Winning with the Invisibles
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€25.99
A01=Neil Lanham
Author_Neil Lanham
Cambridge United FC
Category=PBT
Category=SCX
Category=SFBC
Charles Hughes
Charles Reep
Dave Bassett
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_sports-fitness
football data analysis
football's data revolution
forthcoming
John Beck
John Docherty
Sheffield United
Wimbledon FC
Product details
- ISBN 9781836804345
- Dimensions: 144 x 222mm
- Publication Date: 27 Apr 2026
- Publisher: Pitch Publishing Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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Winning with the Invisibles is the untold story of Neil Lanham, an unheralded statistician who became one of football’s trailblazing analysts and helped start a silent revolution. He talked his way into his first job in football with John Docherty at Cambridge United, where he devised a system to decode what was really happening on the pitch. His discoveries about the numbers that matter in winning games were ground-breaking. Lanham’s breakthrough came with Wimbledon’s Crazy Gang, when he helped Dave Bassett transform a squad of so-called misfits and journeymen into one of English football’s most unlikely and heart-warming fairy tales, as they rose from the lower divisions to the top flight and FA Cup glory. Success followed at Sheffield United and back at Cambridge with John Beck, though Neil’s contributions were often undervalued, even by club directors. He compensated with bold wagers at the bookies, backing his insights in an era when betting on your own team was still allowed. This is the story of one of the invisible pioneers who kicked off football’s data revolution, but whose theories may outrage today’s tacticians.
Neil Lanham is a pioneering football analyst whose work helped Wimbledon and Sheffield United into the top flight and Cambridge United to back-to-back promotions. Building on the theories of the legendary Charles Reep, and basing his ideas on observation and measurement rather than subjective opinion, he developed new insights into what it takes to win football matches.
