Archive for December, 2010
Tales from the road: edition 42 recruiting
More to come when I get off the road. Always bring a towel.
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Kicking not just in Soccer
There are amazing athletes in many sports. Martial arts is one place that the use of legs is honed into a ‘dangerous’ artform. The inspiration for the blog post was the cage jumping kick recently shown on MMA. Anthony Pettis’ jump-off-the-cage kick sent the Mixed Martial Arts community into a meltdown. It was, in my [...]
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youth participation numbers from US and Canada
Interesting study form the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association about youth sport participation numbers. I am unclear if that is just registered or if they went with respondents from surveys. A second study from Canada showing a decline in youth sort participation from 1992-2005. However, soccer holds up well.
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chelski poaching youngsters from Feyenoord
Feyenoord sporting director Leo Beenhakker has hit out at Chelsea after they lured talented 15-year-old defender Nathan Ake away from the Netherlands, labelling the Premier League’s elite clubs “great white sharks”. stealing youth players is against the rules. Do they really think they will get better coaching. See the previous article about how youth academy [...]
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Man City a house of cards
Several articles recently have talked about artificially building a team vs organically assembling it. Manchester City is an obvious and current example. Article 1 from thirdkit.com Article 2 from soccernet
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Single club players are a rare bread as youth programs are often ignored
The value of bringing players through the youth ranks is great. It is less expensive. It allows for a consistent style of play. It allows the players to know and understand what they will do on the field. article on real madrid and the fact that they don’t use their youth program
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MLS demands outrageous fees for second tier games
$20 million per year from ox soccer channel for the games that espn won’t show? who dat crazy… more from sports business journal here
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Balotelli a headcase that should not have won young player award
Balotelli said that he is almost as good as Messi as he received the Young Player award. Not even close. To be fair Messi is not even the best player on his own team, Iniesta is, but still… Smalling, Albrighton, Wilshire, and Sears are all better choices than Balotelli. Does Nasri still qualify? the list [...]
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MBAs becoming increasingly involved in football clubs
Football razzmatazz is a relatively recent phenomenon. Clubs used to depend on stadium admission tickets for most of their income, but this has changed with the explosion in globalised, pay-TV formats over the past two decades. Broadcast rights are now the biggest money-spinner and footballers have become multimedia celebrities. The subsequent, seemingly insatiable appetite for [...]
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Football Manager game review
Best Christmas Present, or birthday, that you can buy. Football Manager 2011 is the latest entry in the famously addictive series of “realistic” soccer simulation games. People play this for days at a time, literally without blinking. The game-status screen includes an “addictedness rating,” which tells you things like, “Your soul belongs to me forever, [...]
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