Goals for this season isn’t very high. We have a tough group with Italy, Israel and Greece. So top 2 is out of the question. As the 4th seeded team in the group, I think an over-achieving season would be 3rd place, but 4th should be the minimum we achieve.
As for long term goals, my main goal is to reach the 2nd round group in a European tournament. We haven’t done this since season 32 despite coming close on many occasions. I’ve finished on a tied record for 2nd 3 out of my 5 European tournaments, including missing out by 1 point difference! In order to achieve this goal I’ve been trying to arrange a group of managers to train a squad specifically for the u21 team but without much luck. The only season we had this was season 62 where we started with 4 managers training top players which fell to only 2 managers by the time the 21yo season came. That’s the season we missed out by 1 PD.
In an ideal world, I’d like to create 3 groups of teams. The first team would be lined up to compete on a consolation tournament and compete to earn host the following European tournament. The 2nd team would then compete in that European tournament and with the home court boost, aim to achieve a spot in the World Cup the season afterwards. But unfortunately I’ve been unable to find enough managers willing to join this journey.
As for the current situation, we don’t have the strongest teams to compete at the higher levels. We had a team last season that was better than originally thought, and next season shapes up to be a decent team too. But one thing that has improved a lot in the recent seasons is the strength of the NT team which is building up to produce more elite level players and compete a higher level in the coming seasons. That has been a combined effort of me and js8 (NT manager) to provide the best training plans possible for our best players.