(Part 2) Top products from r/Gunners

Full thread, excerpt from Football Hackers book detailing #AFC's transfer strategy in 2018 & the role played by Sven Mislintat. The full book can be purchased here:

In the first 2 transfer periods, Mislintat pushed through the signings of 3 players he knew from his BVB days. Goal-scorer Aubameyang was an immediate success and became #AFC's best goalscorer straightaway.

Sokratis, a solid Greek defender, too, established him self in the 1st XI, while Miki arrived from MUFC in a swap-deal for Alexis. The swap reduced #AFC's wage bill & replaced 1 player who was past his best with a reliable performer.

Those were all safe transfers in the sense that they held little risk. The same was true of buying German keeper Bernd Leno, who took over from Petr Cech in goal before too long.

Mislintat was aiming higher, though. He wanted to take the club back to its player-developing roots and discover talents with the potential to grow in the #AFC shirt. Midfielder Lucas Torreira from Uruguay exemplifies this strategy. Mislintat found him thanks to a feature in his software called 'Similar Players'. It follows the logic of Amazon's algorithm: 'Clubs who like this player might also be interested in those ones.' Eager to add more resilience to #AFC's midfield, Mislintat checked players with a similar data profile to N'Golo Kante. The system proposed Sampdoria's Torreira.

'I knew him, and I had also noticed him doing well before,' Mislintat said. But without looking at the stats, he might not have thought of the South American.

The club's fans also took an instant liking to French Matteo Guendouzi, a signing from second division Lorient. For once, the energetic young CM's arrival had nothing to do with data analysis but instead courtesy of some old-fashioned scouting, similar to Julian Weigl [at BVB]. Mislintat saw in the 19-year-old qualities that cannot easily be measured in numbers: courage, strength of nerve, enthusiasm & leadership. In his 14 months at #AFC, Mislintat proved that his way of doing things worked in the PL.

#AFC's newly appointed DoF Raul Sanllehi, however, decided to put more trust in his network of agents as far as recruitment was concerned. Mislintat saw this startling development as a signal. His contract was terminated by mutual consent.

There's stuff about buying StatDNA in secrecy in late 2012. Apparently, it identified Manolas before his move to Roma but scouts weren't convinced. Implies Wenger was convinced to buy Chamakh & Park Chu-young after data from StatDNA suggested they'd be poor signings.

There are a few, depending on what you want really...

The best place to start is DEFINITELY Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby, which is his autobiography as an Arsenal fan. It came out in 1992, so doesn't have any of the Wenger era, but really helps you to get a feel of what it's like to be an Arsenal fan.

[Highbury: The Story Of Arsenal In N5] (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Highbury-The-Story-Of-Arsenal/dp/0752876392/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1333575519&sr=1-1) (I hope I did that right, I'm very new to Reddit) is very good as a more informative history book covering the period up until we left Highbury in 2006.

Others to look for, although I haven't got around to reading either yet, are So Paddy Got Up by Arseblog, which is written by The Arseblogger and various other Bloggers and Journalists, and is meant to be fantastic.

[Arsenal: The Making of a Modern Superclub] (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Arsenal-The-Making-Modern-Superclub/dp/1907637311/ref=pd_sim_b_2) is meant to be very good too, and covers more of the Arsene Wenger era.

I might go and buy So Paddy Got Up now actually... or re-read Fever Pitch (again!)

Just remembered your post on Friday but didn’t have time to respond. Check out thisbook or better, audiobook .

Also have a read/audiobook of this and find out what works for you.

Audible usually have a trial period, should be easy to set up.

It’s not a good place where you are and may take time to get out but worth the effort.

Mind needs a reset. Good luck.

> I have read every book ever about Arsenal

Really?

I'm a bit of a book junkie, I can recommend a few you might not have come across:

The End: 80 Years of Life on the Terraces: 80 Years of Life on Arsenal's North Bank

We All Live in a Perry Groves World

True Storey: My Life and Crimes as a Football Hatchet Man

Fallen Idle

Bob Wilson: My Autobiography - Behind the Network

Addicted

Battle of London: Arsenal Versus Tottenham Hotspur

The Real Arsenal: From Chapman to Wenger - the unofficial story

Rebels for the Cause: The Alternative History of Arsenal Football Club

Bob Wall - Arsenal From The Heart

Bernard Joy - Forward, Arsenal!

Steaming In

The Last Game: Love, Death and Football

... and for some proper old-school type stuff, have a look here where a very dedicated person has scanned full books that are out of print:

> Tom Whittaker's Arsenal Story
>
> Bernard Joy - Forward, Arsenal!
> One of the first books covering Arsenal's history. Published in 1952.
>
> George Allison - The Inside Story Of Football
>
> Arsenal Players' Souvenir Brochure for the 1947-48 Season
>
> Herbert Chapman On Football
> During the early 1930s Herbert Chapman contributed articles to The Sunday Express. This compendium of his articles was published shortly after his death.
>
> Joe Mercer - The Great Ones
>
> Jon Sammels - Double Champions-Playing The Arsenal Way

You're confusing Pace and Acceleration. Bergkamp was one of the faster (top 5) players in the squad over 60 Metres. That's how he was involved in many counter-attacking build up plays. This is a fact said by Arsene Wenger from time to time.

Watch a couple of highlight reels during his playing years. He catches up to everyone but Thierry Henry or Ashley Cole during a counter.

People don't magically reach their top speed instantly... He should have 80s pace, maybe 70s acceleration is baked into the engine. This is why I don't take video game stats seriously.

EDIT: If you'd like a source, feel free to buy a copy of The Italian Job. He was third in the club's 60 metre race during the Invincibles season (2003/2004). At 33 years of age.

So has everyone seen the amazing new book, One Step from Glory:Tottenham Hotspur's Champions League Campaign 2018/19?

The author.

Available on amazon. It's #1854 on the amazon bestsellers list. Pop on over to read the reviews. There's only a couple so far.

I know you said you try to avoid A biography, but Paul Merson's How not to be a professional footballer is an absolutely outstanding read. Some of the stories in it are nearly unbelievable! Just look at the chapter titles.

Has to be Philippe Auclair imo, wrote an award winning book in English too so you don't have to worry about how comfortable he is with the language.

Here are a couple great Non-Arsenal specific books. All come highly recommended:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Miracle-Castel-Sangro-Passion/dp/0767905997

http://www.amazon.com/Among-Thugs-Bill-Buford/dp/0679745351/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1422638459&sr=1-1&keywords=among+the+thugs&pebp=1422638445664&peasin=679745351

http://www.amazon.com/How-Soccer-Explains-World-Globalization/dp/0061978051/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1422638489&sr=1-1&keywords=how+soccer+explains+the+world&pebp=1422638475663&peasin=61978051

Amazon UK has it in hardback and paperback. Probably your best bet.

You won't be disappointed!

Here you go. It was a BBC documentary. That documentary took a lot from the RTE radio series. There is a great book on the same subject.

The documentary.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfWiigAoDfs There are 2 parts an hour each.

The radio series

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upY54ZtgNsM there are 12 parts half hour each.

https://www.amazon.com/How-Irish-Saved-Civilization-Irelands/dp/0385418493 The book. All highly recommended. I love a bit of history me. Makes me pissed off I did economics first time round, but we follow the money!

Start with Clausewitz. If you understand him well, you'll be able to discuss these things well with an educated military person. Also, learn your tactical tasks and how they are applied, those are described in the globalsecurity link i posted. https://www.amazon.com/Sources-Military-Doctrine-Britain-Security/dp/0801494273/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1483721135&sr=1-1&keywords=military+doctrine

The chapter escapes but here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Theo-Growing-Up-Fast-Walcott/dp/0552160539

T.J and the hat-trick is about a young man who scores a hat-trick from an offside position.

I don't have a scanner; but if anyone else does and has this book with them; we can probably add more old and rare pictures of the Arsenal to this album. There are more than hundred b/w pictures of the gunners in it that most of the people wouldn't have seen.

Probably I can try and get it done this weekend.

Great album!

https://www.amazon.com/Highbury-Story-Arsenal-Jon-Spurling/dp/075287344X

not the ebook but: https://www.amazon.com/Romford-Pel%C3%A9-Only-Parlours-Autobiography/dp/1780895054