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Redslo

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Another very interesting read Redslo. I find it fascinating that the US takes head injuries so seriously (finally after the lawsuits) yet in soccer it is not: as witnessed at the World Cup.

 

The famous case of Jeff Astle who died way too early should have been a wake up call: but was not.

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Thanks, good reading. Look forward to the one on Portsmouth!

 

I am actually have trouble finding Portsmouths current financials online. Anyone have a link?

 

BTW, about 1 in 8 of my blog's page views are referrals from the fansonline Portsmouth forum.

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But there are financial fair play rules now, even in league two. Surely they are going to have to file something sooner or later.

 

A lot of Pompey-related items have been discussed using the phrase "surely they ... "

 

We have found that the phrase almost never applies in their case, and nobody is quite sure why, but the phenomenon is there. Whether it applies to transfer embargoes, paying debts or just being toast in general, they somehow always manage to get past "surely they ..."

 

On other matters, how do today's events fit in with your FFP view? I think I recall you saying that signing a CB would fit with this, so that part of the jigsaw is in place.

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A lot of Pompey-related items have been discussed using the phrase "surely they ... "

 

We have found that the phrase almost never applies in their case, and nobody is quite sure why, but the phenomenon is there. Whether it applies to transfer embargoes, paying debts or just being toast in general, they somehow always manage to get past "surely they ..."

 

On other matters, how do today's events fit in with your FFP view? I think I recall you saying that signing a CB would fit with this, so that part of the jigsaw is in place.

 

At this point I doubt the team can do anything inconsistent with my more recent analysis, which is certainly convenient for me. Our transfer profits appear to be at about plus 48 million pounds. My unreliably calculated current payroll is at 43 million pounds so unless we spend 48 million plus to bring in players we pay 13 million plus we are fine on the salary cap. And BPL FFP was never going to be an issue for us. Of course, there is huge margin for error in my calculations, but the room for error is quite clearly much greater right now.

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I have posted a new blog entitled “How Close Were We” analyzing how close we might have been to competing for Europe and the Champions League if we have retained our players from last year and brought in new signings. Warning, I once again use information from Football Manager 2014 in my analysis.

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I don't know. I just figured if I added to this message whenever I posted a new blog, it would pop up on people's radar. At the time I started doing that I did not realize I would be blogging once a day on average. If the people who set board policy here want me to post this somewhere else I will.

 

Also, I apologize for this post popping me up to the top again without a compensating new blog entry but Dangermouth did it first.

 

Just to be clear, that last remark was a joke not an attempt to start a feud.

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I have posted a new blog entitled “How Close Were We” analyzing how close we might have been to competing for Europe and the Champions League if we have retained our players from last year and brought in new signings. Warning, I once again use information from Football Manager 2014 in my analysis.

 

I don't think you really 'get' soccer...If it were a just a stat's and numbers game we would all know the final league positions of every team before the season even started. The FA and League Cups could also be presented before a ball even is kicked.

 

Fair doo's to 'Wreck it'...he's certainly got his PR peeps working hard...Caught more peeps than Lowe's failed attempt a few years back

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I don't think you really 'get' soccer...If it were a just a stat's and numbers game we would all know the final league positions of every team before the season even started. The FA and League Cups could also be presented before a ball even is kicked.

 

Fair doo's to 'Wreck it'...he's certainly got his PR peeps working hard...Caught more peeps than Lowe's failed attempt a few years back

 

Please, expand.

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I don't think you really 'get' soccer...If it were a just a stat's and numbers game we would all know the final league positions of every team before the season even started. The FA and League Cups could also be presented before a ball even is kicked.

 

Fair doo's to 'Wreck it'...he's certainly got his PR peeps working hard...Caught more peeps than Lowe's failed attempt a few years back

 

Baseball is very much a stats and numbers game and we still don't know the final league positions before the season starts. Stats and numbers give us a basis for analyzing things in a potentially informative fashion not a way to predict with certainty the results or any particular outcome which, in any case, would be highly dependent on chance and other unknowable factors. The cup tournaments would be unpredictable, for example, because of the random draw, injuries, and the unknown question of how seriously each of the big clubs is going to take any particular competition. "How Close Were We" was an attempt to determine roughly how much Southampton's team of last year would have to improve to compete for Europe. I would hardly suggest that I have nailed it exactly right--in fact a fair reading of the blog makes it clear I didn't claim that. That being said, to suggest that soccer is completely unquantifiable in some mystical way, is an untenable position. When Bill James first started writing about baseball, baseball insiders knew that he was blithering nonsense and that their knowledge of what did and did not matter on the baseball field was perfectly accurate. Time has shown that they were wrong. The same thing is happening now in soccer.

 

That being said, I agree. I don't fully get soccer. I think I have made the limitations of my knowledge quite clear. I don't write match reports pointing out that Clyne was out of position and that led to Liverpool's first goal. I heard the commentators claim that and I could see what they were saying in the replay, but I did not see it for myself and, for all I know, Clyne might have been right were here was supposed to be.

 

I learn more each time I watch a game but I will never catch up with people who grew up playing and watching the game--just like no one who grew up in England and stated paying attention to baseball or American football in their 50s is ever likely to get those sports like I do--even though I am not an expert by my own standards.

 

Finally, I don't understand how the comment about PR peeps has anything to do with me.

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Baseball is very much a stats and numbers game and we still don't know the final league positions before the season starts. Stats and numbers give us a basis for analyzing things in a potentially informative fashion not a way to predict with certainty the results or any particular outcome which, in any case, would be highly dependent on chance and other unknowable factors. The cup tournaments would be unpredictable, for example, because of the random draw, injuries, and the unknown question of how seriously each of the big clubs is going to take any particular competition. "How Close Were We" was an attempt to determine roughly how much Southampton's team of last year would have to improve to compete for Europe. I would hardly suggest that I have nailed it exactly right--in fact a fair reading of the blog makes it clear I didn't claim that. That being said, to suggest that soccer is completely unquantifiable in some mystical way, is an untenable position. When Bill James first started writing about baseball, baseball insiders knew that he was blithering nonsense and that their knowledge of what did and did not matter on the baseball field was perfectly accurate. Time has shown that they were wrong. The same thing is happening now in soccer.

 

That being said, I agree. I don't fully get soccer. I think I have made the limitations of my knowledge quite clear. I don't write match reports pointing out that Clyne was out of position and that lead to Liverpool's first goal. I heard the commentators claim that and I could see what they were saying in the replay, but I did not see it for myself and, for all I know, Clyne might have been right were here was supposed to be.

 

I am learning more each time I watch a game but I will never catch up with people who grew up playing and watching the game--just like no one who grew up in England and stated paying attention to baseball or American football in their 50s is ever likely to get those sports like I do--even though I am not an expert by my own standards.

 

Finally, I don't understand how the comment about PR peeps has anything to do with me.

 

Because your North American and Ralph Krueger comes from that neck of the woods you must be a PR plant by the club (that was easy to analyse)

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I have posted a short new blog entry entitled “Great Moments in Recent Southampton FC History (Part Five).” I haven’t had time to write anything more substantive since I have been swamped with work the past three days.

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Your blog is far too practical and sensible. I imagine some people are only happy when they're complaining which is why some players are given a poor reception regardless. That and too many people react with emotion and can't dissociate one thing from another, etc, etc. In some ways not unlike attending an American Football game but with no direction (e.g. sponsors' awards, occasional 'dance-offs', etc so they're left to their own devices. It's as much a reaction that many English would have as opposed to simply Saints fans.

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Another **** week at Saints and another flowery, happy clappy PR Blog from RK

 

I'm working on my analysis of how the Millwall victory is a disaster.

 

Also, a few people have asked me how I, an American, suddenly became a Southampton FC fan. I have posted a somewhat self-indulgent blog entry answering this question which I have cleverly entitled “How I Became a Southampton FC Fan”. This may disprove the theory that I am Ralph Krueger, but probably not. After all, it does mention ice hockey.

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