Roger. The Aftermath.

As expected, the decision to include the Brazilian Roger in the Polish national team wasn’t met with an unanimous round of applause. A lot of Polish football authorities are questioning Leo’s method of strengthening the squad. Here’s what they have to say.

Zibi Boniek stresses the difference between the former Olisadebe acquisition and the Roger’s situation. Olisadebe wanted to thank Poland for the good treatment he received here and for finding the love of his life (a beautiful wife) in Warsaw. Moreover, he rejected the call up from the Nigerian national team as he had already promised to play for us. Nobody believes that Roger would act in the same way in case of a Brazilian call up. Boniek also reminds us that at the beginning of the season Roger wanted to be transfer listed and never mentioned his love for Poland. I agree with Boniek here, I’ve already written that Olisadebe’s case felt much different. Personally, I think that we needed a striker much more in 2000 than we need an attacking midfielder now.

Cezary Kucharski, a former player who earned 17 caps for Poland, concentrates on the cultural differences between Poland and Netherlands. As the latter is a multicultural country, with players of different origins and backgrounds playing for the national team, it seems perfectly natural for Leo to imagine Roger in the white and red kit. Poles, however, are not yet ready to accept every foreigner as their compatriot on such a short notice(we live in a homogeneous country in terms of nationality), especially if the main reason for becoming a Pole is money. I don’t like this argument by Kucharski, it is not a case of Polish or Dutch national character. We had no problem accepting Olisadebe as our own. It’s just that it is happening too fast and a lot of fans weren’t prepared for it. Nobody even considered Roger’s citizenship two months ago. I also don’t believe that he is doing it for the money, even though the new passport will certainly help him in his future carreer.

Janusz Wojcik, a former Polish national coach, claims that there’s no place for Roger in our tactics and that Maciej Zurawski is a far better player. Moreover, he states that the Brazilian can’t win the ball and has no idea about the defensive play. Hey, you can always count on Mr Wojcik to say something stupid (maybe that’s why he is the FORMER coach). For me, Roger is the perfect player to occupy the attacking midfielder position in our 4-4-1-1 tactics. In this position you’re not really expected to defend, unless that’s the only thing we’re going to do during the Euro (hopefully not). He has the skills to keep the ball, earn free kicks, shoot from long range and play a red carpet pass for strikers (yep, there are Ray Hudson fans in Poland as well). Is he better than Zurawski, Gargula or Majewski? Leo must think so if he’s fighting for him so much.

To sum it all up, in a recent survey on Gazeta Wyborcza site 43% of fans view Roger’s acquisition as a good idea, 29% are against it and 24% treat it just as a pragmatic move. I bet that Leo belongs to this 24%.