Norwich City’s majority shareholder, Mark Attanasio, is set to bolster the club's analytical framework through the acquisition of src ftbl, a football analytics company, as first reported by The Pink'un. This strategic move aims to significantly enhance the Canaries’ in-house analytical capabilities, impacting crucial areas such as player recruitment, performance assessment, and transfer strategies. Read more about Norwich City Target Tomasson for Head Coach Role.
For the past three years, src ftbl has served as an external consultant for Norwich City, particularly since Ben Knapper took on the role of sporting director. Attanasio’s Norfolk Holdings is now in the final stages of acquiring the US-based firm, marking a pivotal moment in the club's commitment to leveraging data analytics in football. Read more about Norwich City Faces Fury After Directors' Lounge Incident.
Founded in 2022, src ftbl was established by Sarah Rudd, a former vice president of analytics at Arsenal, and her husband, Ravi Ramineni, who currently serves as the director of quantitative analysis for LA Galaxy. Rudd's professional relationship with Knapper dates back to their time at Arsenal, where they collaborated during his tenure as lead analyst and loans manager. Their partnership at Norwich has enabled src ftbl to provide vital insights through data analysis, enhancing the club's strategic operations. Read more about Knapper Faces Fan Backlash After Manning's Sacking.
Cole Grossman, src ftbl’s co-founder and chief operating officer, has maintained an active presence at the club, attending matches alongside Knapper and other officials, including the recent 1-1 draw against Sheffield Wednesday.
If this acquisition is finalised, it would represent only the second such deal in English football, following Arsenal's purchase of the Chicago-based StatDNA in December 2012, a deal reportedly valued at over £2 million. Rudd, who joined Arsenal as a result of that transaction, has previously praised Knapper’s analytical skills, stating, “Ben was there from day one of StatDNA. He is incredibly well-versed in using data to analyse the game and is now using it in a recruitment context, so I think that was a clever shift in terms of the personnel doing the scouting."
Attanasio’s pursuit of a data-centric strategy at Norwich City mirrors his success in baseball, where he has effectively utilised analytics to help the Milwaukee Brewers outperform teams with larger budgets. In a recent podcast, he elaborated on Norwich's analytics journey: “I'm mindful that if I look at our analytics programme in Milwaukee, it really started in earnest in 2014. So we're about 10 or 12 years in. This is not equivalent - I'd say that we were at that point about a year ago, and we're at the equivalent of 2018 now.”
He acknowledged the challenges faced in this transformative process: “We're starting to get up the curve, but one of the challenges is that as you get more steeped in it and hire more people, in the beginning you don't know what you don't know. We have many more professionals working on it now than we did last year, but at Milwaukee we've got over 40.”
Attanasio also highlighted the difficulties in translating analytical data into practical strategies on the pitch: “If you go to guys on the pitch with a notebook full of stuff, that's very, very hard to translate. There's also a lot more motion here than baseball. There it's the most point-to-point measurement of all the sports, and here it's a little more complicated than that.” He concluded with a positive outlook on the club's progress, stating, “I'd say that if it's a 90-minute match, we're in minute 20, maybe more than that.”
As Norwich City embarks on this new chapter, the integration of src ftbl into their operational framework promises to enhance their analytical capabilities, positioning the club for a future grounded in data-driven decision-making.