Billy Beane And San Jose Earthquakes Team Up With Tottenham Spurs And Their Sinking Ship

The San Jose Earthquakes, and their ownership led by the Oakland A’s GM Billy Beane, have decided to make a move more puzzling than our decision to buy stocks last week (we were sure they’d go no lower!). They’ve decided to start a ‘football and commercial development’ partnership with EPL’s Tottenham Spurs in one of those intercontinental and inter-league mashups that’s so popular with the kids today. They’re joining the ranks of Chelsea/Galaxy and Arsenal/Colorado except… how do we put this lightly… Spurs suck. Really hard. But this alliance didn’t take because of finances or talent, but Beane’s love of everything Spurs. However, why does the man who made his name in Moneyball finding diamonds in rough want to deal with a team who’s spending over a $100 million and is in dead last place in the EPL? Especially when he give interviews to the Guardian where he continues to voice that feeling?

“Big teams like Manchester United can get the best players because they have got the resources but most clubs can’t do business the Manchester United way and expect to survive, never mind compete. The trick is to find a way to compete, using metrics [statistics] and finding areas that have been neglected,” he said.

“The idea is that we were seeking undervalued assets in an inefficient market,” he said. “What we tried to do was find value in areas where most people weren’t necessarily applying the right values. And we did that cost-effectively.”

Yeah, look at these signings over the past couple of summers. Darrent Bent is currently sucking after a £16.5m transfer fee. Luka Modric says he still hasn’t gotten used to the speed of the EPL game at £16.6. Russian UEFA Cup star Roman Pavlyuchenko is now hurt, but (you guessed it) was sucking it up after getting signed costing the Spurs £13.8. They’re not Cristiano Rolando-to-Real Madrid numbers, but they add up and for what they’re paying, we wonder if Beane’s management style can be a true transfer to cure the management ills of Tottenham.
Spurs announce San Jose deal [Sky Sports]
Tottenham net role in revolution as Beane pitches success on a budget [Guaridan UK]
Image [SI/Sun UK]