Rockin’ the Casbah

Now over at the temple
Oh, they really pack ’em in
The in-crowd say it’s cool
To dig this chanting thing
But as the wind changed direction
And the temple band took fire
The crowd caught a whiff
Of that crazy Casbah jive

So said The Clash in 1982 …. but what say us …. or more importantly to us Top100 managers …. what say the god of SM player ratings with this massive influx of top footballing talent in the Middle Eastern kingdoms. Not known to be destinations of top shelf talent who could still easily get contracts at the top European leagues, in the top six teams. Not known to offer the personal freedoms that many, if not all of these players, have enjoyed during their professional careers up to this point.

Of course, there is a rather large …. erm …. carrot being offered to help undecided footballers on whether the chance to play in the oasis that is Saudi Arabia is for them …..

A lot of money. A life changing sum, even for footballers, is being used to parachute significant top tier talent into the KSA, to potentially change this league, transform this league, for a number of years.

So who are The Wild Geese …

I asked our SC Internacional player scouting group to put together a list of who has left the relative safety of established leagues and infrastructures to chase the sand dollar … and paired them up with their SM ratings …

The grouping above is by league, by club, with the SM rating added into the last column. The KSA dominate, with a handful of players landing in Qatar (I would hazard a guess that at least two of them have since fired their agents, for not knowing the difference between the KSA and Qatar … as in being separate countries). The three clubs with the most talent brought in, are the household names Al-Ahli, Al-Hilal and Al-Nassr. I stopped at 88 rating, there are eleven (11) 87’s and eleven (11) 86’s as well. Some serious talent assembled at these clubs fellow managers … some serious talent.

Share of SM Talent in KSA and Qatar

The chart below shows, by rating (x-axis), from 96 to 88 the counts of SM players in the KSA and Qatar. For example, of the seven (7) 95’s in our game, two (2) are in the KSA now, Benzema and Neymar. The blue line is a cumulative plot of rating now plying their trade in Middle East, plotted against the second axis (%). For example, of all … ALL … players rated 90 and above, 5% now play in the KSA.

That is a HUGE percentage of players. Crazy times.

What does mean for SM ratings ?

I will defer that supremely talented footballer, known for his intellectualization of tactics, in game modifications and adjustments, a pure understanding of the game …

Sorry … not you Gareth Bale ….

I don’t know what this means … SM rating changes can be on point, or mostly on point. Sometimes it looks like that they asked a monkey to throw darts at a board whilst handing upside down. Perhaps, with such an influx of talent, SM will take a breath, and wait for at least a dozen matches to be played (their seasons have just kicked off), before jumping to conclusions that everyone listed is an automatic -2 in the next review. What I do think will happen is this league will get more than the once every eighteen months (1 in 18) review treatment of the past.

Some owners of these players will be a little nervous holding onto them, unsure of what the future holds. Others will not give a sheet. Some might have already sold them on not wanting to play the ‘meet me at the Istanbul KSA Embassy for a visa and rating appointment’ in the next several months. Just ask Eddie Howe about that playing ten man Liverpool for 62 minutes on Sunday …

What I can tell you … is that our US Fox Sports cable channels are showing Saudi Pro League match replays during the waking hours (sunrise to sunset) of the day. Which they never did before.

Who knows where this all goes …

I have no idea where this all ends up. Does the Saudi Pro League win the ACC Champions Cup 10-0 against some unfortunate South Korean or Japanese side ? How many of these players see out their full contracts ? Do the 35 players listed find themselves rates -2 or -3 in our game in 12 months time ? How do the players feel about the double headers being discussed for matches at the end of season … stonings at 6pm, kick-off at 8pm ?

This story has a lot more legs in it than Sports Illustrated Swim Suit calendar shoot … and a little bit of cheek too ….