If you ever feel that British football clubs are too dependent on hunches, and feeling, and splashing millions on players who look good but don't do much, this is a story to keep an eye on:

Billy Beane could change the way you think about soccer.

Yes, that Billy Beane. It's getting old, this business of running a contender at half the price. This isn't the year to brag about it, not with his A's on pace for their first losing season since 1998, but this is a reasonable time for the general manager to try something new.

Try a foreign language. Translate "Moneyball" from baseball to soccer.

That's Moneyball, probably the most influential sports book of the last decade.