Squad Watch: Week 9. Franciszek Smuda To Lead Poland In Euro 2012.

If it had to be a Polish coach then Smuda is the best choice, I wish him success.
I think Peter Nowak will lead a NT someday, not sure who’s but he will lead one.

Attacking football is nice to see and may win you a few games but defense wins championships. We need a dependable solid backline or we will need to score 3 or 4 goals a game to win if too many players are pushing up & attacking.
Good luck to Smuda finding those solid defensive players.

I’m well happy he got the job, I love attacking football and I wish more teams played it. Last season Lech were amazing to watch and if he can get our National team to play the same we will win the majority of our games. Cant wait to see what team he picks for the friendlies. Now I have an interest in watching Poland again

Posted from  Greece

tomasz, name me one renowned foreign coach that you think would honestly consider coaching Poland. I get the feeling that our coaching position is not thought of as an attractive job. There’s no Mediteranean beaches, the language is difficult for most people to learn, and there’s no way they’ll get the same kind of money as other countries. Also, this is a rebuilding job. Most people don’t mind popping in and making a quick fix, but in Poland you have to start from the ground up. So, who would want this job when there much more attractive ones out there?

adas, you’re making it sound like there are so many great posts available and coaches can afford to be choosy. Well how do you explain Ireland getting Trapattoni? If Ireland is attractive enough for him, then Poland certainly is as well. Beenhakker got 3million euros during his time managing us so I don’t think money is a huge issue. The only disadvantage is the language issue but most Polish players know some English by now. And I think there’s certainly a lot more prestige from coaching a country of 38 million than there is coaching a country of 6 million.

Posted from  Canada

zaraza, from my experiences Ireland is viewed as a part of Europe. I may be wrong in this, but again I’m speaking from my experiences, Poland is kind of a black hole in Europe. You’d be amazed how many people I run into that no nothing of Poland. I literally had one girl ask where Poland was. And the Irish FA is probably not the disaster the Polish one is. Otherwise, why would it have taken so long for someone outside of Poland to take the job? If Trapattoni were really interested in Poland, I’m sure we’d have heard about it. Just look at all these Polish eligible players we lose to other countries. Do you think we could really get big time coaches? We have to be realistic.

Leo was a big name. I would bet fewer coaches from abroad were interested in the job based on the saga of Beenhakker – based on what he had to deal with, with the PZPN. But there must have been a number of coaches wanting this job. The potential of the NT seems better than recent results, and it seems the only way to go will be up. Many coaches would like this situation to demonstrate they can build a winner. I’m happy it will be Smuda; he is the best one to take over. I would think every coach wants to build a winner and their own career, but Smuda’s efforts will also be more genuine toward the success of football in Poland compared to a coach from another country. I think the passing and attacking style of Franz suits the biało czerwoni very well.

Posted from  United States

smuda is definitely the best option possible. i love his genuine enthusiasm for the job, he is really fired up for this. and i’m sure we are in for some memorable games, which is what i expect from this polish team. i just wish he actually stays with the team until the euros. i know not much can happen in the next two years to make him lose the job, but with the pzpn and their thick-headness, i’m not completely certain about that. everybody knows they don’t like franz much for his independence and straightforwardness. though he’s trying hard to make a good impression on them, as the game gets going, he’ll just be himself more and more, that is football maniac, who acts more than takls and talks faster than thinks. who easily loses his temper and doesn’t care too much about what’s going on outside the pitch. it should be fun!

ps. and smuda said he’s going to search german football for players with polish citizenship and get them paly for us. there is no better man for the job, he knows germany, the language and like tomek said, has a good contact with the players.

Posted from  Poland

I think any manager would take the job, even if they have to put up with the PZPN. I’m not saying you would get an A class manager but there are a lot of quality coaches with something to prove. If you add the job security and the automatic qualification to a major tournament the job does seem attractive to maybe even get a top class foreign manager. As for the money, if they could pay Beenhakker then I’m sure they could pay again. The language barrier for a foreign coach would not be a problem since it was not an issue with Beenhakker. That is a piss poor excuse for why they played like shit. If more of these guys played abroad they would realize that football is a multicultural game. Those players who have a problem with a foreign coach not being able to speak their language should quit playing and go home. Outside of the universal language of football, English is the most common anyway. If that is the main reason why most of our guys flop when the go abroad then God help us all.

I like Smuda. He will not take crap from the players and especially the PZPN. He’s too old to give a crap about what they say or want him to do.

I think the fans would not mind the current group at the PZPN if they announced the budget and the allocation of that budget publically. Then we would see where the money is going. There would be no more of this taking Lato’s word nonsense. That way, we would all know how much they are spending on youth development, training coaches, etc. I read that the majority of the current budget goes to administration. What kind of bullshit is that?

2 more goals for Jelen.

Posted from  Netherlands

Has anybody gotten the Football Manager 2010 game? I’ve playied 09 and it’s tons of fun. I love being the manager for Poland and have them actually winning.

adas, do you live in the U.S.? Americans may not know where Poland is but Americans in general are aware of very little outside their own borders… One I talked to couldn’t even find France on the map!
Europeans however are very much aware of Poland, it’s one of the biggest economies there and it’s only going to get bigger. Many good managers would love to coach Poland, let’s stop selling ourselves short here!

Also, just because a manager hasn’t broadcast his interest to the media doesn’t mean he’s not interested, don’t you think he would lost face if he talked about it to the media and then got passed over? And someone who already has a job like Trapattoni certainly wouldn’t talk it, it would look very unprofessional.

*talk ABOUT it

*LOSE face

Here are Smuda’s call-ups for Romania and Canada
http://www.90minut.pl/news/106/news1069725-Smuda-powolal-kadre-na-mecze-towarzyskie.html

No Janczyk. Interesting that all of our NT managers have been reluctant to call him up, Beenhakker ignored him for a long time and even when he did call him up he didn’t let him play. It appears that neither Majewski nor Smuda are fans either…

Yes, I do live in America. And you are right, a lot of Americans are unaware of the rest of the world. But I also meet a lot of immigrants from other countries. And when I meet these people its like the only thing they know about Poland is that its a country next to Germany. And I have to disagree with you on managers wanting to work there. Leo was an exception because he wanted to rebuild Polish football. There may be a few big names that wouldn’t mind working, but the only upside I see now is that they automatically get to coach in Euro 2012. I could be biased based on my experiences living in America as a descendant of Polish parents. I admit, things may look different elsewhere. But I’ve been to Europe, outside of Poland, and its interesting to see that a lot of people there are similar to Americans. Except maybe for the fact that the big countries are treated as one topic while the rest of Europe is treated differently. And I’m sorry to disagree again, but after all these years no one has come to say after retiring that they would have liked to coach a country like Poland. That shows me that Poland is not a serious position for coaches. And after what Leo went through, yeah right. These big name coaches have egos. They’re not looking to clash with FA’s, particularly ones that are as incompetant as ours. And as for Trapatoni, he was unemployed for a while before he got the Ireland gig. That’s what I mean, there have to be some really good coaches out there, but Poland can’t convince them to coach. I’m open to things changing in the future, but the whole system needs to be done over. Guys like Trapatoni don’t want to start from scratch. They’re too old and too good for that.

You’re right, no retiring managers have mentioned they would have liked to have trained Poland. But no one has regretted not having coached Ireland either. Sure, Poland lacks talent and the unprofessionalism of the PZPN is well documented, but at the end of the day it’s a big country that’s becoming increasingly important within Europe as its economy grows. And there isn’t an abundance of awesome jobs for unemployed managers to be so choosy as to refuse to consider Poland. If Ireland despite being of lesser importance in Europe has somehow managed to sign a very good coach, we could too. I respect your opinion but there is no way I’m going to believe that Poland is such a massive black hole. That’s just typical Polish negativity and our tendency to sell ourselves short.

WOW Kosowski is back I’m glad he definitely deserves a shot I don’t know how much he will actually play but I mentioned a couple weeks ago that he looked great against Chelsea. There are some other interesting names in there, hopefully we can start piecing things back together. Unfortunately, there also are some names we are familiar with… I really think Zewlakow should be done, and maybe it is about time Mariusz Lewandowski got phased out… well I guess we will see how things go.

Posted from  United States

Look, this is turning into an argument. I don’t want to argue. I’m not being negative either. I’m just going on what I’ve experienced. And until someone tells me of one big time manager who is interested in Poland I’m going to assume that such thoughts are dismissed with a wave of a hand. There is a huge chance for this to completely change with Euro 2012. It’ll give the rest of Europe a chance to really get to know Poland. I don’t think many European visit it. Its a bit of a mystery for them. This will open up relations, and the future can look very bright. But we’re clearly in a dark age period now. In a few years, I’ll believe Trapatoni or anyone will be interested in Poland. But right now, the thing is so broken no one wants to touch it who’s worth a damn.

For what it’s worth I didn’t perceive an argument but good discussion. From the sidelines here I can see adas, you have strong feelings about this. I am not adding fuel, I hope, when I say: Smuda is worth a damn, … and more!!!

Posted from  United States

Dudka (as right midfielder!!!) and jelen in the Eleven of the week for Ligue 1: http://www.goal.com/fr/news/29/ligue-1/2009/11/02/1598942/ligue-1-le-onze-de-la-12e-journ%C3%A9e

Kuba finally played a great game against Hertha, hopefully he’ll be good again.

Posted from  Netherlands

Paradowski, I am strong about this. I do agree, I think Smuda might be the best option. Its time we saw a Polish coach take the team through the most important tournament they’ve ever been a part of. Also, I have nothing against foreign coaches, but we should have a Polish coach right this ship before it gets handed off to someone who can take Poland to the next level. And I do think the state of Polish football puts off bigger names, especially after the Leo debacle. One day I would love to see a Guus Hiddink or Trappatoni lead the Polish team. I just don’t think its in the cards yet.

Ok would just like to point something out here. Adas you mentioned that nobody says they would like to coach Poland. But you are wrong here, a certain Avram Grant expressed his nterest and said he would love to coach us. I’m with Zaraza here, we are strugging at the moment but in the past we have had a very proud footballing herritage and a better history in the world cup than a lot of teams have. I’m not sure i’ll have to check but i think we have a better history in the worldcup than spain have. I think a lot of managers would like to manage us and yes they are probably wary of the pzpn but the fact they could manage a big footballing nation at a major tournament who do have some very good players is a very attractive prospect. And we do have some very good players before anyone says otherwise, not the best but still some very good players. Boruc, Fabianski,Kuszczak, Kuba, Jelen, R. Lewendowski, Roger, Obraniak, Murawski, These are all very good players and we just need to get them to gel, once we do then we will have a very good team and I believe Smuda is the man to do it, I actually would prefer him to many other big name managers, his direct attacking play is horrible for any team to play against. I remember when Dynamo Kiev beat arsenal in the Champions league everyone was saying how such attacking football is difficult for any team to deal with. I cant wait for the rebuilding to start.

Posted from  Greece

I agree with you Wejher, very good analysis

I don’t consider Avram Grant to be one of the elite coaches. He is very good. But I’m talking about someone with credentials that at least include getting to the final match of a World Cup or Euro, etc. I’m not saying these types of coaches would never coach Poland. I’m saying currently they have no reason. That shows how bad our football situation is. I read somehwere, and it could be false, that Jacek Krzynowek was quoted as saying something along the lines of how Poland is looked at as a laughing stock in Europe when it comes to football. I think this is true, and I think it makes it more difficult for our players to break into the bigger leagues. No one who has come within 90 minutes of winning a World Cup as a coach wants to hold our hand as we get in order. Therefore, Smuda is the best choice for now. Teams have had more success than Poland with less talent. I’ve felt for a long time that Poland was lacking a style of play under Leo. We need to play a style that we stick with and come together playing. But sticking eleven players out there who just kick the ball back and forth to the other team does not make a football team. Eleven drunk fans in the stands can do that. Its time the team started playing like one. And maybe Smuda can instill some pride in this team.

You’ve got a hint my boy.

Posted from  Australia