Winning with the Invisible Laws of Chance

The hidden laws of chance that decide who wins in football - and how one man learned to exploit them.

Football is a game of skill and chance. Skill belongs to the individual, but chance controls the outcome - because football, at its core, is a team game.

Neil Lanham saw what no one else did. Working as a performance analyst in the English Football League, he uncovered the invisible laws of chance that govern team performance, then built a method to exploit them. Between 1980 and 2000, his analysis was instrumental in eight promotions and relegation escapes - a record no coach or player can match.

His method was simple: strip away myth and opinion, factually analyse every touch of the ball in every possession across thousands of matches and let the patterns speak for themselves. From the World Cup to the lower leagues, the same laws held. No magic formula - just logic applied to data before the data age had even begun.

Now, for the first time, Neil's methods and the story behind them are published in full. Winning with the Invisible Laws of Chance reveals what those laws are, why they still matter in modern football analytics and how they can be applied at every level of the game.

Packed with sharp, funny anecdotes about figures including Dave Bassett, Graham Taylor, Steve Coppell, Jack Charlton, John Docherty and John Beck, this book is as entertaining as it is revelatory. An essential guide for anyone wanting an insight into match-winning football.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Whitefox Publishing Ltd
Published: 05/27/2026
ISBN: 9781918661019
Pages: 336
Weight: 1.04lbs
Size: 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.75d