Forgive my ignorance but how are clubs signing players when the transfer window is not open. They may have been released by there clubs but there contracts run until 1st of June don't they, or have I missed something.

They have pre-agreed the terms for their contracts at their new clubs in advance of their current deal ending. Technically any player over 24 in England can agree to move elsewhere domestically free of inter-club compensation once they enter the final month of their contract, whether their club has placed them on the release list or offered them a new deal. They can actually agree terms with another club outside of England after entering the final 6 months of their deal - although that's not so much of a problem when you have a squad such as ours! 

That article was a good find Ragdoll, sounds like Foyle certainly puts in the miles to see players.

Interesting to read the quote "The likes of Trevor Carson, Cedric Kipre, Charles Dunne and former players Louis Moult and Curtis Main have all been recruited for a relative pittance" - some good players in there. Kipre is an especially good find for Motherwell as he had never played for Leicester yet did well enough at Motherwell to go on to sign for Wigan and West Brom.

Seems like a good appointment on the face of it and in reasonably timely fashion too. All the transfer committee now in place! Good work. Now to bring in some gems 

For the amount of money that Chambers would likely ask coming from a club like Ipswich, if we have that money it should be given to Lloyd Jones.

At this stage of their careers Jones is the better player and by the end of next season the difference will be even more evident as Chambers will be 36.

[I always thought that the use of data and statistics was to confirm or strengthen an argument for or against something, rather then as a problem solving tool in itself?]

I agee.
I always thought that the use of data and statistics was to confirm or strengthen an argument for or against something, rather then as a problem solving tool in itself?
For example, medically a doctor will ( or should) use laboratory tests to confirm and support his clinical diagnosis, not to diagnose all that condition in the first place. Similarly, players should be bought to the attention of interested clubs by scouts, with the use of data then used to support a recomendation to move on that player. If players are bought and sold chiefly by virtue of their standings in a league table comparative to others, with only a passing nod towards the quality of that player clubs are surely coming at it the wrong way around?

As far as I know it is used for what you say above (highlighted in bold).

I listened to a podcast episode a while back with a football data recruitment analyst and they said that whilst it is used for identifying players, a club would never sign a player based on above average statistical performance alone and they will always extensively watch the player via match replays and then ensure to watch them in person on at least a few occasions.

It's not a case of either 'old school scouting' (watching players in person) or nerds on spreadsheets. Rather it's recruitment analysts using the data to identify players performing well in leagues that might have a lower reputation where clubs might not be able to command high fees for players (e.g. Championship clubs shopping in Ligue 2 in France), and then working with the head scouts / regional lead etc. to decide which players fit the brief for what the club needs / manager wants. Once the list is narrowed down they then watch the players in more detail to see if the performances match what the numbers say about them.

Think of it like a sifting process I guess!

I am more of a binary advocate. Anything subjective for me brings in an element of error. For the subjective content to be without unconscious bias the same person would have to assess every player in the league. For me it is like reading the form book and then chosing a horse based on it's name.

Download the pdf file, it's a very interesting read.

How would a binary decision making based on player data work? If it was with decision trees - ie at each stage if the player passes the yes / no for fulfilling a certain criteria - then the parameters would still be decided by someone. You have to trust the person carrying out the analysis and their abilities to make fair reflections.

Also I believe football data analysts do indeed assess players against others playing in the same position across the league - see a nice example from twitter here https://twitter.com/HenshawAnalysis/status/1394936830886285313. I think the tools like Wyscout probably provide them as part of the package. Whilst we don't seem to have a full-time recruitment data person I'd be interested to know if the club had a paid subscription to something like Wyscout - questions would surely need asking if not!

I had thought of this recently, would resigning Lashley as backup GK be a possibility. Was highly rated (according to some on here) and has spent the past season gaining experience - essentially on loan

Who has he been playing for?

I dumbed it down a little for the uneducated reader (in all things IT ).

Fair enough. Apologies if I spoke out of line.

Here’s one I made earlier the last time in was in Walldorf.

https://www.sap.com/uk/products/sports-one.html

Fag packet indeed. 😂

Well colour me shocked. Again you'll have to forgive me for saying this, but your initial reply to Manbearpig hardly demonstrated any expertise.

Have you heard of the following, Ai, machine learning, anomaly detection?
These things stop the need for data analysis which is subjective.

Forgive me for saying this but this is a remarkably arrogant question to ask someone in this field given that you seemingly have back-of-the-fag-packet knowledge of the topics listed?

Like Manbearpig I also work in a data focused role - including using machine learning techniques to build models for either predictions or decision making - and their most recent reply is a very good explanation for you about what machine learning and AI are actually used for. As Gen Disorda has also said it is highly unlikely that a football club (certainly in l2) would actually have need for someone to build statistical models, rather it would be someone using analytical tools such as Wyscout, Opta, Statsbomb etc to carry out decriptive statistics and then present it to the head of recruitment or the first team manager.

As for "These things stop the need for data analysis which is subjective"... Well, often a data analyst / scientist / machine learning engineer will carry out exploratory data analysis first before model building but yes it is not a necessity. However to suggest that machine learning is not subjective is wrong. 'Machine learning' is just another way of saying supervised learning - because it requires someone to build, monitor and prune a model. Depending on how complex and overarching model can be it can become incredibly difficult to know if your model is accurate or not as there is no set way of knowing.

If you want to learn more about it in a simple way I suggest googling 'overfitting' in regards to classification and regression models. If you want to learn why it can be so complicated then try googling 'naive bayes' or 'multiple linear regression'  

Erhun Oztumer released by Charlton. Still only 29 and would solve our need for a playmaker to play through the lines. The question is would he sign for us?

If both have been released ie surplus to requirements by 1st and (an ex) 2nd League sides it says a lot they are probably not good enough for League 1. We should be aiming for a keeper who is without doubt capable at League 1 level and if possible also the Championship.

If you have never seen Burton play how are you sure he isn't L1 level? Cambridge fans saying he was their best keeper!

Does anyone think we have a realistic chance of signing an aging goalie (33+) from higher divisions that might get released in the summer?

Seems to be quite a few from the Championship that might be available, but guessing wages would be too high for us.

Would happily have Nicholls back after getting released by MK, he is still reasonably rated by their supporters it seems.

I think if we can offer a 3 year deal to a strong keeper and sell the project of getting promoted and then establishing in L1 then it should be a possibility to do this. I think Ryan Allsop would be a great option for this - integral for getting Wycombe first settled in L1 then getting promoted to the Champ. According to Wycombe fans he is one of the best shot stoppers around under the Champ and was unlucky to lose his spot to Stockdale and to be released.

A cheaper option might be Callum Burton just released by Cambridge, only 24 but apparently played the second half of the season for them and a big part of getting them promoted, very unlucky to be released according to the U's fans - local so would be a good option even if just a back up?

Wasn't sure which thread to post this to but Jay Williams has been released by Harrogate after making just 4 appearances. Seems like we should trust the club's judgement on him? Perhaps wasn't given enough opportunities to shine in his time here though. Hopefully he can get some regular game time in the National League and build a platform for a FL career!

That's not what I said.
In my opinion Morris would do a job for us in league two in central midfield, with or without McWilliams alongside him.
It's the other 4/5 positions ahead of the back four that Brady needs to do a job on.

100%, and I'm sure that Brady will agree. Oh, and the keeper too!

I reckon I agree with your posts more often that any other poster. And this is bang on the money for me. I’d be devastated if we had two of them let alone three.

Watson won fans player of the year and was our top scorer, and McWilliams came 3rd in the POTS vote. But you’d be devastated if both were still playing for us next year? It’s so reductionist the old  ‘everyone’s bad start it all again’. Do you really think it’s a good idea to have a complete new starting eleven?

It’s a little bit worrying that if we get Morris back, Watson and Lloyd sign we only have 2 spots in the starting line up left to fill, a RB and GK.

Last year our RB was one of our strongest players.

Last year our starting 11 bar a couple of individuals were absolutely **** poor.

Arguably 4 or 5 spots, as we will need new wide players (Hoskins might not be guaranteed a start) along with a new forward. Mills might have competition at LB also.

In my opinion the centre back and centre midfield areas were by far our strongest areas of the pitch last season and do not require revolution particularly as the comparative quality of the division will be comfortably worse next year. We need considerable improvements in our goalkeeper and wide players. A midfield playmaker with a bit of pace who can play between the lines would also make a huge difference. The wide players need to have the ability to beat their defender 1v1 and have decent delivery. Once these are in place I can actually see our forwards scoring a lot more.

Bryn Morris is on the release list for Pompey today. I for one would be happy to see him return! I think he is a League One level player and could see him being someone to control games for us in League Two. Also if we are going to play two strikers as Brady mentioned I think McWilliams and Morris will be able to play as a two in the middle of the pitch quite well as they compliment each other's skillsets nicely. What are everyone's thoughts on Morris returning?

the band are possibly back together again

??

I'm only half joking

Normally I'm against going back for old players but on a free transfer and on a performance / appearance related contract (due to injuries in the past season), I'd fully support us re-signing KVV! He is a very talented player for L2 level and I don't think we saw the best of him whatsoever. Could Brady coach better results from him than JFH and Curle could? I reckon so