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Manchester City and the City Football Group has hired a rocket scientist.
The news today swept through social media as many wondered why?
#ManCity have employed several rocket scientists. Former astrophysicist and Treasury policy adviser Laurie Shaw was employed as ‘lead artificial scientist’ in January and @ManCity have made at least three other similar appointments.
— City Xtra (@City_Xtra) March 22, 2021
[via @Jack_Gaughan]https://t.co/iq2LupkQtx
It seems simple. To gain an advantage on other elite clubs all over the world. The new arms race seems to be in data/analytics and having an advantage here could do wonders.
With expected goals and many other new statistics being used to understand player performance, it only makes sense for City to hire someone who could pivot from analyzing rocket fuel/dimensions to these new data points in football.
Step one though might be tighter security around their entry points considering the hacking scandal of a few years ago from a former City staffer at Liverpool.
Alas, this hire and the other rumored one’s of similar fields of study could prove very worthwhile. If nothing else it provides more data points for the entire City Football Group netwrok which now is over 10 clubs worldwide.