04/25/24
February 18, 2012
SportsFilter: The Saturday Huddle:
A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.
Well, ESPN does fail it often.
posted by insomnyuk at 09:55 AM on February 18, 2012
And nobody at the network could figure this out ahead of time? Guess ESPN is spending too much time working on funny commercials.
posted by dyams at 10:29 AM on February 18, 2012
Wow. That's really mind blowing.
posted by tahoemoj at 10:59 AM on February 18, 2012
Nationalities of Managers in European leagues. Interesting comparison at the least.
posted by billsaysthis at 02:13 PM on February 18, 2012
That seems completely skewed by the fact the league is "English" while it sits in the British Isles. It's still the biggest foreign-coached league, but 13-7 is less eye-catching than 17-3.
posted by yerfatma at 10:24 AM on February 19, 2012
Why count British coaches in an English league?
posted by rcade at 11:00 AM on February 19, 2012
Because the other countries in the comparison aren't direct analogies. Should be only count Bavarian coaches in the Budesliga? I'd also argue that the Dutch and Portugese leagues are tough comparisons because there just isn't the same amount of money available. Some of the percentage of foreign coaches is the amount of money available to pay for the world's best talent.
Alternatively, why not include the MLS in the comparison? Lot of foreign flags in that list.
posted by yerfatma at 02:05 PM on February 19, 2012
I don't know which British countries have teams in the top ranks of the Football Association. But for an apples to apples comparison, only those should be included.
Is Portugal the country where almost no players are foreign?
posted by rcade at 02:36 PM on February 19, 2012
But for an apples to apples comparison, only those should be included.
I don't think such a thing is possible. There seems to be a giant hang-up/ national insecurity in England that because World Cups have tended to be won by teams whose manager is from the same country that it must be so and England's lack of homegrown management bespeaks an endemic failure that points to some fatal flaw in the national character.
If we're asking for apples-to-apples, consider this, based on square miles:
Germany: 113% the size of the entire British Isles Spain: 160% France: 214%
Italy is slightly smaller, the Netherlands and Portugal are much smaller. I think the countries might be slightly different culturally and linguistically as well. I love stats as much as 97% of the next guys, but this feels like the sort of manufactured stat that serves no purpose other than to start arguments at a bar.
posted by yerfatma at 03:27 PM on February 19, 2012
Alternatively, why not include the MLS in the comparison? Lot of foreign flags in that list.
Because this is about managers in top European leagues, written by an Englishman.
posted by billsaysthis at 11:40 AM on February 20, 2012
ESPN: "Chink in the armour" headline used for Jeremy Lin story, and on air