Chelsea sacked manager Villas-Boas appointed as new Spurs manager

Rogue Trader · Jul 4, 2012

Villas-Boas named Tottenham manager

14:48 BST, Tue 3 Jul 2012

LONDON (Reuters) - Andre Villas-Boas has signed a three-year contract as manager of Tottenham Hotspur, the Premier League club said on Tuesday.

The Portuguese replaces Harry Redknapp who was dismissed in June after nearly four years in charge at White Hart Lane.

"Tottenham Hotspur are a great club with a strong tradition and fantastic support, both at home and throughout the world. I feel privileged to become coach," Villas-Boas told the Spurs website (www.tottenhamhotspur.com).

"This is one of the most exciting coaching positions in the Premier League. I have had several discussions with the chairman (Daniel Levy) and the board and I share their vision for the future progress of the club.

"This is a squad any coach would love to work with and together I believe we can bring success in the seasons ahead," the Portuguese added.

Tottenham finished fourth in the league last season under Redknapp but failed to qualify for the Champions League following Chelsea's victory over Bayern Munich in the final.

Villas-Boas, 34, spent only nine months in charge of Chelsea before being sacked by Russian owner Roman Abramovich in March following a series of poor results and media reports of dressing-room unrest.

Roberto Di Matteo took over at Chelsea in a caretaker capacity and led the club to victory in the Champions League and FA Cup.

Villas-Boas was appointed at Stamford Bridge in June 2011 on a three-year deal and Chelsea had to pay Porto 13.3 million pounds to trigger an escape clause in his contract with a team he led to the Europa League title and domestic double.

"We are constantly looking to move the club forward," said Spurs chairman Levy.

"It is important we now look to develop the potential within the squads at all levels while strengthening the first team in the summer in key positions with players who will become part of the future success of the club."

Villas-Boas brings with him two members of his backroom staff - first team fitness coach Jose Mario Rocha and Daniel Sousa, head of opposition scouting.

(Editing by Ed Osmond)

laksaboy · Jul 4, 2012

One cock is replaced by another:

Rogue Trader · Jul 4, 2012

laksaboy said:
One cock is replaced by another:

wahahaha!! this is gold!

Cruxx · Jul 4, 2012

He has the third best winning percentage in the world, if I'm not wrong. But of course, statistics don't always tell the whole story.

Rogue Trader · Jul 4, 2012

Cruxx said:
He has the third best winning percentage in the world, if I'm not wrong. But of course, statistics don't always tell the whole story.

Interesting point you made. I was just reading this article on my tablet yesterday:

Data Analysis And Soccer

THE MONEYBALL-IZATION OF SOCCER

Before Germany-Holland at Euro 2012, German data analysts crunched the numbers on their opponents and spotted a weakness: The Dutch defenders often strayed too far apart. The German national team’s secret codebook says that the ideal distance between defenders in a back four is eight meters. The Dutch were regularly leaving larger gaps. In the group game in Kharkiv, Germany located those gaps and won 2-1.

History is written by the winners, and, with hindsight, it’s to forget the Germans. One bad night against the Italians in Warsaw, two childish positioning errors by German defenders, and they lost the semifinal. Yet, going into the semis, the Germans were the only team with four straight victories. Since they began serious data analysis in 2005, they have reached at least the semifinal of four successive tournaments. Almost unnoticed by fans and media outside Germany, data analysis became more influential than ever before at Euro 2012. Statistics are starting to change international soccer.

Like almost everything on earth, modern data analysis in sports originated in California. About 20 years ago, the Oakland A’s baseball team began finding new statistics to value players. For instance, hitters had always been judged on their batting average. The A’s found that on-base percentage -- in those days, an almost unknown number -- was a far better predictor of a player’s worth. They found that time-honored methods like stealing bases and sacrifice bunts made no sense. The man forever associated with this is the A’s general manager, Billy Beane. In the recent film Moneyball, based on Michael Lewis’ book, Beane was done the honor of being played by Brad Pitt.

Some years ago, on a romantic vacation in London with his wife, Beane discovered soccer and fell for it hard. Back home in California, he became friends with Jürgen Klinsmann, a German expat living in Huntington Beach. Klinsmann had noticed that American sports employed statisticians. He spent time at the A’s learning more.

Soon afterward, Klinsmann became manager of Germany. At 1:00 a.m. one night in 2005, Professor Jürgen Buschmann of the Cologne Sporthochschule (Higher School for Sports) was woken by a phone call from the great man. Buschmann sat straight up in bed. He agreed to help Germany with data analysis. He and his team of students became known inside German soccer as Team Cologne.

The world first got wind of Team Cologne at the World Cup 2006, when the Germany-Argentina quarterfinal went to a penalty shootout. In between penalties, the German goalie Jens Lehmann consulted a scrap of paper tucked into his sock. Composed with the help of Team Cologne, the note detailed the preferred corner of each Argentine penalty taker. Lehmann stopped two kicks and Germany won. The world was astounded. Until then, everyone had assumed that penalties were a lottery.

Still, even as data analysis helped the Germans, they learned the hard way that theory is not the same as practice. Before the Germany-Spain semifinal at the World Cup 2010, Team Cologne worked out exactly where Germany should position its lines. Analyzing Spain’s 1-0 victory afterward, the analysts realized that the Germans had been seven meters too far back. No wonder: The Spaniards don’t let you do what you want.

Just two years ago, data analysis was still not very widespread in international soccer. Penalties are the most obvious piece of data to analyze, yet big teams like England and Argentina entered their knockout games in 2010 with barely any statistics on their opponents’ penalties. England’s then-manager Fabio Capello rarely used the Football Association’s data analysts. Capello preferred working with his trusted Italian comrades, and they were not data people.

But at Euro 2012, data played a bigger role for more teams than ever before. Most visibly, before the penalty shootout in England-Italy, England’s goalies’ coach briefed Joe Hart on an iPad. It looked impressively high-tech, but one wonders about the content. The chief data analyst at one leading English club told me his doubts: “Did they have previous penalties [video] to show Joe Hart? Yes, I saw them on the pitch with their iPad. Do they do analytics on them and do more than show the last three or four penalties for each player? I don't know.” Certainly Hart frequently went the wrong way and didn’t stop a single penalty. A German goalie might have been better prepared.

Still, the international trend for data analysis is upward. For Spain, Paco Jimenez -- who does the same job for Real Madrid -- oversees the effort. However, anyone analyzing opponents for Spain faces a peculiar hazard. Before the semifinal against Portugal, Jimenez lamented: “I hope that what happened against Ireland, Croatia and France doesn’t happen here -- that we study a team and then they totally change their game, trying to find solutions to stop Spain’s soccer.”

One key use of data analysis nowadays is in training. The soccer authorities do not allow players to wear GPS systems during matches, but teams do use a kind of GPS in training. That allows them to track how tired their players are. Each man’s distance is covered, as well as heart rate and speed. Because of the brutal Premier League season, England usually goes into tournaments with the most exhausted team. The English began using GPS in September 2010. By Euro 2012, they had built up enough data to know how vulnerable each player was to fatigue.

The French are also big users of GPS in training. During matches, analyst Thierry Marszalek says, “We note every ball touched by the players. We have statistics in real time. That allows us to give information.” For instance, if a key creative player is receiving fewer balls than usual, you might alter the team’s tactics mid-game. If someone is sprinting slower than usual (seven meters per second is soccer’s gold standard), then he may be tired and require substitution. But however much data analysis other countries were doing, the Germans continued to lead in this department at Euro 2012. Aided by a lot of coffee, a team of several dozen students spent several thousand hours analyzing Germany’s opponents. Team Cologne supplied the German coach, Joachim Löw, with a dossier several hundred pages thick on each opposing team. And Löw’s people, meeting every day in the Dwor Oliwski hotel in Gdansk, Poland, actually used the dossiers.

These contained all manner of useful information. What are the usual running and passing routes for each opposing player? How do you know when Cristiano Ronaldo is about to do a stepover? (Before Germany-Portugal, the German right-back Jérôme Boateng received an individual briefing on the great man’s patterns.) How many seconds does each opponent take to shift to defensive positions when he loses the ball? Which player most commonly starts the opposing team’s buildup?

Cynics will ask: If Germany was so clever, why didn’t they win the tournament? But data analysis alone does not decide soccer matches. Spain had better players than Germany, and Italy was better on the night. When I put it to Beane that numbers might be less decisive in soccer than in baseball, he replied that they didn’t need to be decisive. If they gave you an edge, that was enough -- then you had to use them. He explained, “If somebody’s right 30% of the time using gut feel, and you can find a way to be right 35%, you create a 5% arbitrage, and in sports that can make the difference between winning and losing.” To Beane, the logic is that all teams will end up having to use numbers. Certainly that is the way soccer has been heading. Expect data analysis -- which in soccer lags baseball by perhaps 15 years -- to make another jump by the 2014 World Cup.

There is so much still to be done. Just one example of easy progress that can be made: free kicks. Andrea Pirlo’s goal for Italy against Croatia might have seemed quite a common moment in soccer: A beautiful free kick that curves just inside the post. In fact, it was a rarity. It was the first goal direct from a free kick at a European Championship since Marek Heinz’s for the Czech Republic against Germany eight years earlier. This year, the data provider Opta Sports tweeted after the quarterfinals: “Only four of 37 attempts direct from free kicks have hit the target so far at Euro 2012.” In short, few kicks were even producing rebounds off goalies' fists.

The numbers suggest that shooting from free kicks -- an unquestioned method in soccer, much as sacrifice bunts once were in baseball -- is a terrible waste of a good ball. A free kick ought to be an excellent attacking opportunity. You have the ball near the other team’s goal, the opponents have to stand at least nine meters away, and they have to put a few players in the wall in case you shoot. That gives you acres of space to pass to your men in the penalty area. Yet, players almost invariably shoot from the free kick. They are chasing glory, recalling those rare but memorable balls that plop wonderfully into the top corner. Data analysts should -- and increasingly will -- show them that most free kicks go nowhere. Coaches will start forbidding their teams to shoot from free kicks. Soccer will become more rational. One day, “Team Colognes” will be the norm.

Read more: http://www.askmen.com/sports/fanatic/data-analysis-and-soccer-2.html#ixzz1zaV30jEx

laksaboy · Jul 4, 2012

Cruxx said:
He has the third best winning percentage in the world, if I'm not wrong. But of course, statistics don't always tell the whole story.

He fucked up Chelsea when he's in charge. Overrated, overrated manager.

Tottenham will regret sacking Redknapp and hiring AVB.

Supporters of other prominent clubs, on the other hand, can rejoice because Spurs will no longer compete for a top 4 position. Spurs will end up mid-table or bottom half of the table.

Rogue Trader · Jul 4, 2012

laksaboy said:
Tottenham will regret sacking Redknapp and hiring AVB.

I agree. Redknapp did wonders for the Spurs during his 4 years there but still got sacked over petty contract matters. They will pay for that.

CheesePie · Jul 4, 2012

Watch out! Venky owners are serious about European football.

"That's right. We'll be back!"

BREAKING NEWS: Blackburn confirm Nuno Gomes capture

The veteran Portuguese striker has completed his move to Ewood Park after his contract expired with Braga

Jul 3, 2012 5:45:00 PM

By Rob Hoskin

Blackburn Rovers have completed the signing of Nuno Gomes on a two-year contract.

The 35-year-old becomes Rovers' third signing of the summer so far, quickly following on from the additions of Danny Murphy and Leon Best.

Gomes, who has scored 29 goals in 79 games for Portugal, will move to Ewood Park after his contract expired at Braga.

He scored six goals in 20 appearances last season and will be expected to fill the void left by the departure of Yakubu Aiyegbeni.

He was once worth €17million after Fiorentina splashed out to purchase him from Benfica.

Having played for Boavista, Benfica, Fiorentina and Braga, the vastly experienced striker has made 437 club appearances in his career scoring 167 goals.

laksaboy · Jul 4, 2012

LOL! Only silly chicken farmers of India would sign a 35-year old has-been.

And letting go of Junior Hoilett and Yakubu? Please, you clueless ah nehs, go back to cricket. :rolleyes:

Cruxx · Jul 4, 2012

Rogue Trader said:
...

Boss, no offence, but I think what "Team Cologne" does is bullshit. You can have all the statistics in the world e.g how often Ronaldo blinks on the pitch, but nothing can beat the human brain when it comes to finding real-life solutions and predicting and adapting to deviations from the norm. Their statistical method is just too simplistic for my liking. It stems from the human flaw of finding patterns and connections in random, meaningless data. I don't agree with the emphasis on frequency either. The only frequency that matters is the frequency of goals. What's the pt of hitting 20 shots on goal and missed all of it while your opponent only needed 1 shot to score? Correlation, imo, is a cop-out for the ignorant. If Juninho were to heed the words of these eggheads, who probably never even kicked a ball before, and opted for the more "probable" option of passing to a team mate, he would never have produced these goals:

[video=youtube;eg1vmsCtx_Q]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg1vmsCtx_Q&feature=fvwrel[/video]

Cruxx · Jul 4, 2012

laksaboy said:
LOL! Only silly chicken farmers of India would sign a 35-year old has-been.

And letting go of Junior Hoilett and Yakubu? Please, you clueless ah nehs, go back to cricket.

If you think it couldn't get worse.....

[video=youtube;dSGaJu6tieU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSGaJu6tieU[/video]

Gallego99 · Jul 4, 2012

When AVB was given the sack, his ego was battered and to rub salt to the wound CFC went on to do a prestigious double. To give up on your 11 million pound compensation for the job at White Hart Lane is madness. Levy must have told Abram that he'll do the Russian a big favor by hiring AVB and probably firing him just before X'mas-then we can do some serious business off the field.

The Venky's are scrapping at the bottom of the barrel and with the kind of budget (if you can call that one) on the table, I wouldn't be surprise if they start hiring all the 'old folks' and the 'burn-out' players in Europe to get them out of the hole but then again they're not exactly a premier outfit, are they? It is really beyond me why they hired Shebby for the job. I thought Mcmahon would be a better option. For all Blackburn fans, the hole can only get deeper.

jw5 · Jul 4, 2012

Gallego99 said:
The Venky's are scrapping at the bottom of the barrel and with the kind of budget (if you can call that one) on the table, I wouldn't be surprise if they start hiring all the 'old folks' and the 'burn-out' players in Europe to get them out of the hole but then again they're not exactly a premier outfit, are they? It is really beyond me why they hired Shebby for the job. I thought Mcmahon would be a better option. For all Blackburn fans, the hole can only get deeper.

I thot according to Wayne Piew, You are Shebby? :biggrin:

Before Shebby was appointed to his current position of "Global Advisor", he was already the "Director Of Asia Development" for Blackburn.
There was a period where he was actually referring to the Venky's as his bosses and commenting on Blackburn's performances, while still a pundit at ESPN. Don't underestimate Shebby's knowledge of football, he watches a lot of matches from different regions, and analyses the teams and players quite well. On the other hand, he also once referred to Newcastle's reserve player Danny Guthrie as the answer to England's midfield problems.........

Btw, Shebby so far has signed Danny Murphy, Nuno Gomes and Leon Best. Hurray!!!!

jw5 · Jul 4, 2012

AVB got an underserving bad rap at Chelsea.
The owner wanted him to rebuild the team and also play exciting football and also win titles, but he had to deal with a bunch of overpaid primadonnas led by a cunning fart who thinks he should be running the club.
I think he will do much better at Spurs, firstly to continue theur brand of football while tweaking the team including perhaps replacing Modric, and secondly, there are no clear troublemakers/ringleaders at Spurs who will undermine him.

I don't really rate Harry that highly either, he is similar to Fergie, good at man motivation and at developing talent. But in terms of tactics and spotting players from all over the world, he is as unimpressive as Fergie. Brought in Nelson, Saha, Kaboul, Adebayor, etc. All good players but all BPL players who he sees every week.

Gallego99 · Jul 4, 2012

jw5 said:
I thot according to Wayne Piew, You are Shebby?

LOL!He's in love with Shebby. LOL!!!!! There are many cyber stalkers in this forum and once in a while they'll throw up names and I simply cannot believe anyone would fall for it. Keke......

Gallego99 · Jul 4, 2012

jw5 said:
Before Shebby was appointed to his current position of "Global Advisor", he was already the "Director Of Asia Development" for Blackburn.
There was a period where he was actually referring to the Venky's as his bosses and commenting on Blackburn's performances, while still a pundit at ESPN. Don't underestimate Shebby's knowledge of football, he watches a lot of matches from different regions, and analyses the teams and players quite well. On the other hand, he also once referred to Newcastle's reserve player Danny Guthrie as the answer to England's midfield problems.........

Btw, Shebby so far has signed Danny Murphy, Nuno Gomes and Leon Best. Hurray!!!!

I've heard that he has done some coaching up North before or during his stint as a soccer pundit with ESPN. I don't know if he's still 'engaging' with Mcmahon on that soccer talk show. It is one thing to watch soccer matches but it is quite another when you're trying to put all the characters to play together. The way I see it the Venkys need to win the players over and provide the incentives for these players to excel, much like the way Tony Fernandez did with QPR. TF dangle the carrot at the right time and QPR were really fortunate to stay in the premier league.

It's really not too hard to gain promotion for Blackburn next season. They're relying on experience and players who are on a free transfer. The Venkys will baulk if there is any transfer fee involved especially if it runs into millions.

Rogue Trader · Jul 5, 2012

Cruxx said:
Boss, no offence, but I think what "Team Cologne" does is bullshit. You can have all the statistics in the world e.g how often Ronaldo blinks on the pitch, but nothing can beat the human brain when it comes to finding real-life solutions and predicting and adapting to deviations from the norm. Their statistical method is just too simplistic for my liking. ....

I agree. Football is as much an art as it is science. But statistical analysis is a trend that more managers are using to their advantage. I first read about it when Guus hiddink led S korea to top 4 in 2002. He had a team of statisticians analysing opponent's play in every match. I know Jose mourhino also employs stats analysis in all his matches. In fact, Villa boas was one of his analysts from the Sir Bobby robson at Barca days until he struck it out on his own.

At the end of the day, the ball is round. Statistical management might better your chances but nothing beats the human spirit.

Rogue Trader · Jul 5, 2012

jw5 said:
I don't really rate Harry that highly either, he is similar to Fergie, good at man motivation and at developing talent. But in terms of tactics and spotting players from all over the world, he is as unimpressive as Fergie. Brought in Nelson, Saha, Kaboul, Adebayor, etc. All good players but all BPL players who he sees every week.

wah lau... no one can be compared to SAF. With his track record, that old fox is a living legend.

Gallego99 · Jul 5, 2012

jw5 said:
AVB got an underserving bad rap at Chelsea.
The owner wanted him to rebuild the team and also play exciting football and also win titles, but he had to deal with a bunch of overpaid primadonnas led by a cunning fart who thinks he should be running the club.
I think he will do much better at Spurs, firstly to continue theur brand of football while tweaking the team including perhaps replacing Modric, and secondly, there are no clear troublemakers/ringleaders at Spurs who will undermine him.

I don't really rate Harry that highly either, he is similar to Fergie, good at man motivation and at developing talent. But in terms of tactics and spotting players from all over the world, he is as unimpressive as Fergie. Brought in Nelson, Saha, Kaboul, Adebayor, etc. All good players but all BPL players who he sees every week.

Agree. The problem is word has reached WHL and the players that AVB is a 'terrible' coach and that some players were planning a revolt. I don't know how things will pan out for AVB but suffice to say that if Spurs don't win their first 10 games, his career in the premier league will come to an abrupt end.

Harry had good rapport with most of the players except for Pav,Kranjcar and Defoe. The manager did asked for money to buy before the January transfer window but was denied. He probably sensed that Levy was willing to let him go and he shamelessly played up his willingness to take on the vacant England job when it came along.

He was serious about taking Ferdinand over to Spurs to shore up their 'leaky' defence. Under Harry, Spurs played the most exciting football in the premier league and it took them as far as the players legs can carry them. Harry should have adjusted, tweak his tactics and fully utilize his resources available to him. In the eyes of Levy, the manager fell short of his KPI-no champions league. For the most part of the season, Harry's multimillion dollar players were warming the bench and I can't remember kranjcar playing a full 90 minute match for that matter.

no_faith · Jul 5, 2012

AVB style quite naive in BPL I should say.
his style needs the particular players to blend in.
in Porto, he has most the players he needs, offensive, score goals and goals to kill the game.
in early stage, Chelsea was dong fine under him but later on, someone seems to overrule him.

Hope he can flourish in Spurs.

Chelsea sacked manager Villas-Boas appointed as new Spurs manager

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