Forum | Spurs Hilarity by Antti_Heinola

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Spurs Hilarity 09:51 - Jun 18 with 5119 views

I still look back fondly to MBers on here bowing at the feet of Daniel Levy. And it still makes me laugh.
Absolute charlatan. This search for a manager nonsense is absolutely hilarious, particularly after his usual 'let's go for that manager that used to be in charge of Chelsea' approach failed. Amateurish, desperate, and hilarious.
Tactical Tim looking more likely by the hour.

Bare bones.

Spurs Hilarity on 20:55 - Jun 18 with 1555 views

MrSheen

Spurs Hilarity on 18:20 - Jun 18 by BrianMcCarthy
I would doubt it. Just a nice pun, I think. Baby Cheeses was another good one.

Yup, more like a joke looking for an airing than the oldest hatred.

Spurs Hilarity on 23:38 - Jun 18 with 1463 views

Northernr

New rule, which we abided by in December, maybe Sheff Utd might come to regret. If the manager you’re sacking would be the best replacement candidate, probs don’t sack him. Who’s the best possible Spurs manager right now? Poch. Qpr? Warbs. Sheff Utd? Wilder.

Spurs Hilarity on 23:51 - Jun 18 with 1430 views

CiderwithRsie

Spurs Hilarity on 10:28 - Jun 18 by Maggsinho
Sam Allardyce surely gets closer with every passing day.

What a nightmare image.

Imagine doing that long schlep along Tottenham High Road to Seven Sisters tube to go to work. On Monday, there he is, coming up the stairs. Tuesday, there he is again, loitering about a hundred yards further along. Wednesday, another 100 yards on. Thursday, he catches your eye and gives a sinister leer. Friday, you don't see him. Relief. But next Monday, there he is again, coming out of the newsagents with twenty Rothmans and a six-pack of cheap lager.

Hitchcock could have got 90 minutes out of it.

Spurs Hilarity on 00:01 - Jun 19 with 1404 views

MrSheen

Spurs Hilarity on 23:51 - Jun 18 by CiderwithRsie

Tom or Kevin?

Spurs Hilarity on 00:07 - Jun 19 with 1401 views

CiderwithRsie

Spurs Hilarity on 00:01 - Jun 19 by MrSheen
Tom or Kevin?

I think Tom would only appear in the 90th minute and never be heard of again.

Spurs Hilarity on 17:36 - Jun 23 with 1072 views

EastR

Daniel's managerial Tinder nightmare continues

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/fo

Poll:

Is time up for Ainsworth?

Spurs Hilarity on 21:23 - Jun 25 with 854 views

denhamhoop2

Spurs Hilarity on 15:58 - Jun 18 by NewBee

In reply to 'LazyFan' six posts back (sorry, can't get the hang of the Edit/Reply function):

LF: "I see Clubs play the Moneyball game, but that only works if your one of the few playing it.
Once the others catch up, then there is no difference."

NB: Moneyball is already over two decades old in Baseball and Bees have been playing it for a decade or more in football, so why haven't other clubs already adopted it?

Basically because it's not simply a case of running a few stats through the old computer and picking your transfer targets. Rather it takes time, expertise, money, patience and long-term vision.

Bees are incredibly lucky to have an owner who has those things, but when most clubs eg change their manager more frequently than their socks, how many other owners do? And even if they do, how many of their fans have the patience to wait for the results to come through?

Bees got an early promotion from League One after Benham took the reins, but we still spent 7 seasons in the Championship before the strategy paid off. Where else do you get that time?

LF: "Added that the sellers now know because your in for their player, then he must be worth more than you thought the price goes up."

NB: If your player is "worth" £1m and you're prepared to accept that, it is risking it to suddenly demand £2m from Bees, since they can always walk away and look to the next target on the list.

Besides which Bees often have an advantage over other clubs by offering generous sell-on clauses. For example, Watkins cost an initial £1.8m from Exeter, but by the time he made his England debut, they'd already received over £6m. While Toney's initial fee to Posh was £5m, but has now reached £10m after one season.

And in any case, many clubs are so strapped for cash they'll gratefully accept the first half-decent offer just to keep the lights on.

LF: "Brentford I notice have started paying lots more for players than they used to. This time it's worked as most clubs in the Championship have not caught up on Moneyball. We only recently have done this in the last 3 years. But soon even they will befall when the rest are forced via FFP to catch up."

NB: At first, Bees were signing players eg for £500k and hoping to sell for £2m. Next it was signing for £2m and selling for £10m. Recently it's been buy for £5m and sell for £25m.
If they can manage to stay in the PL for a bit, I suspect it will be buy for £10m and sell for £35-40m?
If they can reach that stage (stress the "if"), then I think they can leave behind most of the clubs in the EFL, who can't afford those levels, even if they are playing Moneyball.
But we'll see.

LF: "What then? Well, it will come down to who has the better infrastructure to develop homegrown players. This is Brentford's biggest mistake not doing an Academy and when it gets finally built our biggest advantage long term. Clubs can still hunt for bargains, but having an Academy means you can put more money into pricer players that have more potential and are chased by more clubs. As you can grow you own to sub for the ones you missed out on."

NB: Except that Bees didn't "not do" an Academy - quite the opposite! When the Academy system was made manadatory, Bees actually invested a hefty 7 figure sum on theirs, such that it was (I think) one of just two Category B Academies operated by a League One club. And it started off fine, with the most prominent graduate being Chris Mepham, who we sold to Bournemouth for £12m. (Meps - Hammersmith-born and a QPR fan - had been at Chelsea as a boy before joining Bees, btw).

Then the PL bunged the EFL a few quid in return for changing the Academy rules, to put a cap on the compensation due if a player moved to another club's Academy. Bees then lost Joe Hardy and Ian Poveda to Liverpool and Man. City for the maximum £50k each, when they might previously have expected £500k+ each.

At which point Benham decided he wasn't gong to spend his money developing players for other clubs, so he came up with the 'B' Team concept.

Reasoning that unless you've got a Foden or a Bellingham on your books, it's often far too early to discard Academy players at 17 or 18, Benham reckoned that there must be plenty of talented 18 or 19 y.o.'s out there who would benefit from a second chance. (And let's face it the concept of the Late Developer is hardly a new one - see eg Ferdinand, Wright, Vardy or even Kane, to name just a few England No.9's.)

So that this season alone, 6 x 'B' team graduates made their 1st XI debut for Brentford, with half of them playing a pivotal part in the promotion push.

None of which is to "big up" Bees (well only a bit!), but rather to explain why, whilst the Brentford Model seems superficially simple enough, in practice I don't think you'll see that many clubs following it (see my 2nd para again).

But seeing as I'm here, I'd say QPR could give it a better shot than most, since whatever else, your owners seem committed over the long-term. While in Ferdinand, Hoos, Ramsey and Warburton etc, you have key personnel who should be able to give it a right good go.

[Post edited 18 Jun 2021 16:20]

The Moneyball philosophy of plundering 18-24 year old talent from the rest of the EU has gone now thanks to Brexit so for Brentford to carry along this road will have to either look nearer home or actually buy more oven ready players as the gap between the Championship and Premier League is as wide as it has ever been. The problem will be if Brentford survive 1 season the players will all then expect Premier League wages especially should one or two more experienced players at this level come in on appropriate wages

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