24 May 2024 10:58:06
As an aside to any new player and manager signings.
I keep hearing how stats play such an important part in football these days and it got me to thinking (dangerous thing) . How much will AI affect our game?
Will it be the overwhelming influence on tactics, team selection, fitness, recruitment, training and maybe a whole host of different aspects of our game?
Remembering that our games unpredictability is one of its major strengths.
24 May 2024 11:12:15
Very good question Tom and think that my immediate short answer is that it already has been -- compiation of stats, algorithms etc - and may do so even more in future.
Hm, perhaps the mystery candidate to be our next gead coach is Mr I Robot?
24 May 2024 11:23:54
Al is already influencing the world in which we live so no reason football will not go the same way. We moan about VAR and refs but next it will be Al reffing games! give me an old leather football and chopper Harris challenges any day of the week.
24 May 2024 11:40:10
Mr Robot, has he worked with Pep?
24 May 2024 11:56:20
From his c. v. I gather that Mr Robot has only so far worked under someone very well known now in football but simply known as 'The Structure' - presumably a nickname?
Apparently at the moment Mr Robot is still very obedient to the thoughts of those above him. But there of course may be a a dangerous chance that he could develop a mind of his own at some time and take over the whole operation at Stamford Bridge.
24 May 2024 12:08:40
Agree G8 there is no going back.
I will admit though that there are times when I have moments of nostalgia for the days of Chopper Harris, my hero Ozzie, queueing up on match day and still able to get a ticket, smell of hot dogs and ciggy smoke as a child en route to the ground, heavy wet leather balls, soggy pitches, the greyhound track, getting wet in the Shed End as a teenager and only being able to some of the action on the pitch clearly.
My nostalgia now beginning to fade just a bit as I write this! But Perhaps my enjoyment then was as much because I was young and not knowing what a lifetime of fandom would be like and what stamina would be needed to sustain it amid the ups and downs that a bit of it lingers though. Also why I will be Chelsea until someone buries me. in Brompton Cenetery if I'm lucky!
24 May 2024 13:15:46
JBS, do you remember those terrible urinals outside the shed as well? the bucket collections for the boys who had been nicked? the chants of "we are the whitewall", "we are the middle" etc? the chants of "north stand, north stand do your job"? the disabled supporters cars in front of the shed? they were the days.
24 May 2024 13:37:18
Aye, jumpers for goalposts. I certainly don’t miss the toilets. Saturday football a few pints of Double Diamond pre-match. Rush home get changed go up West :end up somewhere like the Sundown- wake up late Sunday rush to the pub to get any many pints down between 12 and 2 - happy days.
24 May 2024 13:45:12
G8 thanks great to have those added memories now vividly back to me too (a bit too vivid those urinals! ) . It's strange what memories first came to mind and what might last more than others for some of us.
24 May 2024 14:08:16
And great ones from you as well Jimbo!
24 May 2024 23:39:33
One week at Stamford Bridge and the next week at craven cottage. The smell of Bivril from a caravan in the shed and a coconut (long story) at half time. At the end of the game jump over the wall onto the dog track and hopefully get an autograph.