most competitive league in the world, so we need to have people with

WTF Taxfree, is this all Twitter horseshit you're posting everywhere? can't you keep it in the fucking twitter thread or at least quote proper sources annoying as fuck tdeans To be fair Mark Douglas is a journo at the Journal and Sunday Sun.

Journal story says Gameiro is our first choice and Gervinho is our second but that we won't be signing both.

Has left Villa because of his health according to the Birmingham Mail.

I'm a little bit uneasy about Gameiro. I hope the club sets him a deadline (ideally a week or two) for him to decide whether to join us. From what has come out so far he doesn't particularly want to sign for us and would much ratheer join Valencia. Just not really sure this is the type of player we should be hanging around for.

Question was posed in the Nolan thread where the Cabaye signing leaves him. Surely Guthrie's position at the club is even more vulnerable. He's probably our 5th choice (at best) central midfielder now and it wouldn't surprise me if we sold him were a decent offer to come in.

If he signs a contract great. If not then bring in Seb Larsson in on a free and sell Barton for about £5m.

Just watched the YouTube video...sign him up.

Qualified for the Champions League tonight. Two very interesting articles below on their business model. It really is quite incredible how many good players they have discovered especially considering the prices they have got them for. Is this the kind of model we should be pursuing given that we re not likely to be able to compete financially with Chelsea, Man City, Man United, Liverpool & company? Discuss. http://swissramble.blogspot.com/2011/05/udinese-selling-their-way-to-top.html http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/gabriele_marcotti/02/03/udinese.2/index.html

Demba Ba is a good shout I think.

Just to think he was a penalty kick away from winning the Champions League a few years ago.

From a French football journalist on Twitter - L'Equipe says Newcastle are preparing a bid for Bordeaux's 6'5" Malian striker Cheick Diabate, who they've watched in recent games.

This. Even if we sign two strikers and have Ben Arfa back there is the potential that with an injury crisis we could be needing someone like Lovenkrands.