The two combined topic good enough to convince me. In fact, over the years, I had been wondering why nobody combines sports with economics... After all, Arsene Wenger had already showed the whole England how important data analysis since his arrival in 1996.
In fact, it took me more than a week to read and re-read this book. Yes, I read twice. First attempt was to read the whole thing... second attempt was to revise a few interesting parts. Having said that, I really love this book.
Few interesting points from the perspective of football fan (in fact, kinda shock on certain details as I thought I know enough football, LOL):
1. The reluctance and resistant shown by the English to accept "tactical" stuff ~ proper tactical guidance were seen as laughing stock those days. Wow... now I can imagine how hard Wenger was when he arrived at highbury (1996).
2. Club's victory and long term successes is determined by the club efforts in providing a competitive salary cap. In other words, salaries to attract stars and salaries to hold on with existing stars are the main factor (92%) contributing to a club's long term glories. In opposite, transfers market (by buying and selling stars) merely contributed 16% to a club's long run glories. ~~~ Well, it answers my long doubt question... looks like Wenger's philosophy to sell a star each season is totally wrong !!! LOL.
3. The facts that even club like Chelsea and Real Madrid ignore the basic problem of a player ~ Adaptability. Anelka's issue at Bernabaeu is an open stories those days. (well, served him right !!! LOL). But, Drogba's stories at West London was a real shock to me !!!
4. The facts that BPL clubs are one of the worst businesses in the world... Yet, millionaires are putting their monies in...Are they really buying simply due to their passionate in football? LOL!
Author did a very sharp forecasting at the end... Both author suggest that future football glories lies with modern town (or perhaps capital) clubs with the reason that millionaires are more than willing to invest in clubs based in capital rather than those based in cowboy town. Well, it means that club in London, Paris, Moscow and etc.are going to attract huge monies sooner or later. Right now, Chelsea had just won their first Champions League trophy (forget about how they won it though...LOL)... and Paris Saint-Germain looks to be another Citeh in France league soon. So, they are right !!! Bingo !!!
As a conclusion, Soccernomics is a real nice book for the game's intelligentia. Both authors explain trends on and off the pitch that helps us to understand to a much greater extend. Although there could be concepts that you do not fully agree on (Still think Guss Hiddink is over-rated! LOL)... but we have to appreciate how they dig out statistics and how they presented the whole concepts in such an excellent book. I hope I have the time to re-read this book again. Having said that... I rated this book at 9/10. I know I am bias... but, football remains something passionate to me... just like how I remain passionate in my books as well as my life... Football forever !!!
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