I actually did mean it pretty dismissively; I am sometimes a dick on the internet. I appreciate you confronting me so politely. The reason I felt like being a dick about this is I have had this conversation a number of times on this board where I "prove" that the higher level trainers are a mistake in the context of giving noobs advice and my sparring partners retreat to this fortress of preference which is frustratingly unassailable by my logic.
Hahaha... that made me smile. A rarity where someone would be both cognizance of that, and willing to admit to it.
Thanks for your brazen honesty, and willingness to understand.
With smaller nations, starting at DII is both a boon and a bane. A boon because the money flows in fairly quickly, a bane as their tends to be a logjam at the top of your division. Promotion into whatever Div I exists is difficult, as there's only one division to promote into. I get that being in a big nation has it's pitfalls as well (much smaller $$$ to work with for a start)... and I suspect that there's probably not as much 'personal ownership' of the NT as there is with smaller nations.
Which leads me to players...
For me, Katsurou Matsumoto
(21305788), is verging on being "that guy". I acquired him coming up on 4 seasons ago, and he had been heavily focused towards his primaries. At the expense of team success, I've built his secondaries up - not to where I want him to be, but he's getting closer. He has a chance to be a pretty special player within our nation, and it would be difficult for me to put an accurate monetary value on him.
Speaking of which... that's another thing smaller nations face: often, prices for smaller nation players - at the elite level - are grossly inflated. I guess another of the vagaries of the market, huh? "Supply and demand"... add to that, there seems to be a bit of a fascination for "Japanese players" (especially in Europe. Don't ask me why, I don't understand it). Frustrating when trying to increase the number of homegrown players, lemme tell you!
I would argue that a player doesn't have to be near-perfect (or necessarily an SF!) to be verging on being priceless for a team. K-Mat's pretty much that for me. I'd be extremely foolish to bail on him - given how rare well-constructed bigs are - in particular within my nation (he is the best big of value that I have seen on the market for my nation since I've been playing), or what price they command. Especially given that he's Japanese, playing for a Japanese team.
Now... with regards to AleksandarPMF, I agree that starting out he should start with a lower level trainer, but would caution him to have an open mind to upgrading that at some point in the future - dependent on his experiences within his nation (Montenegro). It's nowhere near as small as Japan, but significantly smaller than the US. It'll depend on the path he chooses to take.
http://with-malice.com/ - The half-crazed ramblings of a Lakers fanatic in Japan