From the same book:- 1. A new manager wastes money on transfers; don't let him. A new manager is allowed to buy and sell on the pretence that he is reshaping the club for years to come, even though almost always they leave pretty rapidly - so they don't care on the long-term costs of their transfer activity only the short-term gains for them - they have no benefit in thinking years ahead because in reality they're not going to be there! 2. Use the wisdom of crowds - 1 person making all the transfer decisions is not the best way to pick the best transfers. Football in England is run as a short-term dictatorship where the manager is treated like some kind of devine king who gets to decide everything right up until he is sacked. Then the next manager comes in and cleans out the predecessors signings at a discount. 3. Stars of recent world cups or euro champs are overvalued - not a problem for us! 4. Certain nationalities are overvalued - Mainly Brazilians and Dutch, a wise club buys from unfashionable nationalities at a discount. 5. Older players are overvalued. Wenger got rid of Thierry Henry for £16 million, Patrick Viera for £14 million, Petit for £7 million when they were 29 and Overmars for £25 million when he was 27, none of them did as well afterwards. 6. Centre forwards are overvalued; goalkeepers are under valued 7. The best time to buy a player is in his early 20's 8. Sell any player when another club offers more than he his worth - at the start of each season value your players, if someone then offers more than they are worth, sell. This means you have to take care of point 9 9. Replace your best players even before you sell them - if you have a ready replacement even more reason to sell a player if an offer comes in which seems high 10. Buy players with personal problems, and then help them deal with their problems. 11. Help players relocate. Helping players settle to a new area or even country is massively undervalued and has a big impact on their performance, even if its just someone to help them find a school for their kids, or a job for their wife.
Point 8 would be interesting to know what butterfield & Vaz Te would have been valued at before last season began and a ball had been kicked. I'll go with: Vaz Te - 500K Butts - 800K
So in conclusion Pick a bloke off the street to manage your team. Sell all your players but don't buy any. If you do buy any, make sure they're goalkeepers with personal problems.
