CONFIRMED Ehije Ukaki signs from Botev Plovdiv - 3 year contract

[Suomi_Blade]

I think its a good move signing players like this, plenty of other clubs do it and unearth quality unknown talents who go on to have great careers, sometimes it works and others it doesnt - just how it is.

I'll judge him on his performances for us, not prior deciding he's bad / just a waste of ai scouted money.

Give these signings chance to breath

 

[radio]

Welcome to BDTBL enjoy your time with us

 

[Newbury Blade]

Tastes like Coulibaly, this.

Why?

 

[Newbury Blade]

From the Star's article. He's on a deal until 2008 apparently.

View attachment 213226

More evidence the club's going backwards

Blades fans: we need to scout more widely and sign promising players from overseas.
Same Blades fans: let’s rubbish these signings before they’ve even got here.

 

[SUFCScorecard]

For what it's worth, I'm all for this type of signing. It's got high potential upside and fairly low risk if it doesn't work out. I'm excited to see him in action.

Ndiaye, Peck, Osula, Lankshear, One.

They are all players we bought for the youth team. We don't need a large hit rate to make this strategy pay off (1 in 5-10). To buy a top end championship player you are talking a minimum 3-4m so if anyone is a significant contributer that is a big saving. If any going on to make a profit for the club that is huge. We may never see the 3 speculative signings we recently obtained grace the pitch at Bramall lane, but if we sign 10 more, and 2-3 them make a contribution then it will likely be worth it. If 1 becomes a star and goes for big money it will definitely be worth it.

I just hope the board a realistic and don't pressure Wilder to have these players see the field prematurely.

 

[Bell4]

Cannon is in the same age range, but our fans don’t seem to want to give him time and get up to speed.

True

But we've seen Tommy

 

[Berkshire Blade]

Ndiaye, Peck, Osula, Lankshear, One.

David Brooks, jags and loads who didn't quite/haven't yet made the step up

 

[TJ blade]

Looks like he's capable of shooting from outside the box so he'll never fit in.

Looking forward to viewfrom obviously

We'll soon knock that out of him.." we don't do shooting outside the box pal" pack it in

 

[Lord Eddard Muir]

Blades fans: we need to scout more widely and sign promising players from overseas.
Same Blades fans: let’s rubbish these signings before they’ve even got here.

Read the post again.

 

[Old Programme seller]

We love and excel at a free or cheap signing apart from Hamer I can’t think of a player that has regularly done well when we’ve spent £5-6 million and over

 

[RAP51]

I think its a good move signing players like this, plenty of other clubs do it and unearth quality unknown talents who go on to have great careers, sometimes it works and others it doesnt - just how it is.

I'll judge him on his performances for us, not prior deciding he's bad / just a waste of ai scouted money.

Give these signings chance to breath

I've no problem with us taking a gamble on these signings as long as they don't affect our budget for the signings we need to be competitive next season, dominant centre back etc.
If just one succeeds it will have been worth it.
But pre AI us older Blades remember when we were told Ireland was a hot bed of untouched talent and we signed Peter Dornan and Steve McKee.
Dornan a university graduate returned to Ireland as he was bored with full time football though did return to play for Swindon, McKee had a promising debut in our 0-3 defeat to Luton (watched it recently on YouTube) but never established himself.
Unfortunately the odds are against any of these lads succeeding, not pessimistic just realistic

 

[Rodley]

Think it’s great to roll the dice on players like this.

Key balancing act for the board is between these banter signings and quality players being signed who will actually get the club promoted.

 

[Steve Mackan]

Of course he can't because Brooks, Arblaster, Peck, Seriki, Baptiste (1 game I think) are seasoned pros

No, cos he's not good enough.

 

[Steve Mackan]

We need to follow Brighton/Brentford with their scouting - we do that:
"Wilder will never give them a game"
"They aren't good enough"
"Seen them in U21s and he's not good enough"

Brighton/Brentford usually take 18 months to bed in and be given games...

Honestly we bloody love a moan at the lane

Think it's important to point out that what Brighton and Brentford have done is leagues away from what we're doing. These are baby steps towards something, but not towards Brighton/Brentford. Those clubs have owners who leverage their data businesses. We aren't doing that. We can't be sure what we're doing. AI is never going to give us a long-term advantage over the long term unless we have proprietary ownership of the technology, which we almost certainly don't.

I'm not against the signings or the approach. But we ain't talking Brighton/Brentford here.

 

[Berkshire Blade]

Think it's important to point out that what Brighton and Brentford have done is leagues away from what we're doing. These are baby steps towards something, but not towards Brighton/Brentford. Those clubs have owners who leverage their data businesses. We aren't doing that. We can't be sure what we're doing. AI is never going to give us a long-term advantage over the long term unless we have proprietary ownership of the technology, which we almost certainly don't.

I'm not against the signings or the approach. But we ain't talking Brighton/Brentford here.

Wasn't there a report of the guy whose data service we are using being brought into the club ownership eventually

This guy

Sheffield United to AXE club scouts & turn to never-before-seen transfer method

SHEFFIELD UNITED are turning to an Anglo-American AI talent spotting company to find new players — and that will mean the axe for top scouts The Blades are now under American ownership, who plan to…

www.thesun.co.uk

 

[Tony_Kaufman]

AI and human intuition/common sense is the future, qualitative and quantitative. That should be the method. AI won’t account for home sickness, muscle development, language barriers, mental health etc. We can quantify over a season whether they’d fit into our squad technically, but the final decision should be whether they’re mentally prepared.

I might be critical of Wilder, but he knows what’s expected/demanded by the club, he should have final say or at least give his opinion on development. It might be that these lads have it technically, can be developed but might need a loan or two, domestic or abroad, or a specifc training regime.

The main problem with Wilder is that he's rooted in what this club always has been, instead of looking at the potential of what this club could be. We can whatever we want us to be. If we want to be a team that attacks teams with pace, then we can become that by signing players with pace.

Wilder likes things the way they've always been and likes to sign players who could fit into any Sheffield United team of the last 30 years. That for me is the problem and where I can see potential problems ahead.

 

[Steve Mackan]

Wasn't there a report of the guy whose data service we are using being brought into the club ownership eventually

This guy

Sheffield United to AXE club scouts & turn to never-before-seen transfer method

SHEFFIELD UNITED are turning to an Anglo-American AI talent spotting company to find new players — and that will mean the axe for top scouts The Blades are now under American ownership, who plan to…

www.thesun.co.uk

Yeah, he owns Dunfermline. We're basically nabbing the targets they can't afford, but that flag on their systems. But the reality is, these players are also flagged elsewhere. It's not as if AI can magic them out of thin air.

 

[Ball_Sup (Phil)]

Ndiaye, Peck, Osula, Lankshear, One.

They are all players we bought for the youth team. We don't need a large hit rate to make this strategy pay off (1 in 5-10). To buy a top end championship player you are talking a minimum 3-4m so if anyone is a significant contributer that is a big saving. If any going on to make a profit for the club that is huge. We may never see the 3 speculative signings we recently obtained grace the pitch at Bramall lane, but if we sign 10 more, and 2-3 them make a contribution then it will likely be worth it. If 1 becomes a star and goes for big money it will definitely be worth it.

I just hope the board a realistic and don't pressure Wilder to have these players see the field prematurely.

The thing is, when we signed Peck, Osula, Lankshear, and indeed David Brooks, we had what I will call "reassuring and comforting signals". They had all been initially recruited to high level, elite, Premier League Academies. We had a "first opinion" if you like. Because of that, those signings seemed less of a shot in the dark.

There would be a similar argument with Oné. The reassuring and comforting signals being the number of senior games he had played in a league that English Clubs are familiar with.

In data modelling terms, you have (I'm arguing) more uncertainty by signing development players with fewer reassuring and comforting signals.

 

[Suomi_Blade]

Unfortunately the odds are against any of these lads succeeding, not pessimistic just realistic

Isn't that the story of all footballers?

 

[Mendi]

Good luck to him.

 

[Kev Gee]

GTTL.
Hopefully he comes in. Impresses in training and managers to get a loan move at the end of the window to a L1 club.

Reg all the ESC players. They all need to be targeting a loan move this window.

 

[Blade_In_Sydney]

We'll soon knock that out of him.." we don't do shooting outside the box pal" pack it in

How strange. Maybe my mind is playing tricks, but I'm sure there was a shot by a United player from outside the box at Wembley just the other day. Some guy called Burrows I seem to remember.

 

[TJ blade]

How strange. Maybe my mind is playing tricks, but I'm sure there was a shot by a United player from outside the box at Wembley just the other day. Some guy called Burrows I seem to remember.

Good average that in a season

 

[MTBlade]

Unfortunately the odds are against any of these lads succeeding, not pessimistic just realistic

I think this can be the same for all signings, to be fair.

Some work, some don't.

It will be interesting to see if the additional use of AI working closely with the managament and scouting team, improves our success rate with signings.

For every good one, theres been at least one, that hasnt worked over many years now.

 

[AWetFlannel]

It's interesting that so far the new recruitment strategy has seen three wingers through the door.

Last season Wilder chose a formation that favoured wingers but played players out of position instead of bringing in wingers. We saw two strikers play on the wings in Brewster and Brereton-Diaz, two central midfielders play on the wings in Hamer and O'Hare, and two wingers who failed to hold down starting places in Brooks and Rak-Sayki.

Is this the new owners way of trying to fix the square pegs in round holes that made us so disjointed and awful to watch?

BBD has played as a winger far more than as a striker, and Brewster has played as well out wide than upfront.

 

[LBA_Blade]

Sport is going that way, I have been watching SailGP from it's inception and the amount of data points that they collect from the boats are insane, each boat has 125 sensors with about 35,000 data points per second. They have AI interfaces to be able to watch the racing with multiple split screens but also for umpire decisions (they are based in London regardless of where the race is held). Team managers are pretty much data analysts. We have to move with the times and tech available.

 

[Steve Mackan]

The thing is, when we signed Peck, Osula, Lankshear, and indeed David Brooks, we had what I will call "reassuring and comforting signals". They had all been initially recruited to high level, elite, Premier League Academies. We had a "first opinion" if you like. Because of that, those signings seemed less of a shot in the dark.

There would be a similar argument with Oné. The reassuring and comforting signals being the number of senior games he had played in a league that English Clubs are familiar with.

In data modelling terms, you have (I'm arguing) more uncertainty by signing development players with fewer reassuring and comforting signals.

I think that's the point innit? The AI filters out the emotion (reassurance and comfort) and flags a player that has decent numbers in a system (academy or first team) that isn't as well-developed as ours. And then, maybe they thrive. It's just playing with greater uncertainty for the sake of playing with greater uncertainty. High risk. High reward. In keeping with THE OWNERS' brand.

 

[Ned the Donkey]

Fear about housing, feeding, english ability, ethos, culture, are all things that should be looked at, sure, but they should be minor considerations compared to the main event - Footballing ability.

It's fuck all to do with "fear".

These are all practical considerations beyond the reach of "AI" but within the understanding of an actual human person.

And "footballing ability" is part of a bigger picture. KDB failed at Chelsea. Salah failed at Chelsea. Closer to home Paul Coutts was a total waste of time, space, and money for a very long time. Then he becomes a midfield god for a season and a half. Literally the same player at the same club. I'm curious how "AI" is going to account for that.

Clearly none of this had anything to do with "footballing ability".

If we're going to deploy "AI" then we need someone who knows how to use it.

So far I've seen no evidence at all that anyone at the controls knows what they're doing.

 

[Grappler]

On a related topic, I'd never given much thought to Plovdiv as a place, but looking at the pictures, it appears to be like a cross between Ancient Rome and "The Village" from the 1960's TV show, "The Prisoner"!

 

[thehet]

I wonder what is so special about our AI/“data driven” tool compared to other clubs’ such that we’ve identified these players as ones to buy and the others haven’t.