Ranieri and Transfers.

[Lyle from Hangeland]

I think this is ignorance. Many/most sports data folks try to take in the human side of things. The problem is one's humanity is less quantifiable and therefore harder to discern by reading the numbers. They do try and do it anyway. The Khans understand they're dealing with people. They're successful businessmen and run large people drive organizations.  Pigeon holing them as just data guys is just wrong.

And they were on-board with Slavisa's footballing philosophy. That's not a difficult concept to explain to anybody. The Khans love professional sports. They're invested in it at a very personal level. Tony Khan runs a business that's mission is to understand football as best it can be. So the idea that they don't understand football, because they haven't played it a high level or just because they're coming from the United States is ridiculous.

Struggling with some of the logic in this post.

Firstly this part: "Many/most sports data folks try to take in the human side of things. The problem is one's humanity is less quantifiable and therefore harder to discern by reading the numbers." Surely this is exactly what Toshes Mate is getting, that there isn't a stat for, for example, how well someone will get on with our existing players, or adapt to colder weather and a relegation battle etc, because those sorts of things are "harder to discern by reading the numbers." Ok agreed. So where's the counter-argument?

Then the second part seems to say, Khan has bought and is running a football business ergo he must understand football. Sorry but I don't follow the logic there. If I had enough money, and the inclination, I could buy the large hadron collider and spend my time walking around it with my son. It wouldn't make me an expert physicist.

Out of interest, when we say 'human factors', what are we referring to here? Do we mean whether or not someone is a good bloke or not, or has a good work ethic etc.? I'm slightly confused, I feel the term is being used a bit loosely here.

Human factors... like heart, desire, as you say -- "a good bloke or not".  Specifically, I know the Houston Astros scouts/data analysts focus on "want", which by their definition is a player's desire to be a major league baseball player, which encompasses things like desire, heart, work ethic, humility, etc... terribly difficult to put a number on, but it is something they try to judge and identify in players.

[Lyle from Hangeland]

I think this is ignorance. Many/most sports data folks try to take in the human side of things. The problem is one's humanity is less quantifiable and therefore harder to discern by reading the numbers. They do try and do it anyway. The Khans understand they're dealing with people. They're successful businessmen and run large people drive organizations.  Pigeon holing them as just data guys is just wrong.

And they were on-board with Slavisa's footballing philosophy. That's not a difficult concept to explain to anybody. The Khans love professional sports. They're invested in it at a very personal level. Tony Khan runs a business that's mission is to understand football as best it can be. So the idea that they don't understand football, because they haven't played it a high level or just because they're coming from the United States is ridiculous.

Struggling with some of the logic in this post.

Then the second part seems to say, Khan has bought and is running a football business ergo he must understand football. Sorry but I don't follow the logic there. If I had enough money, and the inclination, I could buy the large hadron collider and spend my time walking around it with my son. It wouldn't make me an expert physicist.

I guess we'd have to agree on a definition of what "understanding football" is. Tony Khan runs a big data sports data business. So he's in the business of understanding sports, including football. No doubt he's striving to understand the game better every day. His father, at the very least, understands enough to want to own a club like Fulham, which isn't exactly the hottest investment pick if you're only in it to turn a profit. As far as billionaires go, the vast majority of them aren't invested in football... probably because they know nothing about it and see it as a crap investment. Shahid Khan at the very least understands football well enough to want to buy a team like Fulham... and probably lose more money than he'll ever get out of it.

[toshes mate]

I guess we'd have to agree on a definition of what "understanding football" is. Tony Khan runs a big data sports data business. So he's in the business of understanding sports, including football. No doubhe's striving to understand the game better every day. His father, at the very least, understands enough to want to own a club like Fulham, which isn't exactly the hottest investment pick if you're only in it to turn a profit. As far as billionaires go, the vast majority of them aren't invested in football... probably because they know nothing about it and see it as a crap investment. Shahid Khan at the very least understands football well enough to want to buy a team like Fulham... and probably lose more money than he'll ever get out of it.

Firstly, do you know the turnover of TK's sports data venture with CK as his partner, where it is successfully in use (other than Khan owned ventures), how 'big' it is, and how successful it has been?  To use data you have to know data, how to collect it, store it, present it and manipulate it with integrity.  You can know nothing about sport to do those things - they are simply headings of columns in a spread sheet and formula which manipulates output in other columns.  The data is obtained from a major supplier in specific formats and can be imported into an appropriate spreadsheet or relational database program.  It is the data manipulation (i.e. functions and formula available in spreadsheets, databases and algorithms in computer coding languages) that appear to offers analytical scope, variation, potenbtal for money making as in Moneyball.

It is said by many who have had business success on a huge scale that you need luck on the journey.  Many say you need ruthlessness too.   Many say you have a desire right at the beginning to be on top of all others, ahead of them in thinking and action.  I cannot tell you what it takes to be Khan because business people I have met who haven't made it so big as Khan say the same things too.  He can spend £100m a year and not notice it has even left his bank because the interest on his wealth will have eclipsed that in a very short time indeed.  They own football clubs because they can.  They indulge in their family because they can.  They do what they like because they can.  If they want to fly somewhere the jet is always waiting and ready.

[Lyle from Hangeland]

I guess we'd have to agree on a definition of what "understanding football" is. Tony Khan runs a big data sports data business. So he's in the business of understanding sports, including football. No doubhe's striving to understand the game better every day. His father, at the very least, understands enough to want to own a club like Fulham, which isn't exactly the hottest investment pick if you're only in it to turn a profit. As far as billionaires go, the vast majority of them aren't invested in football... probably because they know nothing about it and see it as a crap investment. Shahid Khan at the very least understands football well enough to want to buy a team like Fulham... and probably lose more money than he'll ever get out of it.

Firstly, do you know the turnover of TK's sports data venture with CK as his partner, where it is successfully in use (other than Khan owned ventures), how 'big' it is, and how successful it has been?  To use data you have to know data, how to collect it, store it, present it and manipulate it with integrity.  You can know nothing about sport to do those things - they are simply headings of columns in a spread sheet and formula which manipulates output in other columns.  The data is obtained from a major supplier in specific formats and can be imported into an appropriate spreadsheet or relational database program.  It is the data manipulation (i.e. functions and formula available in spreadsheets, databases and algorithms in computer coding languages) that appear to offers analytical scope, variation, potenbtal for money making as in Moneyball.

It is said by many who have had business success on a huge scale that you need luck on the journey.  Many say you need ruthlessness too.   Many say you have a desire right at the beginning to be on top of all others, ahead of them in thinking and action.  I cannot tell you what it takes to be Khan because business people I have met who haven't made it so big as Khan say the same things too.  He can spend £100m a year and not notice it has even left his bank because the interest on his wealth will have eclipsed that in a very short time indeed.  They own football clubs because they can.  They indulge in their family because they can.  They do what they like because they can.  If they want to fly somewhere the jet is always waiting and ready.

Yeah, data manipulation is not what Moneyball is about... the exact opposite. They want accurate and precise measurements. They may fail in understanding the data or using the data well, but that's on them. They are just people like you and me.

I can't disagree with you about the Khans wealth. They are very, very wealthy. Shahid Khan has made his mark and his money, deservedly so. That is absolutely the reason why he could buy Fulham F.C. from Mohammad Al Fayed.