Asunto: [U21] Defenders

Don't think he'll play for the senior NT. More a chance to be an A-League CB with a couple of seasons of training, available at a friendly time.

Yeah probably unlikely given our current defs but I haven’t checked just seems a bit too far behind. Depends how fast you can get defender and pace up. The secondaries wouldn’t take too much to improve under the right coach setup so they can be a bit deceptive atm.

Given his talent and my coaches, would probably take about 3-3.5 seasons to bring him to at least 2x unearthly, not touching the secondaries, so by the time he's 24. There are a few decent ones in the achmid's U21 who will probably easily catch up with him even before they turn 21.

Oh I’m sure we have others that are likely better. I just know that as a small user base we have a very small margin to say yeah don’t train the player. There may be better ones that are usual choices but then you get hit with injuries/suspensions/form slumps and suddenly you’re into your 6/7/8th best defender list. So unless there’s no chance of even getting to the fringe of the squad I’ll never rule anything out. Like if you had the right coach set up you could maybe get him to 2x divine by 25 and in which time his secondaries may have already gone up 2 levels each say. Then you can spend 1-2 seasons tidying off the secondaries and maybe by 27-28 you might have the secondaries all around solid-vg or higher. Suddenly a very useful player to have in the event your primary choice players have issues. A lot of hurdles on that front though and with shortened seasons that may not eventuate.

The question just comes down to whether someone has the space to invest in that or if it’s more in their interests to train up a younger better player if they arise and sell off now because it’s financially better to.

Considered keeping for another couple of seasons, but listed him instead.

Currently ranked #9 defender for his age, but he is only this high due to a couple of very recent pops, normally sits around 12th for his age

Rowan Bothwell, age: 20
club: FC Anolecrab, country: Australia
value : 351 200 AU$
wage: 3 080 AU$
unearthly [16] form
formidable [11] tactical discipline
height: 170 cm, weight: 66.3 kg, BMI: 22.94
bookings:
solid [8] stamina tragic [0] keeper
outstanding [12] pace excellent [10] defender
poor [3] technique adequate [6] playmaker
weak [4] passing average [5] striker

Not a bad player but not really U21 NT standard. Just wanted to post in case people thought he was

Currently #1 U21 defender, for sale now

Tommy Houston, age: 21
club: SRS, country: Australia
value : 1 180 800 AU$
wage: 9 840 AU$
unearthly [16] form
formidable [11] tactical discipline
height: 173 cm, weight: 66 kg, BMI: 22.05

good [7] stamina tragic [0] keeper
outstanding [12] pace unearthly [16] defender
weak [4] technique weak [4] playmaker
excellent [10] passing very good [9] striker

Oh more money coming my way I think

Once again, listed at a shit time for Aussies to bid and the seller suffered because of it.

I put in a bid before going to sleep (because I wasn't going to stay up til 3am for him) and a single bid by someone else won him.

If the seller sold at an Aussie friendly time, they would have got a bidding war and sold for 1.5-2m euro more as I would have happily gone up to 5m euro for him

Wow, they only got 5m for him.

Yup, should be a warning for all managers listing players when the home country isn't awake. Their own fault really.

...& when the only Aussie in Euro zone isn't on the case. :o
I'd have jumped in, but for not tuning in last couple of days. :(

Yeah. I went to bed about 4hr prior and remember thinking, do I set an alarm as he would have been worth it, but I have been so slammed with work and fatigue, I just couldn't bear to have an interrupted sleep

All the while I lose some money :(. Still not complaining another 300k in the bank.

He's a fringe player at present, but will likely get a few games next season (currently ranked #7 U20 DEF)
If that pace and def aren't recent pops, then he may even be a starter.
Probably not worth big sums of money from an NT perspective, but worth a little bit of $$ for anyone looking for an added trainee to their lineup

Albert Davidson, age: 20
club: Cibao FC, country: Australia
value : 320 400 AU$
wage: 3 160 AU$
very good [9] form
excellent [10] tactical discipline
height: 178 cm, weight: 71.2 kg, BMI: 22.47
bookings:
average [5] stamina hopeless [1] keeper
formidable [11] pace outstanding [12] defender
average [5] technique weak [4] playmaker
unsatisfactory [2] passing unsatisfactory [2] striker

Rowan Skoko, age: 18
club: Edgeworth Eagles F.C, country: Australia
value : 103 600 AU$
wage: 1 520 AU$
adequate [6] form
hopeless [1] tactical discipline
height: 175 cm, weight: 76.5 kg, BMI: 24.98

unsatisfactory [2] stamina tragic [0] keeper
good [7] pace solid [8] defender
average [5] technique adequate [6] playmaker
good [7] passing unsatisfactory [2] striker

#3 Defender for his age.
#5 Mid for his age