After missing out on signing highly rated Manchester United youngster Andreas Pereira on a loan deal from Old Trafford, Fulham manager Slaviska Jokanovic has threatened to walk out on the club according to a report in The Mirror.
The Mirror say that what is irking Fulham’s Serbian manager is that the club are missing out on valid transfer targets due to the actions of Craig Kline, a statistician who works for the club and who is a friend of owner Shaid Khan. The Mirror state that Kline “refused to give the green light to the deals,” causing Jokanovic to fume at the decisions and lack of transfer progress.
Such is the level of anger felt by the Fulham boss that the Mirror go on to say that Jokanovic “will consider quitting the club if his squad is not bolstered by the end of the transfer window.”
Data analytics in football has taken off, imported largely from American sport, and is more than a feature at many football clubs, not only in the UK but worldwide. Often seen as the ‘Moneyball effect‘, analytics is creeping its way into football as teams look for the edge that makes them more competitive.
Think of it as looking for paying for value leading to wins rather than potential and performance and that’s an insight into football analytics. For Billy Bean in ‘Moneyball’, see Matthew Benham at Brenfrod and Craig Kline at Fulham.
The central tenet of the model is the use of a huge database that statistically analyses and correlates the often unseen aspects of football into a form that allows teams to make decisions on signings. An example of players found on value are N’Golo Kante, Riyad Mahrez and Dimitri Payet who cost Leicester City and West Ham a total of £16m whilst Manchester United can afford to splash out upwards of £70m on the likes of Marouane Fellaini, Ander Herrera and Bastian Schweinsteiger.
However, it is this cast-iron insistence by Fulham that Kline’s say is the final one that has forced Jokanovic to publicly air his grievances. The Fulham manager has launched an outspoken attack, as quoted in The Mirror, on Klein’s style and adherence to analytics saying: “I had an opinion from one of the best managers in the world on one of the players and he believes it is a good signing for us and I believe that too. Craig doesn’t believe it is a good signing for us and this guy is not with us.
“It generally depends on this guy [Kline] who is going to sign for us or not. The last decision is in the hands of this man. It is not my business.
“I’m a little bit disappointed because no one knows who this guy [Kline] is.”
