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The $999,999 question
A curious thing happens when a player hits 30. Ten of the most expensive signings ever made have been of players aged 28 or 29, but only one player in this subset was bought after his 30th birthday - the 31-year-old Gabriel Batistuta in 2000. This is a severe drop-off, no doubt influenced by the fact that it is much easier to convince ourselves of the value of a deal when a key characteristic falls just below a significant number. -
The alternative to agents
Agents have a bad reputation in football. As Football Economy recently pointed out, the common perception is something like this... -
Player recruitment: why one size doesn’t fit all
There is no one size fits all process for player recruitment. Establish what is important to your club, align objectives and set up the structure such that you can meet your goals. -
7 days of deals, 4 types of clubs
The overlapping of the final weeks of the transfer window and the opening weeks of the season can create an awkward environment within football clubs. As long as the window exists, we will have four different types of clubs leading up to deadline day. -
Video: Discussing deadline day on Bloomberg TV
21st Club CEO Blake Wooster discusses the British Football transfer window, the total spend for the teams and the trends in the clubs with Anna Edwards and Mark Barton on Bloomberg Television's "Countdown" (Source: Bloomberg) -
What if the answer lies in the room?..
… or in football’s case: what if the answer lies within the club? -
In the future: the wisdom of the crowds will decide who gets picked
Ten years from now, football clubs will rely on social media as an essential tool for talent identification and recruitment, much in the same way many employers today are... -
In the future: the manager will become obsolete
Ten years from now it will seem incredible that, for all the wealth enjoyed by top flight football clubs in England via ever-increasing television rights deals and commercial sponsorships, few of them afforded themselves one of the most valuable luxuries to any successful team: time. As part of @21stClub's future of football series, @RWhittall explores how the director of football will become commonplace amongst future successful teams... -
Finding signal amidst the summer transfer noise
The dust has barely settled on the summer transfer window and there is already feverish speculation surrounding the impact the big money buys will have on the fortunes of teams across the major divisions. Thankfully we can now monitor this objectively, courtesy of our design friends @signal__noise who have created this wonderful interactive Transfer Window analysis tool...
