In international football, there is never a good time for a rebuild. You are constantly playing qualifiers between major tournaments. It does suck watching a major tournament, but I think that the younger generation (myself included) have not really experienced international football without Greece present. World cup 2006 is the only realy tourney I watched without us present, Euro 2000 I was only 6 and can't recall a thing. World cup 2002 i was starting to follow football but I had no idea about the qualifying proccess and all that, so I just watched and cheered against Turkey. Then at 10 (Still not fully into football and having no real knowledge of qualifying) Greece goes and wins the Euro. Myself along with a whole generation of young Greeks, (especially overseas) think oh s%$#! Greece must be a gun team. Not fully apperciating where the ethniki had come from and having no real knowledge of our minimal and poor history in major tournaments. The point is, any dip in form at NT level is gonna result in you missing a tournament, especially one as bad that we have experienced over the last 2 years.