Billy Beane, the real-life inspiration for Brad Pitt’s character in the movie Moneyball, has an association with AZ Alkmaar that goes back nearly a decade. He has praised the Dutch side as “one of the best untold stories in sports” and is proud to be associated with them. Beane was asked to help by Robert Eenhoorn, a Dutchman who played four seasons in Major League Baseball and was appointed general director of AZ in 2014. Beane’s methods of statistical data analysis have been used to turn around the fortunes of Major League Baseball team Oakland Athletics, and have since been applied to other teams in both baseball and football.
AZ Alkmaar are used to operating on a lower budget and with a smaller infrastructure than their rivals, both at home and in Europe. West Ham’s total revenue was £192.1m compared to AZ’s £19m (21.08m euros) and West Ham’s wage bill was £128.45m compared to AZ’s £14.13m (16.2m euros). London Stadium has a 62,500 capacity compared to AZ’s AFAS Stadium, which holds 19,500. Domestically, eight Dutch clubs have a bigger ground than AZ, who are dwarfed by Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord. Yet with three games of the domestic campaign remaining, AZ are well placed to secure their fifth top-four Eredivisie finish in six seasons.
Beane has said that data analysis methods are transferrable to other sports, and that AZ have proved this by making smart decisions when it comes to recruitment. He cites the example of Vincent Janssen and Alireza Jahanbakhsh, who were brought in for less than £1m and were later sold to Tottenham and Brighton respectively for a combined £33m. Beane also believes that data is not everything and rejects the notion that it will drive traditional scouting out of the game. He believes that it is important for scouts to provide information that cannot be found from data, such as what kind of team-mate a player is or what kind of student they were.
Brighton and Brentford are two examples of Premier League clubs who have added a strong data element to their recruitment policy and are getting the benefits with performances far above their perceived standing in the game. However, Beane feels it will take one of those clubs to shake up the elite for a true understanding of what data analysis can provide takes hold across the game. West Ham’s push for a first European final in 47 years is about to come up against Mr Moneyball himself as they face AZ Alkmaar in the first leg of their Europa Conference League semi-final on Thursday.