I check whether a signing is likely to hold up in your league, and I tell you where the data can't see. Everything I'd build for you, I've already built in public.
Second opinion €200Shortlist brief €600Retainer from €400 a month
Editors and brands: analysis pieces and graphics.
13,908 transfers. One dot each.
One player, six questions, one verdict. This is what you get, in the order you get it.
Position labels lie. I group players by where and how they act on the ball, so he's compared with players who do his job, not with everyone who wears his number.
His profile against every regular in his role and league, from chances and shooting to link play, carrying and defending. Then my finishing and passing models, which separate skill from luck, and how he's trended over his recent seasons. Where he stands out, and where he doesn't.
Every league move has a track record. For strikers leaving the Championship, 47% of 241 held their level in their first season and 33% never won a regular place. That's the base rate: a prior, not a verdict on the player.
Event data can't see runs in behind or how hard a striker presses. The report says plainly where the numbers stop, so you know what they leave open.
A fair price with a range, learned from what clubs actually paid for players like him. Price any player yourself in the price app.
One word up front, a one-page answer behind it, then the detail if you want it, with the limits stated.
Ask for a Second opinion, €200Type a player. You get a fair price and its range, plus what a Premier League club would pay and what anyone else would, learned from 3,226 fees clubs actually paid. It's the price part of a Second opinion, and it's free.
€–
The fair price is what clubs have paid for players like him: same worth, age, role, league and situation. Premier League clubs pay more for the same player, so it is the mix of the two prices by how often players like him go there. Worth is what his profile alone is valued at.
One defined question, a fixed price, the method handed over with the answer. Each service is something I've already done in public: read the free version before you pay for any of it.
A short report on one player: the role he actually plays, how good he is in it (his profile against his role in his league and in yours, finishing and passing models, his trend), the base rate for his move, his fair price, what the data can't see, and a sign / monitor / pass verdict.
Built on: which leagues produce successful transfers and the price model (try it).
First, what your squad is actually short of, measured against teams that play like you. Then a target profile, candidates filtered and ranked for your league, fees and contracts checked. A one-page answer up front.
Built on: what Juventus are short of and finding their missing midfielder, the whole process done in public.
An agreed number of reports or shortlist updates each month, scoped together. Offered after a first project, so we both know how the other works.
My models cover 17 leagues in Europe and the Americas, the big five among them. Tell me the league you need and I'll say whether it's one of them.
On paid work I run the same pipeline on the data you already license (Wyscout, StatsBomb or Opta). That covers any league, and academy football too.
I graded about 72 of my own transfer calls in public. More right than wrong, and the misses are in there too.
Jonathan David, whom I misprofiled. Højlund, Modrić, Grønbæk. I've never worked inside a club, so this is how you can check my judgement before hiring it.
Read “Was I Right?”A model that prices players from real transfer fees, with a range, and shows how often the range was right (about 80% of fees land inside an 80% range). Free to use.
Open the price app13,908 transfers judged on the first season after the move. The full write-up is out in December. The September version is already public: it added a control group and retracted one of my own earlier claims.
Read the September versionEvery model behind this page is written up: transfer success, fair price, roles, team style, team ratings, defensive value, skill models and tracking work. So is the October 2026 rebuild of the whole pipeline, with what it changed.
See the methodOne person who can find the story in the data, write it and draw it, in Italian or English.
Commissioned analysis piece, from €150. Graphics, €25 each.
Ask for a quote
It turns by itself. Swipe sideways on the trackpad to push it, stop it or send it back. All personal projects.
Most clubs buy around transfer windows. In between, The Cutback publishes recruitment work in full: methods, models, and the calls I got wrong.
Get the next piece in your inboxI'm Davide, a football data analyst in Turin. Data visualisation is what I do best; recruitment is where I'm pointing it. I work freelance with Math&Sport on event and aggregated data, and I have an MA in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Turin, which still shapes how I read collective behaviour on the pitch.
I've never worked inside a club, so I publish everything. I'm a Juventus fan and I say so. I use AI to help me build and edit, and I'm open about that too.
If you're not sure which one you need, send me the problem in two lines. I'll tell you honestly whether I can help, and if I can't.
Sending opens your email app with your answers filled in. I'll reply personally, usually with a couple of questions before we talk.