I think that the real reason is the weather, until the advent of the premier league and the huge cash injection that came with it pitches deteriorated to mud pa

I think that the real reason is the weather, until the advent of the premier league and the huge cash injection that came with it pitches deteriorated to mud patches by november. Passing balls around in the pouring rain on mud with zero drainage is a mugs game. Two things; ok there appears to have been an obvious fallacy in the reasoning, but the data was gathered at the wrong time - the game was changing, TV was becoming fundamental to it, chopper Harris was disappearing and strange things like fitness were becoming important. Secondly and most importantly, the analysis revealed something that was quite widely believed already. Ok it was wrong, but it was believed, and immediately evidence of the success of the strategy was assembled. I see this all the time; confirm someones ideas with data and you will be loved. It's rare that you will be found out, and even when you are it might be 20 years before it happens.