The Art of Winning an Unfair Game
After Neil Lennon resigned we discussed how Celtic have recently appointed managers to address the most glaring deficiency of the previous boss. Gordon Strachan bought in value markets, whereas Martin O’Neill pretty much bought players who appeared on Match of the Day or Sportscene.
Despite his success, Gordon was manager of Celtic, not the leader of the club; there was always some distance between him and a section of the support. As a consequence, we next appointed the guy who ‘invented’ the Celtic huddle.
Tony Mowbray was close to our hearts, but he was also a flop of a Celtic manager. People inside the club knew this from the first week he was there when he asked to spend close to £4m on Marc-Antoine Fortune.
Tony was out of sync with scouts and coaches. How do you fix that? You appoint one of the coaches who saw it all happen.
Neil Lennon didn’t have many obvious deficiencies. If we were to ask what his weakness was, there would be a range of answers.
Perhaps as a consequence, we’ve gone out with a clear remit: our manager should be intelligent, technically capable, insightful, and have a progressive and modern approach to the game. He must dovetail with the infrastructure we have worked so hard to build up, and be in tune with strategy.
All we know today is that the criteria for the job was correct and our man matches that criteria.
Ronny is one of the scientific innovators in the game who has had the ‘Moneyball’ tag applied. Back in 2009 I wrote about the books, Moneyball, and the football spin-off, Why England Lose (now re-launched as Soccernomics). I also put a copy of Why England Lose into the hands of a senior decision maker at the club.
The point about Moneyball and this type of analysis cannot be abbreviated in few short sentences, and it is certainly not as prosaic as ‘buying low and selling high’ – that’s old news now, which makes it a dead topic as far as Moneyball is concerned. The Michael Lewis book which did so much to publicise ‘sports economics’ was actually titled, Moneyball – The Art of Winning an Unfair Game.
The Art of Winning an Unfair Game
The game is unfair because others have more money, or more experience, or more sympathy with officials, or whatever your circumstances dictate. But most sports are also full of enormous inefficiencies.
Football clubs are hostages to ridiculous forces, just listen to the names within the game who urged Celtic to appoint a well-known name in order to put bums on seats. Some clubs do this – put a ‘name’ in, in the hope they sell some tickets, without realising there are enormously difficult football games ahead.
The football industry is top-heavy with fools with big budgets who don’t know what they are doing. Celtic’s job is to build a team who can compete at an ever-higher level in the Champions League. To get there we need a ruthless conviction against the inefficient nonsense which paralyses the rest of the game.
In 10 years I’ve never once agreed with a Celtic managerial appointment. I welcomed Gordon, Tony and Neil while saying the board have made the wrong decision. All of these appointments are risky, there are no guarantees – for short-term or long-term success. Guru managers don’t exist and Ronny has years of work ahead of him to build Celtic ever-higher, but I couldn’t be happier at his appointment. Eye on the prize…. it’s all about winning.
Welcome to Celtic, Ronny, you’re going to love it here, but keep your kilt on.
All of this and 300 Celtic fans at the CQN the Lisbon Lions gig in Greenock tonight! Hold me back!
Lladro replica World Cup trophy
My thanks to Liam, from East Kilbride, who donated his prize memento, a Lladro replica World Cup trophy, commissioned by the Spanish FA in 1978, and acquired by Liam in 1982. It will be auctioned on Saturday with proceeds going to our Mary’s Meals school kitchen appeal. You can get involved in the auction, or keep an eye on it as it happens, here. The auction takes place at Great Western Auctions, on Dumbarton Road.
Visit the CQN Bookstore to get Tommy Gemmell to sign your personal copy of his tome, All the Best.
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Petec
Mary Whitehouse was right
It is everywhere now
macjay1 for neil lennon – It doesn’t really matter my friend, does it?
Listen, I am not blaming you for anything.
We can’t change the world posting our opinions on CQN.
I was just trying to wind ye up a wee bit there, that’s all.
God bless Ronny Deila.
HH.
Thindimebhoy
05:01 on 7 June, 2014
Petec
Mary Whitehouse was right
It is everywhere now
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You ever looked into the name?
You couldnae make it up.
Manipulated, Right, Left and Especially CENTRE.
ffm
USA did not come to the aid of GB.
They were provoked into joining the allies after Pearl Harbor.
Is it your contention that the allies did not contribute to the overthrow of the Nazis?
Well I’m relieved I’m unable to inform my dead dad that the cold and hardship he endured ferrying American arms to Russia was meaningless.
He would never believe his struggles and those of his comrades in arms were purely for propaganda purposes.
You cannot reduce the suffering of a nation to a trite propaganda throwaway remark.
I will be visiting my dear 91 year old friend next week and I’m sure he will be thrilled to know that a fellow Celtic fan dismisses his service so lightly.
Thindimebhoy,
if we share the same taste in music, you’ll like this -you need to move onto part 2 unfortunately.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3bZKLQk5P8
gg
05:10 on 7 June, 2014
——————————————
They did contribute….after ze Germans and ze Ruskis almost obliterated themselves.
Sneaky Yanks.
Zionism.
The witching hour is past and the sandman has already weighed down my eyelids.
May your God be with you
Hidden in plain sight.
These scumbags are manipulating you whilst you work LONGER hours to pay for dearer entertainments.
Boiled frog?
Earth Summit when Gorby, Rockerfeller and MAURICE STRONG were really putting in place their real Agenda, these sickos have a code, they let the people know what they are going to do to them.
Faith in God being what he is, is the most important thing now, believe me.
The Time is late, the evidence will stack up even further as Time develops. The MASSIVE deception is just around the corner.
Just dinnae stop Believing.
Lies,propaganda & the Promised land.
Mair frae Peter Goodgame, Good Game.
http://www.redmoonrising.com/….
Another gangster:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qT6XCvDUUsU
FFM – I’m the only conspiracy theorist in the village)
Listened to it with new Sony Walkman driving a Kwaker 750 the length and breadth of the ole country
Those were the days when loose chips were plentiful
Thindimebhoy ,
In all seriousness, me too. I was 14 and had that playing in the ole’ battery driven walkman every day on my school travels.
Animals is one of the most outstanding albums out there, yet completely unknown.
A unique sound, that has never even been imitated. Sadly.
16 roads – Celtic über alles…
05:22 on 7 June, 2014
Another gangster:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qT6XCvDUUsU
_______________________________________
Ireland votes yes to Lisbon treaty, eventually.
It is a Satanic entity that has always been here from the start. I watched the ludicrous End of Days movie with Arnie Swarz in it as a Gnostic hero, you better believe that so many would sell out for security and their family and other Pathetic things like that,
I hope Aidan ALWAYS remembers that I’m not his Father, God is.
PTech – I wouldn’t disagree with that statement, ye are preaching to the converted, so to speak.
Here’s a question for you, who was the greatest footballer ever to set foot on the hallowed turf of Celtic Park?
The Maestro.
Without a shadow of a doubt.
I can only comment on what I have seen.
FFM – I’m the only conspiracy theorist in the village)
04:02 on
7 June, 2014
Thindimebhoy
Of course amigo.
If you’re like me, it’s all very depressing, and I’ve learned to approach it in moments and then move on.
Sitting worrying about it is a bad thing. Realising it and ignoring it is surely worse.
We haven’t been given the gift of ignorance in these affairs, so our soul duty is to do something about it. I’d rather curl up in bed and waken up in a different planet.
—
Amigo
Moving on is becoming less and less of an option but of course who wants the worlds problems on their shoulders when someone else can carry that burden
It will all come back to bite us on the bum you know
Thindimebhoy,
Indeed :) But it shouldn’t be fear of that, that motivates us – this is the worry. We are being bred to be apathetic.
Anyway, random brilliant song :O)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brJIXGzWvNA
Petec – Didn’t necessarily play on the hallowed turf of Celtic Park, yet walked upon it.
FFM – I’m the only conspiracy theorist in the village)
Animals is one of the most outstanding albums out there, yet completely unknown.
—
Not sure about that after Dark Side of the Moon you listened to the lot
Animals was/were popular
Still you had a have a taste for it
HH
Diego Armando Maradona.
The world’s greatest.
Thindimebhoy
Dark Side of the Moon was the first CD I ever heard. I was fortunate in the circumstances as well. I can still remember it. As a 14 yr old boy it knocked me sideways.
Was hooked immediately. But Animals was one that required about 10 listens before I started to get it. Thank feck I persevered. One of the best albums ever written. A bold thing to say, but I stand by it. DSOtM wins it outright though.
I genuinely pity people who haven’t properly experienced these albums :))
….then I spent my latent teenage years listening to the Wall and wondering why I was still depressed at the age of 29 :)
‘GG
04:29 on 7 June, 2014
Petec from earlier
That was unusually negative from yourself
The world is on fire wracked with conflict, disease and poverty.
But for every entity intent on violence and disorder, there are soldiers who are addressing disease, poverty and illiteracy.
I believe meant charities and the Church, for all the faults some members have, is a powerful force in righting wrongs.
For instance I give you this article after the death of a priest I was privileged to know, although I did lose touch with him, to my great regret.
With giants like this every day will be one of progress.
http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=22854
People like this live among us, silent and unacclaimed.
________________________________________
I was going back to a comment earlier, to do something quite cool, well I thought it would be for the blog, I missed this comment.
Let me just say, straight away, I’m absolutely nothing compared to people like Father G Berton. I’m just a dude making comments on a blog.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvARL0Hzcoo
supersutton
22:54 on 6 June, 2014
Any bets on when the first headline will be Why, why, why Deila,,, ?
——-
All bets are off.
The DR has used it already in today’s hotline column. (Didn’t buy it, it was available at the airport for free)
16 roads – Celtic über alles…
05:51 on 7 June, 2014
Petec – Didn’t necessarily play on the hallowed turf of Celtic Park, yet walked upon it.
—stumped, and I love Cricket.
Yeshua?
FFM
Yeah it a diverse time musically
And I guess you either listened to Floyd or you did not
Fortunately there was no Facebook at the time so no one really knew what they liked
Over & out.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IMPMiLddsuE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_4kZG0LVTA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bDY0DfEjmo
Thindimebhoy,
I’ve enjoyed your comments and they, IMO, are prescient.
Keep on trucking big fella.
7 minutes 15 seconds for some quality electric rock guitar play from a group called Camel
Ancient I know but it was a welcome distraction from Floyd
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aasTYYyhftE
Thindimebhoy
There is now though- I’m encouraged in my endeavours to make folk listen to PF :)))
Been trying to do it all my life.
And it’s not all depressing ! :))
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9p03_nIRSaE
FFM – I’m the only conspiracy theorist in the village)
06:16 on 7 June, 2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bDY0DfEjmo
_______________________________________
Powerful Track, like Cashless~~~Control
The Chip will be demanded SOON.
Petec – Jesus is everywhere, and probably walked the turf of Celtic Park manys a time, but I’m talking about a mere mortal.
Diego Maradona is the answer my humble friend.
A better footballer than even Jinky, George Best or Pele.
HH.
Wow all your financial transactions online are……..
The mega bug is coming to get ya?
Do you have any idea how much you have been Penned? Into making a bad choice.
Gates is an enemy of Humanity, never ever forget that.