Apart from transfer rumours, commentary on managers probably forms the bulk of football chatter.
Before, during and after every game, every decision is scrutinised; every minute move debated;
tactics, strategy, man-management, motivation, appearance all feed into an endless discourse
debating whether any given manager is succeeding or not.
Stefan Szymanski, Director of the MBA program at Cass Business School in London and co-author of
the new book Soccernomics, said on SAfm that the 2010 World Cup may turn out to be a
'shocking waste of South Africa's resources' and not the economic 'bonanza that government and Fifa
would have us believe'.
"Just this one afternoon started the whole thing off - there was no prolonged courtship ...
In a desperate and percipient attempt to stop the inevitable, Dad quickly took me to Spurs to see
Jimmy Greaves score four against Sunderland in a 5-1 win, but the damage had been done, and the six
goals and all the great players left me cold: I'd already fallen for the team that beat Stoke 1-0
from a penalty rebound.
Throughout my life I've been both types of fan, loyalist and leach, depending on the sport.
There is logic and even romance in each. But as I age I'm attracted more and more to the latter, to
the Chuck Klosterman sort of sports fandom that resembles musical taste – polygamous and fickle.
I think this is common for a lot of modern sports fans, the mass consumers of entertainment that we
are.
Want improvement? A century ago as America's eastern cities overpopulated it was, "Go West,
young man." For soccer a century later the trumpet sounds the same. Only going west means tracking
back to the previous Western frontier. In mainland Europe. Or at least that's what Simon Kuper
believes and writes in his and economist Stefan Szymanski's new book, Soccernomics.
Preview: Why England Lose by Simon Kuper and Stefan SzymanskiDid you know Arsene Wenger has a master's degree in economics? And what has he learnt from it?
Don't buy old players, buy in them their early 20s and sell them as soon as someone offers more
than you think they are worth.
Another insightfull take from the Australian Financial Review:
'.
From a friend, I just received Soccernomics by Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski, and I plan on
reading it over the holidays. From what I've heard about it, it appears to be a soccer-specific
analogue of Michael Lewis' Moneyball. The difference is that Kuper and Szymanski are looking at
multiple issues in the soccer world at large, while Lewis is focusing on a single team and using it
to examine broader issues.
It's been a week but I'm back and better than ever. My batteries are recharged and I'm raring to
go. My fire is lit.
"The point is that soccer clubs, prompted by media and fans, are always making financially
irrational decisions in an instant. They would like to think long term, but because they are in the
news every day they end up fixating on the short term.
