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Raise Your Hand If You're An International Manager *raises hand*


HotChocolate

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For the past year I’ve been reading loads of the threads in here and decided that I was going to give writing my own thread a shot. So here we go! I’ll give you a quick insight into my FM2011 game, it was my only save on FM2011 and the only time I’ve ever got past the 4th season in any version! I got the 22nd season.

Manager History (from my FM2011 game)

Also my reputation got to World Class after starting from Sunday League.

In this game I am simply going to enjoy international management. I am interested to see what sort of game it pans out to be. I will be starting with Northern Ireland and once I get sacked, I simply don't think there is anything more I can do or there just aren't enough good players coming through to keep the game enjoyable I will simply leave and take on a new international side. I am hoping to stay with Northern Ireland as long as possible but we shall see how that works out. If you want to have a read of my club career thread then its here: Conquering the world? It's like taking candy from a baby... Both threads will be active and have updates!

I have edited the league names and some teams names like FCP, so that they’re named correctly. If you would like the database then I will gladly upload it, would just need some help on how to do that. So, here is my initial game setup:

Game Setup

Starting in England July 2011 with a large database (7200 players)

Manager Profile

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Northern Ireland – Season 2011/2012

World Rankings

Group Table

Remaining Fixtures

Squad (before any changes)

Expectations: - Give the Qualifiers as good a shot as possible. I’m not expecting to get near the Play-Offs, mainly due to the fact I will try and bed my own tactics into the team and that may cost us a few results.

Whilst managing Northern Ireland I will do an update every match.

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Northern Ireland 8-1 Faore Island

We played brilliantly when attacking. They were poor yes, but our attackers took them apart. However I am dissapointed with the goal we conceded, they just played it round and through us and got 1 on 1 way to easily but apart from that the performance was great. It was to be expected against a team like Faore Island but never the less, we took our chances well and made sure of the victory within the first half an hour. I play a 4-5-1 formation with 1 DM, 2 wingers and a lone striker, I used many formations in FM11 but this seemed to get me the best results and seems to be the best fit for Northern Ireland. It means defensively I am strong and attacking wise I am strong. Jamie Ward made his debut and got 2, Kyle Lafferty was injured and David Healy seems to be getting on a bit, I was worried about Wards height but with us playing football on the ground it was no concern when the full time whistle blew.

Group Table

World Rankings - August

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Northern Ireland 1-1 Serbia

To get into the play-offs we should have won this, but with the play-offs being a little bit too far away for us this year I was pleased with the performance. It was a poor goal to concede, from a corner within the first 3 minutes but after that we dominated and their only real chances came when they had two goals disallowed. In the second half we came out and created some decent chances but couldn't take any of them when we should have really, so with a change in tactics throwing everyone up possible we brought it back to 1-1 when Chris Brunt smashed home a free-kick. I'm impressed with the attacking quality we have but we need to tighten up the defense and stop giving the ball away so easily. Apart from that we are playing well in my opening two games.

Group Table

Estonia 1-4 Northern Ireland

Brilliant result, we went 1-0 down almost straight away but came straight back with a penalty. After that we took our chances, they didn't. Our 2nd, 3rd and 4th goal were all very similar, run down the right from McCourt (Ward for the 4th), cross into the box where Brunt was lurking on the far post to slot it home. We still look poor in defense as they did have chances and we gifted them. I can see us being hammered by Italy in our last game. Its going to be tight for the play-offs and I don't think we have enough in us to make it, but we shall see.

Group Table

World Rankings - September

Any comments, negative or positive are welcome. If you have any tips or ideas on how to improve my layout then just let us know!

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Northern Ireland 4-2 Estonia

Our midfield and attack are very good, especially my two wingers, Paddy McCourt and Chris Brunt but we lack something defensively. The goals we have conceded have come by poor defending and I worry that will cost us against Italy. Do I go defensive against them and try and keep a clean sheet which I have failed to do so far or do I play my normal game and look to score goals, hoping that if my defence have conceded then my attack will have scored more. I can't see us beating Italy and a point would be brilliant. Slovenia play Serbia who lost to Italy, ending any chance of gaining the Play-Off spot.

Group Table

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Italy 2-0 Northern Ireland

Probably the best performance we've had since I took over and that sounds odd saying we lost and didn't score. I have no complaints about the goals, they were both just quality and that is understandable and we made a lot of great chances, just a shame we couldn't score any of them. On another day we would have taken a point or more. The performance pleased me and the end to the group stage has pleased me. Bring on the World Cup Qualifiers but first...

Group Table - We did it! Serbia beat Slovenia away 1-0 and that secured our play-off spot! Great news. I didn't think I'd be able to make it but winning 3, drawing 1 and losing 1 got me there! With the help of Italy and Serbia.

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Euro 2012 Play-Off Draw - Delighted with this! Couldn't have got a better team. With 4 of the 5 home nations in the draw, 2 of them had to be drawn together surely? And yes, Northern Ireland got England! Bring it on!

World Rankings - October 2011

Aaron Hughes, who I played a lot in the Qualifiers has decided to retire and I couldn't change his mind. It's a bit stupid because why would a player retire thats 31 and in the team when they have 2 massive games against England coming up? It wouldn't happen. Not best pleased, but I'm sure I can find someone else.

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Northern Ireland vs England (Euro 2012 Play-Off 1st Leg)

Well that didn't go well, we started okay and hit the post but after the first goal went in we gave up. They just walked around us and it almost became a training session for them. I wasn't expecting anything but the size of the defeat was hard to take. In between the two fixtures I got linked with the Dundalk job but denied interest. My focus is purely on Northern Ireland.

England vs Northern Ireland (Euro 2012 Play-Off 2nd Leg)

Great result, just a shame we couldn’t have done that in the first leg and kept ourselves in the tie. I always knew that over a two legged play-off we wouldn’t be able to beat a team the size of England but maybe over one game we could snatch something. Bring on the World Cup Qualifiers!

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World Rankings - January

I have two friendlies before I start the qualification for the World Cup, against Turkey and England (it was arranged before the play-offs had been drawn). But one of my problems is that my manager rep has already become National and I'm getting linked with jobs like Port Vale, so once I have finished with Northern Ireland I shall be retiring and bringing in a new manager.

Any comments are welcome :D

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Northern Ireland vs Turkey (Friendly)

We were the better side but there were no clear cut chances for anyone. The game was mainly used just as a bit of a run out for players who don't get that many games. England next, then the qualifiers.

England vs Northern Ireland (Friendly)

Lee Camp saved us from an embarrassment but the one thing that I find amusing is, one of our players scored but yet we didn't have a single shot on target? The goal came from a corner and I can only assume its deflected in off him.

European Championships 2012- Surprise winners Croatia beat Spain in the final and England got knocked out of the group stages losing to Denmark, Scotland and Ukraine so they finished the group bottom with 0 points.

World Rankings - After Euro 2012

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Israel vs Northern Ireland (World Cup Qualifier)

A great result and a great performance. 3 points away from home to Israel will go a long way into getting us into the play-offs. Russia will probably be my main challenge as they lost to Portugal, who I play next.

Northern Ireland vs Portugal (World Cup Qualifier)

A storming performance! We defended so well, apart from their goal, which we gifted with a poor pass back to the keeper. But they came at us all the time and we held them off and took our chances when we got them!

Group Table - Couldn't have asked for more, we had some first team players out injured and our defence was shaken but we played brilliantly in both games.

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Northern Ireland vs Azerbaijan (World Cup Qualifier)

Very convincing win. The only downside was the fact that Chris Brunt got injured and will now miss the game against Russia. Johnny Evans hat-trick was great, all 3 goals came from set-pieces but two of them he scored with his feet.

Russia vs Northern Ireland (World Cup Qualifier)

A great win, amazing 3 points. I don't know how we do it. We have chances and score them and then hold out the onslaught that teams throw at us. Russia battered us the minute we went 1 up and then Jamie Ward scored with a diving header. Johnny Evans cleared the ball off the line in the last minute which sealed our 3 points.

World Rankings - November

Great News :D

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France vs Northern Ireland (Friendly)

They just had too much quality for us to deal with.

Malta vs Northern Ireland (Friendly)

Didn't expect anything less. Would have been nice to score more of my chances, but it was a friendly so no complaints.

I'm starting to miss club management and have decided that I'm going to have 2 saves, this one and a journeyman career thread. Both threads will be active and I will keep updates on both. Hope you enjoy! Any comments welcome, seriously, any comments! :cool:

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Northern Ireland vs Luxembourg (World Cup Qualifiers)

A good win, shame we couldn't have got more shots on target and gone for a bigger scoreline but, how can we complain when Portugal were held by Israel? 5 points clear at the top of the table, hopefully we wont give in to nerves over the second round of matches.

Group Table

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Northern Ireland vs Israel (World Cup Qualifier)

The new team talk system cost me big time, I demotivated all my players before the game and then we went and conceded 3 goals in the first half that just killed us off. Portugal beat Russia but its going to be a close run thing for the play-off spot.

Group Table

S[/url]lovakia vs Northern Ireland (Friendly)

Jonny Evans was the goalscorer again and that does not please me. I haven't managed to find a striker that can get a goal when we need one, Jamie Ward scores against the small teams but him, Lafferty and Paterson just can't step up against the bigger teams and that could cost us.

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Finland vs Northern Ireland (Friendly)

We played better and in a dull game still managed to score 3 which pleases me but what pleases me more is the fact a winger and a striker got us the goals :D Paddy McCourt will be playing upfront against Portugal, I've tried every striker, they don't have the quality against big teams so its McCourts time!

World Rankings - August

(before the game against Finland)

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Portugal vs Northern Ireland (World Cup Qualifier)

So dissapointed to have lost the game in the last 10 minutes. McCourt couldn't start upfront as he just wasn't fit enough and we did well all game but then luck and quality took over from Portugal and they got the deserved 3 points.

Azerbaijan vs Northern Ireland (World Cup Qualifier)

Played well, got the goals in no problem and weren't troubled. The best thing about the night was that Russia drew with Israel meaning 3 points against either Russia or Luxembourg will guarantee me play-offs.

Group Table

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Doing very well with Northern Ireland, though surprising you lost at home to Israel after beating them away.

I'm really starting to rue that result, it may cost me top spot. The thing that annoyed me most was the game was over by half time, them being 3-0 up and we didn't give ourselves any chances in the second half either. I'd have taken play-offs at the start of qualifying though so no complaints if I can beat Luxembourg.

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Luxembourg vs Northern Ireland (World Cup Qualifier)

We have made it into the play-offs but that's the least I expected and we didn't do it convincingly. Conceding 2 and looking like we could actually concede more without threatening was really disappointing. We have to be better in the play-offs. Portugal have Azerbaijan and that's an almost guaranteed 3 points, we have Russia which isn't.

Northern Ireland vs Russia (World Cup Qualifier)

Brilliant performance, we kept them out with ease and created some decent chances but as I have said before we have no one to finish, at the moment that lets us down but Russia are a great team and a point was a good result so no complaints.

Final Group Table

Play-Off Draw - with none of the home nations (bar me) in the draw, it's much more interesting. It could have been better, could have been worse. Will take Turkey, fancy my chances if we can get a good result at home.

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Northern Ireland vs Turkey (World Cup Qualifier Play-Off 1st Leg)

A very even game, a very entertaining game and a very good result. I was dissapointed to see them go in front but we cam back brilliantly and picked up a quality result. Although they were angered by both of my goals, but who cares?

Turkey vs Northern Ireland (World Cup Qualifier Play-Off 2nd Leg)

An absolutely storming performance. They didn't have a chance. From the minute we stepped onto the field we blew them away. The red card helped, but even with 11 men we were at our very best. Took our chances and didn't trouble us. Brilliant.

Great news :D I am well chuffed about qualification, only us and England from the home nations. Bring on the World Cup!

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World Cup Group Stage - Draw

I have a sneaky feeling about this, if we can perform on the day then 2nd place with 6 points is achievable for me. Playing Brazil, in Brazil is almost certain to end in a defeat but both Senegal and Saudi Arabia are winnable games. Really looking forward to this, delighted with my group. Should be a great tournament. I have arranged 5 friendlies before the tournament, 4 of them in month approaching it. I took my assistants advice and got Ecuador away, he suggested that because I have Senegal in my group and playing in Brazil is high altitude, an interesting addition to the international management. Plus, I got to chose when to play my friendlies and how many I played, which was also another good addition. Australia, Mexico, Andorra and Ecuador are my opponents before the World Cup.

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Northern Ireland vs Australia (World Cup Warm-Up Friendly)

A great performance, simply faultless. They created nothing and we took our chances well, I'm starting to find the best players and got my defence sorted to a tee, just a real shame Chris Baird picked up an injury, he will miss the remaining three friendlies and will be fit for the start of the World Cup but it will be a push. Fingers crossed, need him.

Andorra vs Northern Ireland (World Cup Warm-Up Friendly)

A good result with a good performance. I rested all my attacking players to try out some other people just to see who can challenge for the XI, just had to chose my final 23 man squad, and the message came up 'seven unlucky players have to be cut' that's a bit of a lighthearted way to put it :D

Final 23-Man Squad

Mexico vs Northern Ireland (World Cup Warm-Up Friendly)

Not too many complaints, more about fitness than anything else. Annoyed that Paddy McCourt got injured, I was going to bring him off and decided to bring Jonny Evans off instead luckily its not too bad and he is only out for a week with a dead leg.

Ecuador vs Northern Ireland (World Cup Warm-Up Friendly)

This was a disappointing result and a bit of a poor performance, we created chances but didn't take them and then didn't defend well. The friendlies haven't given any indication how good we are, if we play well on the day we can beat anyone, if not anyone can beat us.

BRING ON THE WORLD CUP! :D

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Logo.jpg

Northern Ireland vs Senegal (World Cup Group Game)

A very tense game, we deserved the win but they did have chances and so did we and I'm surprised there was only 3 goals in it. We needed the 3 points from this game as we have Brazil up next. Solid performance, got the 3 points, job done.

Brazil vs Northern Ireland (World Cup Group Game)

A-Mazing! We were by far the better team in the first half and then continued to play well into the second half. Great result seen as I was expecting to lose this game. We played brilliantly and only didn't win because they have quality.

Northern Ireland vs Saudi Arabia (World Cup Group Game)

It was simple, we get a point, we qualify. Saudi Arabia didn't want to go through, how did we know that? They let us through on goal all game. If you want to see how NOT to defend and how NOT to attack, watch this game. We were awful, attack after attack and didn't even trouble the keeper. They scored but fortunately it was ruled offside. If we won, we would have come top, Senegal held Brazil to a draw.

Group B finished like this, meaning I luckily avoided getting Spain but then again. Chile are a good team and I have 3 players out injured.

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Cheers guys, much appreciated!

Chile vs Northern Ireland (World Cup 2nd Round)

It was going to be hard against Chile but with 10 men for most of the game? Near enough impossible. So dissapointed in Ward, it was a pointless two footed challenge and after that they just played it round for fun. They easily beat us and even though we had a glimmer of hope and equalized for it to be ruled offside we were never going to put them under enough pressure with 10 men.

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Logo.jpg

..................................World Cup 2014..................................

Group A - Group B - Group C - Group D - Group E - Group F - Group G - Group H

.........................Second Round - Quarter Finals - Semi Finals.........................

........................................Third Place Play-Off........................................

.................................................Final..................................................

Overall Comment: A great World Cup with only one real surprise, that Northern Ireland didn't win it! I'm really enjoying my time here but at the same time I am missing club football and building up reputation journeyman style so like I said earlier on I will open up another thread for another save and keep both updated at the same time. Being at college I have enough spare time for this and this thread is pretty simple to keep updated.


Competition Round Achieved Defeat Country
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
European Championships 2012 N/A N/A Northern Ireland
World Cup 2014 2nd Round 3-1 Chile Northern Ireland

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Togo vs Northern Ireland (Friendly)

It was a very average game and their goal was a lucky deflection that ended up sending Camp the wrong way. Although I'm still trying to find my best striker, will have to have a good look within the next games.

Argentina vs Northern Ireland (Friendly)

A really solid performance, okay Argentina weren't at their best but when they got shots on goal we made sure they didn't go in and we did have chances to win the game but we don't have an outright goalscorer which we really do need.

Northern Ireland vs Poland (Friendly)

We should be winning these games. If it was a Euro/World Cup qualifier I wouldn't be happy at all. I'm fed up of repeating that we need a striker to step up to the plate and start scoring goals for us. Apart from that our defence is quite solid and still young.

World Rankings - September (2014)

World Rankings - Graph

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Just about to start the Qualifiers for the European Championships 2016, if you are interested here is my National Pool (I've just gone through and added/removed players to suit me).

Goalkeepers

Defenders

Midfielders

Forwards

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And here is my Squad and Tactics for the two games against Faore Islands and Italy, both of who I had in the Qualifications for the 2012 tournament, bit odd.

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Faore Islands vs Northern Ireland (European Championship Qualifier)

Nothing less than expected. Dissapointed however in the fact that we only had 6 shots on target from 16 shots, which again goes to prove that we lack quality upfront and in a bid to gain some more goals I changed my wingers into Inside Forwards, hopefully this will mean more shots towards goal and more goals going in... I hope.

Northern Ireland vs Italy (European Championship Qualifier)

Well something worked! A bit of luck for the first goal, as you can see (hopefully) followed by a pure bit of quality from Corry Evans and Josh McQuoid! Another great result for us and that puts us top of the table with a game in hand. Although the dirt Italians used all my subs with 3 of my players getting injured and them not getting a single yellow :eek:

One plus is that we will qualify for the tournament with a second place finish, seen as the number of teams have been extended in the Euro's :D

This is Jamie Wards equalizer, I promise our winner was pure quality and not pure luck like this one. I've had 1 or 2 lucky goals but this is by far the luckiest or was it amazing play by Jamie? :cool:

[video=youtube;6vqu0-n5ckc]

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Japan vs Northern Ireland (Friendly)

Worst performance I have seen from us, we never showed up. Even before the red card Japan had the win sealed. 12 shots on goal, 2 on target. It truly was a disgraceful performance. Bad news, just before the game, Lee Hodson got injured for 7-9months. He was a solid RB and now it goes to anyone. Such a blow.

Northern Ireland vs Albania (Friendly)

Why do I bother with friendlies? We fail to score in near enough everyone, I then say how we played poorly and didn't turn up and things aren't looking great. Then we go and beat Italy in a qualifier to go straight back to the friendlies and lose to Albania. I might go 2015 without any friendlies to save me the hassle. Shocking.

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Northern Ireland vs Scotland (Four Associations Tournament)

Disappointing defeat as we never really threatened, we didn't have the quality that Scotland had and even though they had the advantage of playing at Hampden Park we were never really in the game. My striker problems are getting worse, injuries are coming up everywhere, to be expected in February and even McCourt is retiring at the end of the season.

World Rankings - February (2015)

I'm starting to worry about the future of the Northern Ireland national squad because there is no-one that could replace my main 23 squad. In the search engine there is no one that is good enough from the age of 18-22. My players are getting older as the only real addition has been Shane Ferguson and the only young players are AI's from Northern Ireland teams. So I may have a look at moving to another international team in the next few years, already rejected offers from Egypt and Ivory Coast, its just a shame there aren't players coming through like Kevin Doyle (yes I know he is Irish) or Jamie Ward, Lee Camp etc.

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Wales vs Northern Ireland (Four Associations Tournament)

Yeah, I am sure that Four Associations Tournament is NOT a friendly. That seems odd because my players played exactly how they do in friendlies, dis-interested and very poor. We showed just 2 months ago we could hammer Wales and throw everything at them but we didn't 'want' to today and if it wasn't for Lee Camp saving shot after shot we would have been humiliated. It annoys me that our players really didn't seem interested, they would run up the pitch, stop and wait to be tackled. On the bright side I have found a very good young striker who I hope is the answer to my problems upfront (in the under-21 squad for this and the next match).

Northern Ireland vs Ireland (Four Associations Tournament)

Ugh, I have had enough now. That's it. I will remove all the strikers in the current squad and give some new kids a run out for the two qualifiers against Macedonia and Faore Islands. Yes we scored but who scored? Jonny Evans. I'm fed up of relying on set-pieces for us to score. It wont be the end for some strikers no but Martin Paterson isn't playing for us again, his goal record is horrible 1 goal in 29 appearances. Will have a total re-haul of the forwards to hopefully help us score some more goals.

Four Associations Tournament - very disspointed, I was hoping we could win it after some brilliant results but we took the games as frienlies and never showed up during the whole tournament. Will expect much better next time, if I am still manager then.

Right, just hit a little bugger. My game against Macedonia is a week after the game against Ireland and I cannot change my squad. Okay I kind of accept that but 3 players have picked up injuries and when it says I can replace them I can't because it has automatically replaced them with grayed out players meaning my squad is full and no-one else can be added. I can't remove the grayed out players either. The most annoying thing is all the other squads got to change their teams.

Northern Ireland vs FYR Macedonia (European Championship Qualifier)

We scored 4 so how many did our strikers score? 1. Jonny Evans got a hat-trick. I will say no-more.

Group Table - Maybe instead of Northern Ireland it should say 'Jonny Evans'?

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Not doing to bad KIU :)

Cheers pal!

Well done Jonny Evans.

Exactly Nobby! :rolleyes:

World Cup 2018 Qualification Group - Draw

Well I never... Italy got drawn in my group again. I have had 4 qualifications, 3 times I've had Italy. We will soon just have a kick about during the games, having a good ol' catch up we know each other that well! Apart from loving the fact we've got our good friends Italy, I am really happy about the group. Maybe even nick top spot?

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