Leo Beenhakker Remains Poland’s Manager.

Leo Beenhakker met today with Polish FA officials in order to discuss our performance during Euro 2008. Not surprisingly, he’ll remain our manager, even though most of the ‘outdated’ officials wanted his head. The same can’t be said about Leo’s assistants.

I’m glad we’re through it. Leo’s critics had 2 weeks to shine and now we should not hear from them for some time. Mind you, I have nothing against well argumented criticism that points out Leo’s flaws. I presented my point of view in one of the articles following our Euro exit. Unfortunately, the critique presented by the ‘previous era’ (read: communism times) officials was, if anything, funny. Arguments that Leo got rid of strong personalities (do we have any?), employed Dutch assistants (4 of them were Polish; Frans Hoek is a world class specialist who worked in Barcelona) or earns too much (he has an average European wage; do fans really care about wages?) were hilarious for me. At the same time, the critics didn’t present any interesting and well developed plans of what to do to enhance our football’s potential. They also weren’t able to give any names of Polish coaches who could replace Leo. They postulated a young Polish coach, but when it came to names they proposed Henryk Kasperczak, who is 62 (Leo is 66). That is what Leo meant when he said he’ll have to get through little Polish hell. For God’s sake, I’m really waiting for times when young and intelligent people, who are not scarred by communist mentality, take control of Polish football. Then, at least, we would be able to hear a well argumented critique.

What we learned from today’s meeting is that Leo will have to replace his Polish assistants. Boguslaw ‘Bobo’ Kaczmarek resigned himself, whereas contracts weren’t prolonged with Dariusz Dziekanowski and Adam Nawalka. Frans Hoek will remain our goalkeeping coach; I don’t know what’s with other goalie coach Adam Dawidziuk. The prevailing idea is that the new assistant coach will replace Leo after the next World Cup and lead the team in Euro 2012. The candidates are Czeslaw Michniewicz (pictured, currently unemployed, won Polish championsip in 2007), Rafal Ulatowski (impressed this season with Zaglebie Lubin), Jan Urban (Legia Warsaw, won Polish Cup this season) and Maciej Skorza (won last season’s championship with Wisla Krakow). These are the most talented young Polish managers, no doubt. Press treats Michniewicz as a favourite, simply because he’s the only one unemployed. In my opinion, he is certainly one of the most interesting personalities in Polish football today. His TV analysis during Euro 2008 were always very interesting and professional. He’s also a football fanatic; I remember meeting him in football pub in Poznan where he sat with a laptop, a pen in his hand and papers full of notes. The only problem is, even though he won a chapionship in 2007, he never really managed a top Polish club, that is Wisla or Legia. He did manage Lech Poznan, but they didn’t have any money back then. Can Michniewicz handle pressure? Would he be able to earn players’ respect? He’s definitely an interesting candidate. Who would you see as Leo’s assistant and, maybe, future first team manager?

PS: Found on ZCzuba today, an interview with Grzegorz Lato, one of Leo’s critics and a candidate for Polish FA’s president:
Q: What to do to improve our football?
Lato: We’ve got a lot of young talent, but foreign countries are draining it.
Q: But what to do to improve our football?
Lato: If I knew that I would be a very rich man. We’ve got talented youngsters. Some have to go away and new ones should play for Beenhakker.

A man with a clear vision. With him we can sleep in peace.