Asunto: National Team

Looks like more NT cuts are going to have to be made. I'll get around to finding out some latest skills from these players and then wield my axe to get it back down to the current requirements of 40, otherwise we can't play any U21 or competition games this season due to the low squad numbers. Expect a large chunk of quality to be cut, we'll need to cut 32 players just to reach the new requirement.

Believe it's too low but currently can't add players to the squad. Would have thought 60-70 would have been better but it's not to be. When I make these decisions I'll let you all know who ended up getting the cut. I will strongly emphasize though that this doesn't mean they won't make the NT, it's just to conform to these pointless regulations. Any of those who I drop will be added to the observe section so I'll still be keeping track of their form/eligibility but it makes it an uglier and less friendly solution.

In other news have booked a match with Hellas for this weekend. I'm through my busy period and should now be free for the rest of the season and more emphasis will be put into the role.

Expect a few skmails over the next day or two as I start grabbing some player updates. Of course, if you've been updating me with them you probably won't receive any. Just want to make sure when I cut players, that they're the right ones to cut whilst also going on the hunt for an U21 team for any U21 matches we play this season.

Well we're set for the match against Hellas. We're without a few players due to injury and form but we should be able to put up a good fight regardless. During the week I'll try to finish our match fixtures and post them up on the national team page, we've currently only got NZ and Malaysia booked for later in the season and have a lot of weeks in between.

No Baveas or Willis in midfield today like last week so once again a reshuffle of positions was made. Last few weeks Hellas have gone in with a back 3, with 3 at the front and 2 wide midfielders almost like a tree shaped structure. I'd be surprised if they didn't resort to their more defensive ways for this game.

Game starts at 14:00 for this week.
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Should be underway now. Hope we grab the win. Then again it didn't start on time ;).
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I'll make it 7 posts in succession by stating we beat Hellas (Greece) 3 - 0. Was difficult to break through their defense most of the time and we had to settle for some long range strikes which we were able to nail. Think we left another 1 or 2 out there though. Still a comfortable win and we only gave away 1 shot. A few more ranking points recovered after the plummet last weekend.

Maras scored at last. He is in deadly form lately, both in cup, league and nt :)

We'll be taking on Ireland this weekend. Should be a pretty tough match.

Have been thinking of starting come the end of this NT season, a hall of fame type section where certain players will get voted on and a very small number (1-2) get inducted into a hall of fame. End of the day you don't really want everyone to be in the HOF either so that's something to take in.

Initial plans are that towards the end of the season I would write up some player summaries on past players and set up a poll where you'd vote on your choice for a player deserving to be inducted, could be pure stats based or it could be from significant contributions made. Perhaps even a secret vote via skmail in 3,2,1 fashion alongside the poll so that the poll winner isn't necessarily the one that gets the most support.

There would have to be specific requirements attached which I'd be thinking of, something like 20+ caps and no longer in the 1st XI, or over a certain age and X number of caps etc for the nomination list, so it would be unlikely Byers or Willis would be eligible at the current time.

Nothing overly exciting but just a sense to reflect and acknowledge the players of the past, particularly as a lot are getting up towards retirement stage.

What do people think of this? I wouldn't really want to start something like this if a large number weren't keen or didn't see a point.

Sounds good Dave. Would be good to see some of the old Classic names again :)

ah, the names i saw when i first started.... brings back the memories eh? ;)

Good idea. I already have 3 striker names in my mind ;-)

I bet I can guess all 3 because they're probably on the list I've come up with :p. A, H and N am I correct ;).

Exactly ;)

Squad cutting to 40 is severely harsh. Worked out a draft list (still to be finalized before I make the cut) and it sees a large number of worthy NT squad members axed because this 40 limit is unaccomodating for including both U21 and Senior players. Currently my list consists of around 26-27 1st XI players, the rest will be filled by U21 players and when an U21 game commences a few 1st XI players will be needed to be shifted out to accomodate the extra U21 players. This is seriously messy stuff. I can't believe how tight it is.

Serious apologies for those who get their player/s cut in the process, it's a stupidly low limit.

Cuts will probably be made closer to Saturday/Sunday. I stress this is simply to comply with the new regulations and in most cases isn't because they're not in with a shot.