Relocation help

[Tamesaint]

I have just started to read the book "Soccernomics" which claims to look at football from a stastical angle - similar, I guess, to "Moneyball". One of the first salient points in the book is the importance of clubs providing relocation support to their new players. It deplores the way that clubs will spend fortunes on new players but then fail to provide them with the support they need to be able to live in a new city/ country / continent.

 

How do Saints do in this regard? I can remember a couple of years ago someone (forget his name) who seemed to be doing this sort of job, left the club. Was he ever replaced? What do we do to help newcomers to the city to settle?

Edited 22 March, 2020 by Tamesaint

[The Cat]

We had Hugo Schekter as the player liaison officer before he left and went to West Ham.

 

The general rule for foreign players coming in was to put them in the De Vere and then find them a permanent place to live, often Ocean Village.

 

They used to do an awful lot for players. Some would get driven everywhere, they'd get help with things like paying bills etc, basically everything you'd need to know when moving to another country.

 

Some players were obviously more demanding than others. This help often extended to family members. For example I believe Schneiderlin's girlfriend was driven to London quite a lot to go to Uni. I heard a story about Pelle giving someone his credit card and getting them to buy him a dining table on Xmas Eve because he his family were visiting but he had nowhere for them to sit.

 

Not sure what we have in place these days although I'd imagine they still get a lot of help.

[Soton7]

I’m ITK for back in the day:

Day 1 visit Marlands shopping centre

Day 2: go to Sega Park in Bargate

Day 3: Evening socialising. Head towards Yates, Old Fat Cat and then clubbing in Slutskies

Day 4: Visit to Kingsland Market

Day 5: Walk around the Common

Day 6: Ikon and Diva

Day 7: They’ve had enough of Soufampton so usually commute from London by then

[Dr. Kucho]

I’m ITK for back in the day:

Day 1 visit Marlands shopping centre

Day 2: go to Sega Park in Bargate

Day 3: Evening socialising. Head towards Yates, Old Fat Cat and then clubbing in Slutskies

Day 4: Visit to Kingsland Market

Day 5: Walk around the Common

Day 6: Ikon and Diva

Day 7: They’ve had enough of Soufampton so usually commute from London by then

 

They should have gone down Shirley High Street to one of the many betting shops.

[Mystic Force]

Overall I thought it was a pretty terrible book, with barely any real insight. Lots of statistics to back up a point they had already decided on rather than one that fell out of the numbers and conclusions based on faulty assumptions. Often the suggestions would not have the desired outcome because systems are dynamic and adjust. We had a temporary advantage in finding upcoming talent for a short while, until others copied or stole from us and it evaporated. The anyone can beat anyone section was particularly stupid.

[Tamesaint]

Overall I thought it was a pretty terrible book, with barely any real insight. Lots of statistics to back up a point they had already decided on rather than one that fell out of the numbers and conclusions based on faulty assumptions. Often the suggestions would not have the desired outcome because systems are dynamic and adjust. We had a temporary advantage in finding upcoming talent for a short while, until others copied or stole from us and it evaporated. The anyone can beat anyone section was particularly stupid.

 

I have now finished the book. I wouldn't call it terrible but you are right that in many cases the authors have made their minds up and get facts to support them.

 

They do make some good points , however. The observation on relocation assistance that I mentioned above is one of them. Les Reid clearly followed some of the principles about selling players and moving on upwards.

[Saint_clark]

The only fact that sticks in my brain from reading the book is that statistically from corners more goals are scored from in swinging ones that drop into the near post, and that the place the ball is most likely to land when cleared is at the near side corner of the box and when Bolton adjusted their corner taking to that style and stuck a man in that area they scored more goals from corners than anyone else that season.

 

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

[Charlie Wayman]

We had Hugo Schekter as the player liaison officer before he left and went to West Ham.

 

The general rule for foreign players coming in was to put them in the De Vere and then find them a permanent place to live, often Ocean Village.

 

They used to do an awful lot for players. Some would get driven everywhere, they'd get help with things like paying bills etc, basically everything you'd need to know when moving to another country.

 

Some players were obviously more demanding than others. This help often extended to family members. For example I believe Schneiderlin's girlfriend was driven to London quite a lot to go to Uni. I heard a story about Pelle giving someone his credit card and getting them to buy him a dining table on Xmas Eve because he his family were visiting but he had nowhere for them to sit.

 

Not sure what we have in place these days although I'd imagine they still get a lot of help.

 

Is Maya Yoshida still living at Ocean Village? We met him and his family in one of the restaurants there a couple of years ago.