It's Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski.
The ball is round and has many surprises.
Yup, "Soccernomics" is how the book is being called now. Quite a good read. I think they're quite right in their assertion about managers generally, (outdone in importance by the right people being in control of buying players was the main point as I recall) though they never claim they're meaningless to the process, just a convenient scapegoat when things go wrong. In United's case its absolutely a confluence of factors (manager struggling to adapt to new surroundings, transfer issues, ageing squad, new coaching regime etc), not least the sudden absence of the Ferguson presence, which was an aberration to the football cycle of managers.
But in this case, it's Cobh. They were hardly expecting a rocket to the top tier were they, no offence?
Author of Never Felt Better (History, Film Reviews).
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