Is that Bernie on BBC website?

[Biggin Hill Fox]

On the BBC homepage an article called 'Less-ester, explaining the Leicester City story to Americans' has a picture of wild Bernie.

That's it we truly made it.

[Guest Sharpe's Fox]

When we win the league Bernie will revert to his godlike true form.

[stevelcfc]

AHHHAHAHAHHAAHHAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH BLAHHHHAH RAWHWHHWHWHHHHHH

 

Fvck the tottyham

 

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[RoboFox]

When we win the league Bernie will revert to his godlike true form.

 

He'll go SUPER SAYAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGH

 

[ozleicester]

Im pretty sure thats Mandaric in face paint 

[RedSoxUK]

It's hard to put up a comparison, the best anyone can do communicating with Americans is tell them about football as opposed to trying to work out a comparison, there just isn't.

 

Oakland A's is a good shout because they defied the odds, achieving the 2nd best record of all the 30 teams in that season (2nd by one loss to the Yankees), with the third lowest payroll and budget, a fraction of what the Yankees had. Not making the World Series or winning the whole think did not matter, it matters to fans of course, but in history that Athletics team is remembered for the strak; akin to Vardy's goalscoring streak. And now for finding a winning forumlae on a budget, while beating all the big boys and surpassing them. Tremendous story for baseball, but ours is bigger.

 

One of the things untouched in the film, but is a real focus point in the book is the draft, and the scouting. There's a huge emphasis on players that shouldn't be, outcasts if you will. And they managed to sign all of the players they wanted in a big haul; that's what set the future of baseball scouting and drafting. In the same way we plucked a spiky non-league striker from complete anonymity, Oakland did relatively the equivelent.Oakland had to stay way clear of players and agents, not even watching them just so other teams didn't get wind of their interest. Just by being watched automatically raised their value. I see the similiarities now in players we're scouting or watching even in last summers window. Our future signings will have to be kept very quiet. Can imagine us signing a player without any previous knowledge or reports because of this. I know agents leak info as do players to garner more interest and price, but we'll be doing our business very quietly to avoid being outpriced in the market.

[The Blur]

It's hard to put up a comparison, the best anyone can do communicating with Americans is tell them about football as opposed to trying to work out a comparison, there just isn't.

 

Oakland A's is a good shout because they defied the odds, achieving the 2nd best record of all the 30 teams in that season (2nd by one loss to the Yankees), with the third lowest payroll and budget, a fraction of what the Yankees had. Not making the World Series or winning the whole think did not matter, it matters to fans of course, but in history that Athletics team is remembered for the strak; akin to Vardy's goalscoring streak. And now for finding a winning forumlae on a budget, while beating all the big boys and surpassing them. Tremendous story for baseball, but ours is bigger.

 

One of the things untouched in the film, but is a real focus point in the book is the draft, and the scouting. There's a huge emphasis on players that shouldn't be, outcasts if you will. And they managed to sign all of the players they wanted in a big haul; that's what set the future of baseball scouting and drafting. In the same way we plucked a spiky non-league striker from complete anonymity, Oakland did relatively the equivelent.Oakland had to stay way clear of players and agents, not even watching them just so other teams didn't get wind of their interest. Just by being watched automatically raised their value. I see the similiarities now in players we're scouting or watching even in last summers window. Our future signings will have to be kept very quiet. Can imagine us signing a player without any previous knowledge or reports because of this. I know agents leak info as do players to garner more interest and price, but we'll be doing our business very quietly to avoid being outpriced in the market.

 

I saw the movie and thought it was a great film but I will be interested to know why you think our achievement is bigger?  Is it because football is on more global scale or is there a bigger gap between top four and us than between Oakland and New York? 

[RedSoxUK]

I saw the movie and thought it was a great film but I will be interested to know why you think our achievement is bigger?  Is it because football is on more global scale or is there a bigger gap between top four and themselves than between Oakland and New York? 

 

To go from relative obscurity in the Championship just a few seasons ago, to topping the richest league in football, it's just unheard of. People talk about what Forest did, and although that's a massive massive sporting achievement. The difference between a promoted club in Forest's era, and the very top clubs of the 1st div then, was no way near as far apart as it is today. It's a massive achievement winning promotion, then winning the league and a cup, then the European honours that followed for Forest. But in today's market the financial gap, or what the top can afford compared to the bottom, is massive. Only now in the Premier League are we starting to see a shift, from affording the best, to affording the most expensive. Payet, Kante, Alli, these are not expensive players when we consider the amount of money the big 4/5 are willing to spend. So I think there's a much greater financial gap that would put our (potential) win above Forests', but I don't think we'll come close to winning in Europe, but it was different back then too.

 

In terms of the 2001 and then 2002 Oakland A's, they operated in a similiar fashion to what we see now, affording what they consider to be the best, without being able to afford the most expensive. They lost key players due to expense, and they replaced them with cheaper, and arguably better players, using statistics, major league and college, to determine who on paper would fit in a winning side. Because it's one pitcher vs one batter, there's a bigger room for judging how one will influence and perform over 162 games rather than say, a right back for a Premier League team over 38 games vs 19 potentially a lot more left attackers and left backs. 

 

Although the financial gap was mega between the Yankees and the A's, it's what the franchise decides to spend their money on that ultimately points to their actual success, The A's team completely exploited the system, Paul DePodesta's data specifically outlined statistically superior players who the A's could afford. So in terms of actual quality, they were not far behind the richest teams, if you get that. Yankees could buy the percieved best player because they could, A's could have bought an actual better player for far cheaper, Yankees are still suffering because they over pay for players today. Due to the sheer number of baseball players, and non-organizational college and high school players, signing a future star or a current one is somewhat easier for a baseball team, that it would be for us. So the 25-30 players the A's mostly used in that 2002 season were not at all bad players to begin with, some were 'undervalued', though they certainly were not expected to compete at the top due to the financial differences, but also because of the sheer ignorance of other ball clubs and the media.

 

They were not predicted to finish near the bottom, they were still a good team, just operating on a tiny budget: http://a.espncdn.com/mlb/s/2002/1029/1452820.html

In sheer opposites, we were predicted to be relagted by almost everyone, even I believed we would do well to stay up this year, and doing it with this squad of players, with the money we've paid for them and what we pay them. It's absolutely phenominal. Whether we've actually undervalued our own, somewhat in the style of the A's, i think comes down to the scouting team, Walsh and Rudkin, but to achieve a Premier League title when everyone, including the clubs owners are expecting to go down, that's big. There are 15/16 other teams with players and money that on paper are supposed to be better than us.

[Rincewind]

I  think I posted something similar in the football forum from my phone. Never realised it could be the  same story. Apologies.

Anyway from the little I read and correct me if wrong. (I intended to read it later) why City's story is different in most American sports there are no relegation promotion in the leagues so a team from lower divisions cannot rise to the top.

Over here the richest teams have the first choice of the MVP so for a team to win something through effort and determination is rare.