Inspiring

An opulent spa town in North Yorkshire might not be the leading location for an up-and-coming football club, but one League Two side is set to dissuade those beliefs.

Nicknamed the Sulphurites for the town's healing sulfur springs, Harrogate Town will be playing in the Football League this season for the first time in its 106-year history. And the man responsible for this transformation also happens to be the longest-serving manager in English football.

I don't care how sophisticated of a model you have, nothing could've predicted some of the events that unfolded in Week 4 of the Premier League. And honestly that's a big part of what makes sports, and soccer in particular, so much fun. A huge part of the game is due to luck and random chance — two things any statistical or machine learning model (or human gut feelings for that matter) can never account for. 

The El Clasico history and corresponding rivalry between Barcelona and Real Madrid is entirely without equal in the world of sports. To say otherwise is to be completely ignorant of the animosity between these two clubs forged over conflicts of identity, philosophy, civil war and the simple fact that these two great cities frequently house the best football teams on the planet.