Just thinking about this thread again , going back to Moneyball and the developments since, what happened in baseball was that everyone noticed the value that the Oakland A's were finding in OBP, since then the competition and subsequently the price for players with a good OBP have risen dramatically. While it's still an attractive skill to find in a player, it's not cheap anymore and other teams managed to find other areas that have consequently found other attributes that were undervalued - defence.
In football it's not as clear cut as that, but when you look at the buying of young English players which is popular and expensive at the moment - it's the route that Arnesen and then Commoli took years ago with Spurs when they picked up Dawson, Lennon etc for peanuts.
Since then Villa attempted something similar, Birmingham have done it, Arsenal have been doing it, as have United.
I'm thinking Comolli was finding value at that time, but is still attempting to do the same thing now but the value isn't there to be found. So if it isn't in young English players it means there's plenty of value to be had elsewhere. We need to find it.
In football it's not as clear cut as that, but when you look at the buying of young English players which is popular and expensive at the moment - it's the route that Arnesen and then Commoli took years ago with Spurs when they picked up Dawson, Lennon etc for peanuts.
Since then Villa attempted something similar, Birmingham have done it, Arsenal have been doing it, as have United.
I'm thinking Comolli was finding value at that time, but is still attempting to do the same thing now but the value isn't there to be found. So if it isn't in young English players it means there's plenty of value to be had elsewhere. We need to find it.
