Best in Football Writing Last Week: Football Shirts, Stats in the Lower Leagues & ASPIRE in Belgium

1. EAT Y’SELF FITTER: DATA ANALYSIS IN THE LOWER LEAGUES
Scott Salter for In Bed With Maradona
There has been an apparently endless flow of articles on data analysis yet most have focused on what this can bring at the highest level. The implication is that the use of data is limited lower down the league structure through a combination of lack of resources and conservative attitudes. Which makes this piece — an interview with Cheltenham’s analyst Tim Bell — all the more interesting as it provides a clearer look at what happens at one such club.

Memorable Quote: “We now know after a year of using data what you’re good at, what to avoid and that we’re in a strong position heading into the game.”

2. A LOVER’S GUIDE TO FOOTBALL SHIRTS
Neil Heard with The Set Pieces
I’m always surprised when I see good friends of mine — normally level headed people with a fairly decent fashion sense — line up to buy the latest football shirt that their club has put out. I find myself asking whether they actually intend to wear that and am astonished when they actually do. So I wouldn’t think of myself as being the right demographic for an article about football shirts. Yet this interview with Neil Heard, who has put out a book on this subject, really caught and kept my attention.

Memorable Quote: “Take Southampton, for example: imagine they had come out in red-and-white stripes again. What’s the point of doing kits like that year after year?”

3. KAS EUPEN — BUILDING DREAMS FOR QATAR 2022
Manuel Veth for Fusballstadt
So many teams have foreign owners these days that news of another side being acquired by foreign investors no longer elicits the interest that it once did. That probably is why the story of KAS Eupen has passed by almost unobserved. Yet that might not be the case for much longer depending how the club purchased by Qatar’s ASPIRE Foundation back in 2012 — apparently in an attempt to provide playing time for graduates of the same foundation — does following its promotion to the Belgian top flight.

Memorable Quote: “Critics now believe that Aspire’s goal is to build a team that will represent Qatar at the 2022 World Cup by using its international academies, and by employing KAS Eupen as a farm team to steel players in European competitions.”