Subject: National Team

There won't be an NT friendly tonight, have not been able to arrange a friendly. We'll try again next week.

I've managed to arrange a friendly with Hungary. They have a stronger squad then we do but if past results mean anything, we've got a slight chance. Villafane has yet to recover from his injury and due to missing a game last week, Drum and Stewart now have to serve their suspensions today but otherwise we've got the majority of our squad to select from. I think realistically we won't make the top 32 by season end and so it's just a case of trying to improve and close the gap such that maybe in 2 seasons time we'll be back in the top 32 with a better shot of qualifying for the world cup.

Enjoy the game.
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2-2 draw in the end which was a very good result given we had 9 on the field, 10 for most of the match against their 11. Losing Bowyer was costly, as he was the midfielder used to defend against red cards to the central defenders and also was targeted to make their strikers struggle to see the ball. When he got his marching orders, that freed their strikers up to create several threatening chances. Hungary committed more fouls but still managed to keep players on the field whereas it felt like every foul we committed we were being punished. Fortunately we created a few chances and from those we happened to be brought down in the box and happily converted the penalties. We then lost Kohler late on exposing a massive hole in defense but fortunately there wasn't enough time for them to exploit that and we almost produced a match winner with the last play of the game.

I was hoping for the win but after we lost Bowyer early, followed by Kohler late in the 2nd half, a draw was a very good result. Come to think of it, the injury to Hunter was problematic too as from then on they created several chances just because they could get around him with little effort. Would have preferred a complete injury so he was subbed off.

Anyway, a draw was the final result and considering the one sidedness in the decisions dished out by the match engine is something we can walk away from satisfied. I'm sure had we kept all 11 on the field we would have won though :).

Luke Barnes , age 24
value: 29 972 000 lei
wage: 325 600 lei
magical [15] form
bookings:
formidable [11] stamina tragic [0] keeper
unearthly [16] pace average [5] defender
superdivine [17] technique good [7] playmaker
adequate [6] passing unearthly [16] striker

tomorrow will be on tl.

very nice player. As much as I'd love to be able to have him in my side, that would prevent him from reaching triple superdivine which I feel at this stage is most important. I just hope that wherever he ends up he receives that training to finish him off and isn't grabbed just to be used for the club team.

So if anyone in Australia has sufficient funds and is training pace/striker here's an opportunity.

I'll keep an eye on him, but am meant to be changing to Tech training soon, then again, I guess I can always push that back a little bit.
But if I buy Barnes, he will give me 7 players to train, and with Huxley being better (for his age) I can't let the ball slip on him. Maybe I'll have to sell one of the younger trainees

I may well take a run at him. I'm training striker for a while, and I dare say some of my younger guys could use the pace as well so that I can finish him off.

Luke is on Tl .
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First bid :)

:( and the 2nd bid if 10.4mill
I can see that bid knocking many out of the bidding war already

Shouldn't go for as much now with the 19 day injury. Ugly game against Ukraine. Was a rushed formation based on the limited scouting I had available. Didn't notice the defense dropping so far back which restricted our chances. Unfortunately that was literally destroyed in a 10min spell where we lost Morton and Barnes. Fortunately we were able to hold on and still grab the win. Not the best performance by a long shot but we really should have buried that earlier, Drum had some quality chances that got sprayed everywhere but in.

mate, the owner of Barnes will be gutted.....noticed they've got the "going bankrupt" sign up!!

He will get himself out of bankruptcy just after he goes bankrupt, which I guess is one of the reasons he is selling Barnes

We're taking on Poland in a friendly today. Initially at the time I accepted, it was an U24/U25 side from Poland against our strongest, though I have since been notified of a few small changes. Poland are now using 1 26yo and 1 27yo but have elected to use a 22yo as some form of compensation. Even so that 22yo would still walk into our starting XI today if it's who I think it is. Obviously it's not ideal but as I can't undo a friendly once scheduled and even if I could, can't arrange another in time, I've let this slide and we'll go out and try to come away with a good result.

At this stage, due to personal life issues that have unexpectedly arisen, I will be standing down as NT manager at the end of this season. I thank everyone over the the time I've been in charge for giving me this opportunity and I hope to one day become the Australian NT manager again but I have some very difficult issues I have to deal with before then which could take some time to overcome. I hope that you will respect this decision.

I will finish the season as planned but will most likely not re-run. I don't know whether this will affect my club side managing or my activeness in the game, it's way too early to know for certain. I expect it won't have any lasting damage but quite possibly reduce my activity in the short term.

Thanks again to everyone and I look forward to working with you all again in the future.

No worries, cometer. Totally understandable.
When you're ready, it will be great to have you back as NT manager. But for now, I hope for the best for your personal issues.
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