I'd just like to chime in, as the previous U21 manager, that the sentiment was expressed publicly and privately early in my second season that there was a preference for a domestic manager because a domestic manager would "care more."
I haven't seen this been expressed publicly in the Irish forums. I have seen it elsewhere alright for managers of other nations. I couldn't care less if our managers are in the Irish leagues or foreign leagues. In fact, some of our best managers weren't from the Irish league.
I certainly wasn't thrilled with some of the results
Results do not matter in U21.
Training and knowledge that can be passed on is really important. Also identifying players who've managers have left the game is important to raise awareness that this player is available or soon available so they can be "saved" and trained are the things that are important. All this is paramount for a small nation. Engagement with new managers might also help with retaining players in this game.
With that said, I responded to all messages and aided anyone who asked for help or assistance with training plans, I simply wasn't as proactive about it as some here seem to prefer.
Fair play to responding to people and helping them out.
As regards being proactive, again I'll stress this is important for a small nation, particularly for U21s in a small nation. We have limited players and a limited number of people who train them, or even sell them. Its counter productive to be proactive for a big team, as you cant deal with hundreds of people effectively. But we never really have more than 40 teams. That's 40 'hello here is my vision and how I can help you' messages. 25-50% probably wont respond. Straight away you know the 15-25 or so managers (if we have that many) that are interested in training players. Then its just regular upkeep (weekly, monthly - part of the vision, and some may not need much interaction), monitoring, introductions to managers who have bought a young player, or new managers to the game. Maybe a press release once a season (last NT press releases are season 59 (Senior) and season 61 (U21)) saying how you can help people?
If I have a player on a NT squad and do not receive even a "hello" message I can only assume that those who don't have NT players (especially new managers to the game) don't hear anything either. The manager of the NT should be proactive in introductions at the very least. Again we have a small manager base not hundreds. I would understand if this was the Spain or Italy - nations with over 1000 managers.
I just wish people knew these things before putting themselves forward to vote.
That being said, there was another foreign candidate with previous staff experience for a U21 (if memory serves -- it may have been a NT staff role) who announced his candidacy early for the position, explained his vision to me privately (this also played heavily into my decision not to even throw my name into the race for another term), and also shared some of his ideas in the U21 speech/debate threads prior to the election. He went on to receive one vote, losing to the current manager, who made no speech and offered no plan.
In all fairness, there were 2 managers who outlined a vision. I went with the one I knew and have talked to before, with NT XP. Unfortunately he pulled out while I was offline for a few days, and when I cam back the vote had taken place. I would have given my vote to the other candidate who campaigned if I had seen my preferred candidate had pulled out. But 1 more vote may not have even tipped the balance.
This is a small nation. If people are really serious about getting one of the NT positions, they could also PM everybody. If your really interested in an NT role here you can afford to send a copy and paste template to active managers via PM. Its less than 50 PMs (27 at the moment). Not everyone will use the forums. That could easily swing a