Lewandowski Agrees To A Life Sentence In Donetsk. Bak Officially Retires.

Two pieces of news dominated Tuesday from a point of view of a Polish national team fan. Mariusz Lewandowski ended speculation about his soon to be realised transfer by stating that he’ll stay at Shakhtar. This day also marks an official international retirement of Jacek Bak, one of the best Polish players of the last decade.

You can read an interview with Lewandowski on Wyborcza’s site. He states there that’s he’s happy at Shakhtar and that there wasn’t a proposition that would lure him away from Donetsk. I would just like to translate a small extract:

Q: Celtic, Everton, Fulham, Nantes. If you believe all the transfer rumours there isn’t a more in demand Polish football player in this transfer window…
Lewandowski: But I’m not going anywhere. It’s almost 100% certain that I’ll stay at Shakhtar. To the list of clubs that you mentioned I would also add some German and Russian ones. The problem is that there wasn’t an offer that would satisfy either me or the club, both in financial and sporting terms. Every offer was eliminated from the beginning. I don’t want to move anywhere, I feel good here.
Q: Is it hard to leave a club that plays in the Champions League?
L: Yes. I already told it in winter that I have no desire to change a club that plays regularly in the CL for a one that doesn’t play in the European competition. Theoretically, Celtic offered the same but they could’t afford Lewandowski. At the same time, the people in Donetsk are more and more ambitious. In this season we’re to advance from a group stage in the CL. Everybody has enough of being eliminated at such this early stage.

Two things that I don’t like about this interview. First of all, Lewy strikes as not adventorous enough and too comfortable. Yes, I know that Shakhtar is a very good team, but at 29 I would certainly look for a new challenge in my career. Playing in the Champions League is nice, but it’s not as nice as playing against top teams each weekend in England, Germany or France. Financial factor was probably crucial as well, but would he really lose that much by moving to Celtic or some English club? At this point I come to my second conclusion: I feel that there wasn’t a serious offer for Lewy. The press speculated about numerous clubs, but no offer ultimately materialised. For me. it doesn’t look like a situation where Lewandowski rejects all the offers, but like a one where no serious club even gives him a chance to do so. Of course, to retain his image of an “intenationally renowned player” he’ll now tell the press about hundreds of deals that he had to reject. Somehow, I can’t believe it. If Everton had come knocking on his door Lewy would have already been in a plane to England. Well, this was his last chance of a transfer outside Ukraine. Now he’ll live in a golden cage till the end of his career.

Jacek Bak officially retired from playing for the Polish national team. He announced it to Leo a couple of days ago and today the news reached the press. At 35, Bak ranks as the third player in Polish football history in number of caps (96). Mind you, he’s in a great company as the first two are Grzegorz Lato and Kazimierz Deyna. Bak earned his debut in the national team 15 years ago; he played in Lech Poznan, Olympique Lyon and Lens among other clubs. Today he’s earning his money in Austria Vienna. He was always a good servant to a national team, but I think he chose a right time to say goodbye. This decision leaves Michal Zewlakow as a leader of our defence. Leo must find a partner for him as soon as possible. Kokoszka? Pazdan? Glowacki? Radomski? Jop? Just joking about the last one. Respect for Komar and huge thanks for what he did for the national team.

Other news: Rafal Ulatowski is now officially Leo’s assistant. Other assistansts include Andrzej Zamilski (our U-21 coach) and Radoslaw Mroczkowski (our U-18 and U-15 coach). This move was made to create a natural link between the senior and youth teams. Keeping Euro 2012 in mind, more and more young talents should be given a chance in the first team.

New friendlies announced: apart from the Ukraine game (20th of August) we’ll play against Ireland (19th of November), Oman and Kuwait in December. The last two games will be used to give a chance to players not playing regularly in qualifiers and young talents. The same applies to a training camp in Wronki that will be held in the beginning of August. Only players from the Polish league will be called up and the camp will end with a game against Maccabi Haifa. This, of course, won’t be an official national team game.

15 year old Filip Modelski was transferred from Arka Gdynia to West Ham. I’ve never seen him play but I hope he develops to be the new Rio Ferdinand at Upton Park (even Anton would do to be honest).

Olympiakos Pireus is supposedly interested in Ebi Smolarek. Toulouse is still waiting for Ebi’s answer regarding their transfer offer.

Radoslaw Matusiak scored two further goals in a friendly for SC Heerenveen, this time in a 8-0 win against Fean’58 (does 58 mark the date of birth of all the players?).

Przemyslaw Kazmierczak was not even included on a list of FC Porto players leaving for a training camp. This basically means that he must find a new club as soon as possible. Kaz claims to have two offers from Championship. Sounds fantastic.

Adam Kokoszka still hasn’t signed a contract with anybody.