bluebruce

I assume Harvey was already pretty data-focused, he wasn't just head of recruitment he was also head of Player Analysis. Sounds data-related. I know on my FM game he starts as chief scout and chief data analyst as his secondary role.

You've both misunderstood me. Especially Chaddy, who I've already had this discussion with. I didn't say it was impossible Joe, I said there isn't all that much use in it for a club our size now. Not the same thing. Sure, we can still find some gems potentially but they just got a lot harder to get out of the mine and we weren't exactly ripping it up with European successes before were we? Didn't you post up what Kaminski's points would have been when we signed him and he came up short? Apologies if I'm misremembering and please correct me if so (maybe you said only just qualified), but if that's right then that's basically our only success from it so far and it would no longer be possible. That was a lad playing regularly in a decent enough league belonging to the world's number one ranked nation, in a side that just finished 2nd in it and had been in European competition that season. He was good enough to win our Player of the Year in his first season. If that doesn't cut the mustard anymore it's going to be very difficult outside of people with British passports on the continent. Only a few leagues earned better points than the top tier in Belgium when I looked at the points system - Serie A, La Liga, Bundesliga and Ligue 1. I read that Mbuemo and Pukki wouldn't have qualified under the current rules. I know there are ways it's a lot easier to qualify, like being a regular in an international side in the top 50, but the point is our market is considerably reduced now, with probably just as much competition vying for the gems, and we have barely had anything from it before the restrictions.

That's the Head of European Scouting I believe. It already occurred to me that they might just bump him into the Head of Recruitment role after interviewing however many dozens of people applied, in another lazy jobs for the boys move. Especially now there isn't all that much use in European scouting for a club of our size with the Brexit rules.

I believe in the proper use of data in the game but I have to say roversfan99 is entirely right with the statement that data is useless on its own. For starters if it's on its own then nobody is using it so by definition it's useless. But less literally - if the person with all this data at their fingertips doesn't know what they're doing with it, how to interpret it usefully, how some data interacts with other data, which data is relevant and which is misleading...then yes it's useless. In fact it can be counter productive in the wrong hands. In the right hands, it's very valuable, can save you millions on players and can aid significantly in bringing success. For one thing, we are supposedly all about data now, but with the dinosaur in charge it hasn't got us anywhere. Meanwhile Barnsley have probably done it right judging by their far greater success with far more limited resources.

I'm always confused by this reading of what happened with Dolan early doors. The problem wasn't anything to do with Dolan, the problem was Mowbray brought in an even younger lad that we didn't own and played him instead, terrified to have them both playing at the same time on opposite flanks. That was what killed Dolan's momentum, hampered his confidence, and I more than suspect during his time out he was discouraged from playing with quite as freedom. You keep going with players who have built up momentum, especially very young ones. All sorts can happen to their mindset when you don't.

Why would Travis only just fit in there without injuries? He plays pretty much every game he is available and fit enough for.

Someone who can play both CB and LB to a decent level would be very handy. Assuming he can do both reasonably well, that is.

I have something rattling around in my head about a case where a club, possibly us or someone we were dealing with actually, made a case for a player's value in a player swap deal having been artificially deflated to skirt a sell on, and that they should pay more for the sell on. Course I can neither 1) Guarantee my mind hasn't fabricated this, nor 2) Remember how, if it happened, it turned out. Just thought it might trigger someone else's (better) memory if it was real.

His wiki reads a bit better than you're giving him credit for. Broke through at Leeds at what I make to be about 18. Their Young Player of the Year and third in Player of the Year that season. Next season was their Player of the Year (fans, players and local rag clean sweep), still aged about 20. Seems like he may have gone off the boil for a bit after to end up at Barnsley and then loaned to Oxford half a season later. Seems to have got him back on track though, and in the 19-20 season he was their Player of the Year. I don't know the player really but he sounds like he puts in a defensive shift? If so, the fact he has 8-9 goals in three of his full seasons at the age of 26 is fairly impressive for that type of midfielder. He could be a bit more box to box or all-action than I'm thinking though. And although you said excluding this season, it wouldn't be fair to ignore that he has just captained, been an integral part of and finished 2nd in player of the season for a club that were this season's biggest over-achievers by far. None of which matters as it doesn't seem at all likely to be one we will be able to pull off. But compared to some of the trash we have had in midfield, it seems a good punt on a free if we could.

Fucking hell, if he goes for 20 quid I'm going to jail for murdering all decision-makers at the club! 😉

I hope we do. I doubt we will be able to negotiate anything like Newcastle's, but if there's a valuation difference a sell-on could bridge the gap, and make it pan out longer term as less of a problem that we had to sell him for less than if he were fully contracted. I don't see us getting more than a 20% clause though.

Apart from that selling him before our first league game rather than a few days before the window shuts might be optimistic, it would only be history repeating really. It's quite common at other clubs tbf, the more the player costs (especially when that's high compared to what the other club/s want to pay) the more likely the buyer plays the waiting game until the selling club is under pressure (which builds more when the player has one year left on their deal) to bring the price down. I've never really expected an Armstrong sale to be wrapped up early doors tbh. And if it does drag on as I expect, I certainly expect the club to leak that he might be close to signing a new deal, to flush out buyers.

Unless they've just fallen out with him because of his behaviour (the drunken scrapping, removing that he was a Pompey player from his social media) and/or resigned themselves to him leaving a while ago so are lowering him to make themselves feel better about him going. I've seen that clearly happen with some of our fans at times. I'm not optimistic about Curtis from what I've seen and heard though.

I'm confused that you're confused by his confusion. He clearly stated he is confused, don't confuse the issue by being confused by that confusion, it's confusing!

Kaminski has a one-year extension in his. I doubt any of the others do. That's a far scarier loss of value than this summer's already concerning turnover. We best pray they don't need replacing under embargo, or this manager.

I've never seen nor heard of either of those players, nor of Mr Fjortoft, but I still have a hard time believing him for some reason... (Edit - a quick google shows me it's a fair claim for Oblak. No, I don't keep up with football above our level much anymore 😛 After googling Fjortoft I do vaguely recall him from the 90s, but why is he bumming the Gib goalie who plays in Northern Ireland? I assumed he was the Gib boss or something but doesn't seem to be)

Now they've gone up, he'd probably cost more than he's going to be worth to us for the gamble he represents.

Sounds to me a bit like we might have tried to pull a Sheff Weds/Derby style accounts fiddle to stay out of FFP sanctions. Hopefully we get away with it like Derby, instead of going down due to it like Sheff Weds. Although it could just be some routine accounting the league are misreading or being extra sceptical of due to the way others have circumvented their shit rules.

So actually more a case of, we best get some business done before June 30th just in case. I don't care how confident Maggot, like many I don't rate the man's competence or honesty.

Transfer window opens June 9th? Freebies are already moving.

Because Mowbray is safe? Old news. Or is there something else?

I don't have time to read the fan minutes, but someone on FB says they're our now and confirm we are still under embargo until 30th June. Anybody know if that's right? That would put us a few weeks behind most clubs, on top of the few weeks we are normally behind most clubs...

Christ I hadn't thought of that - this transfer cost more than enough already thanks! I hope the wording of any such clause, which I expect there probably is, says caps for England specifically and not just international caps.

I can't agree at all. Brereton looked absolutely bereft of confidence until his run after lockdown. I think smashing them in for the reserves for a little bit helped him recover it. He also still seems to be a bottle job at times in front of goal. You can put that down to technical ability, and it might be that, but for me it looks like bottle (nervousness under real pressure as opposed to lack of confidence in general play, which I think he has now). I'm not saying he has terrific technical ability btw. I do think he has a bit more than he's credited with though. The rest of your post I agree with.

I'm 100% aware of that Chaddy. My subsequent posts, talking about fitting the criteria, make it very clear I understand that. I'm not sure if you understand how hard it now is to get that many points. Joe ran the numbers before and showed that Kaminski wouldn't have qualified, for example. A guy who is now currently sat only behind some of the best keepers in the world keeping him from playing for one of the best international sides in the world, and who has just won our Player of the Season. That's why I say the much-vaunted European scouting network is now nearly irrelevant. It will be very hard to find players we can afford who have enough points.