Chido Obi | 2024/25 Performances

[Pogue Mahone]

So absolutely nothing to do with my opinion most players are as fast as they'll become by about 21.

At this stage I’m wondering if you’re on a wind up but yeah, I think evidence that a player ran faster aged 32 than he did in any of the previous 3 years does actually have something to do with that opinion.

 

[ROFLUTION]

Yeah maybe.

I find the demand for data in debates a bit of an end point really. Specific to this debate I don't think speed data was even properly collected until a few years ago. I've also got a 20min downtime at work, fancied a bit of football chat. Really don't have the energy to start researching peer reviewed data.

And I also trust myself to be able to see if a player has got faster or slower. There's something a bit robotic and sad about needing data to give an opinion on something so straightforward.

I obviously hope Obi gets quicker. It would really help him.

But I also think it's very feasible he just turns out to be a player who isn't particularly quick.

To call it sad is over the top. It’s just a way of confirming a theory/whether one’s perception actually holds up to reality.

You could look at the “my perception is the right way” approach with other angles/criticism too. One doesn’t perceive the improvement in speed if only there’s small degrees of improvement over 5 years. Van Persie seemed fast and explosive to me around age 28 but I never noticed him being fast at age 21.