This is a point that comes round quite a lot, but it's completely nonsensical to talk about 'value' in this way. Transfer revenue of £30-40m does not mean much for teams like Chelsea/City/PSG etc., so it takes absurd figures to pry certain players away. The same does not hold for teams like Everton who can use the same amount of money much more effectively plugging other holes.

Strawman alert. I mean, obviously in the real world Hazard's true market value >>> Kante's. Both have been irreplaceable this season, but Hazard's contribution is more noticeable and tangible. Also there are always going to be infinitely more kids with Hazard on the back of their shirt than Kante, for obvious reasons.

Gueye is awesome btw, and his contribution has not gone unnoticed. A good case could be made for him being Everton's POTY this season. Obviously ROMELU will win it, and obviously ROMELU's market value dwarfs Gueye's. I doubt anyone itt or on this planet thinks Kante or Gueye would fetch a higher transfer fee than Hazard or ROMELU.

Kante missed 1 game (bournemouth h) - hazard bossed it for 3-0.
Hazard missed 2 games (sunderland and stoke a) - got by.

Seriously, did check some stats and being up on shot accuracy obv improving scorepoints and highest dribble success rate since arrival; as well the system liberating him and the front 3. Kante is an excellent player though - however, think I could sleep if we sold Kante; selling hazard not so much. When he delivers, team will do well. When Kante delivers, relying on external to perform.

Cesc goat.

I mean it's more of a theoretical question and I'm not considering marketing/oil money consideration etc.. rather than expecting what's going to happen on the real market

It's just that if OAKF or others state that he'd rather have Kante than Hazard going forward well from a purely football perspective then Kante should be worth a ton of money because a contribution higher than Hazard's, a top 20 player in world football, is worth a **** loads of money. And I think there are a few DM's out there whose contribution, Idrissa Gueye including, whose contribution to a team is not too far of Kante's and they should be worth a lot of money too but people won't be of this opinion and I'm guessing that's mainly due to "story" of Kante which is great, etc.. hard not to like the guy.

As I said, I think either Kante or Hazard as POTY is fine and I think it's lol to think anyone is CLEARLY the best player without any means to perfectly compare a DM to a forward but to think that he's going to have the most effect in the long run to a football team is deluded to me.

OAKF (or someone else), just out of curiosity if you were starting a football team for next season and you get to pick any world football player in a draft, where would you pick Kante and cite us some of the best players you'd pick after him ? Purely from a football perspective

MSN up top
Kroos Modric behind them
Kante winning the balls back
Hummels, Tony cbs
Lahm, Sandro full backs
Neuer in goal

Bench Ronaldo, iniesta, ddg, luis, alaba, Aguero

If I could get msn I'd just need Kante as he can win the ball and pass to them. So if by some miricle you get the three of them, you're looking at Kante next - game changer!

Keepers way down list. Full backs are slim pickings so should be a priority too.

So basically last years' team v. this years' team?

Perhaps you're right from a theoretical perspective, however Read Madrid, Barca, PSG and Bayern don't need a bland yet effective DM in order to curb stomp their league. They need guys who look great on 2 min YouTube videos who will sell lots of shirts, hence why Hazard is worth 2x Kante.

Bit confused right now wether the argument of shirt sales as significant revenue driver is to be taken literally or as a shorthand for a larger point explaining why the market (presumably) overpays offensive players compared to DMs etc.

Marketability adds value, that's basically all my point was

The shirt sales argument has been quite thoroughly debunked plenty of times so I assume shorthand.

A lot of preferring Kante is irrational.

Its great to have Hazard and so dont think I dont appreciate, its just there are a few AMs who are just that one level better than him and a few around his level or thereabouts etc etc.

Kante however is peerless at the moment, and if you supported Chelsea when they were ****, it still reverberates to have the literal best playing in the shirt even though we have had plenty of great players in recent times.

Fulham holding would be nice

This might really BE BAIDS!

Welcome back. Thread needs you. Never leave

the truth is that i was offered 3x posting fees by a chinese forum, and its always been my dream to post in china. anyway all you missed out on was 800 posts about how craig shakespeare > jorge sampaoli

Paperwork seems to be in order..

[IMG]http://s1.**********/orig/9/bench-warmers-birth-certificate-funny-movies-**********-170571.jpg[/IMG]

http://www.optasportspro.com/about/o...mbuBlogsyPost#

Decent blog post about finishing.

Stopped reading here.

Why? Baseball has the most advanced metrics of any sport.

That said, batting average is not one of them......

Baseball is also inherently explainable by statistics by its nature. Its basically like cricket which is the most statistical sport here by far. Football is completely different.

I understand, but there are advanced metrics in football too, and people are working on developing them all the time.

It's why recruitment in football doesn't go by "assists" or "goals scored" (I've argued against the assists stat a bunch on here).

I don't think that a game which runs continuously can be explained using raw numbers anywhere close to that which has distinct yet related events (while each pitch in baseball is distinct but the count and game situation very important in analyzing it - not going to see too many curveballs in the dirt on 3-0 with a runner on third etc, each play in the NFL is distinct but unlikely to see too many QB draws on third and 20 from your own 45 etc), but I do think that the stats we see will improve greatly in the coming decades.

There's a ton of money to be made in football recruitment, I think we'll see advanced metrics improve greatly in the coming decade.

Good old 538 talking about it here:

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features...l-lags-behind/

where would antonio conte be in life if he had kept his old hair?

Supposedly there has been a massive bust-up in the Birmingham dressing room after their draw today. lol at the Chelsea chimp.

Also consider much of the advancements likely won't see the light of day for the general public to consume. Edges are so large since the field isn't developed that analytics teams within clubs will be very unwilling to share information. One of the bigger values of analytics to clubs regarding transfers is avoiding BAD transfers more so than making good ones.

Right, I don't doubt for one second that baseball front offices (particularly the Cubs) are using waaaaaaaaaaay more complicated and comprehensive stats than even the OPS+, wRC/wRC+, wOBA etc that us baseball nerds like way more than your standard OBP, K/BB etc.

I would definitely have Thiago ahead of Iniesta and possibly Kroos.