Best Of

I must admit to being a bit disappointed that our negotiations with the FA (reported by ITKs) did not result in Ashley Cole, Serina Weigman or Stuart Pearce's girlfriend bring appointed.

Not a home chant but Akinfenwe used to take it well when the opposing supporters Sunderland was the one I remember sang 'your tits are off side.'

Against Oxford when he was their manager a rendition of 'if you tolerate Rix then your children will be next' was amusing and in tune

It's a valid question for data science in general, however in this kind of a scenario a data search and stats based approach is far more likely to be representative and fair, and less open to unconscious bias than the old model which really doesn't fit any of the guidelines in that area.

I'm not saying there aren't good fair people in football but we've seen others and the Idea of picking an unqualified local fan favourite to be manager, letting him pick his friends or anyone he wants as staff and basing his hiring / signing decisions on a closed fews opinions over who might be a good fit with existing players kind of goes against everything HR is for.

I can't help but notice that none of the new signings are ginger either. More blatant discrimination...

And a gentle reminder that our all time most valuable player that we've gone to superb lengths to keep isn't white.

I meant that James has a point. I think we're on the same page here, because I also agree that it's absolutely irrelevant to data-led player recruitment in football

He has a point though. There are valid concerns about use of algorithms with a "white bias" in various fields (i.e. trained on data where white is normative). However, the algorithms Dan et al use will be based and developed on footballing metrics. The EFL and EPL are clearly disproportionately black relative to the general population. If anything, the bias would be the other way around

I think this is why we've had such a spending bonanza this January. If we go up to the Champ (and there are absolutely no excuses for us not to do so now), then we've bought all of these players under much more generous financial rules than we would have done in the Summer and beyond. I think we now have the vast majority of the squad that Rice and co envisage us having next season in the Championship (if all goes to plan and we can hold off Wrexham)