Wichniarek: Beenhakker Advised By Idiots.

May 17th, 2008 | by: tomasz |

It wasn’t long till one of the Euro omitted players honestly expressed his opinions. And who else than Artur Wichniarek, the big mouth of Polish football.

Super Express reports today that Wichniarek called Leo Beenhakker’s assistant coaches, Bobo Kaczmarek and Dariusz Dziekanowski, idiots in an interview with Sport Bild. King Artur is still very much irritated by being left out of the squad for the Euros. He can’t understand how a player who’s scored 10 goals in the Bundesliga second season in a row is not considered useful by the national team coaches. That’s why he voices his disappointment on the pages of the German tabloid.

As much as I respect Wichniarek’s ‘not beating around the bush’ attitude I think he acted here like a big cry-baby here. I understand his disappointment; he’s a consistent Bundesliga scorer respected by the German press and he’s been left out of the squad for a major tournament for the 3rd time in his career. However, apart from scoring for Bielefeld, there was always little justification for including him in the squad. Here are Artur’s drawbacks: a) he wasn’t a part of the team in the qualifiers, b) he never impressed in the nt, even when given chances by Janas or Boniek in the Euro 2004 qualifiers, c) he’s a one-club player, his goalscoring record for Hertha is horrible, d) he isn’t a type of striker Leo is looking for, e) blames everyone around for his failures (as it was with Hertha where he blamed sporting director Dieter Hoeness for his lack of success at the club). And why did he attack Bobo (pictured) and Dziekan in particular? What is their fault? Didn’t he have enough balls to attack Beenhakker personally? Why did he humiliate our coaches in a German interview and wasn’t so ‘brave’ with the Polish press? I don’t see any reason to criticise Bobo (has an eye for young talent, big Polish league expert) or Dziekan (Polish legend, can still outplay our current players with his technical skills) to be honest. I don’t think we’ll see Wichniarek in the national team colours very soon now.

Ok, let’s deal with strictly national team bussiness now. 19 players will fly to Germany for the preparation camp on monday.
Here’s the list: Jacek Bak, Michal Zewlakow, Dariusz Dudka, Grzegorz Bronowicki, Lukasz Fabianski, Mariusz Jop, Wojciech Lobodzinski, Rafal Murawski, Tomasz Zahorski, Maciej Zurawski, Radoslaw Matusiak, Marek Saganowski, Paweł Golanski, Jakub Warwrzyniak, Adam Kokoszka, Michal Pazdan, Lukasz Gargula, Radoslaw Majewski and Roger Guerreiro. Seven players who still have to fulfill club responsibilities will join their colleagues on the 23rd of May; they are Artur Boruc, Tomasz Kuszczak, Marcin Wasilewski, Mariusz Lewandowski, Jakub Blaszczykowski, Jacek Krzynowek and Euzebiusz Smolarek.
The best news is that both Grzegorz Bronowicki and Dariusz Dudka are fit and will be able to take part in the training camp. Hopefully, that’s the last we heard of the injury problems. Our plans include friendlies with FC Schaffhausen (23rd of May), Macedonia (26th of May) and Albania (27th of May). After those matches the final squad for the Euros is going to be announced. Our final friendly match will be against Denmark in Chorzow on the 1st of June. I think that after those matches we’ll know more or less what to count on during the Euros.

Tags: Beenhakker, Bronowicki, Dudka, dziekanowski, Group A, Kaczmarek, Poland, Wichniarek

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Comments

By M. Zurawski | May 17th, 2008 at 9:35 am

It seems sort of classless to discuss personal disappointments in an aggressive vindictive way in a foreign tabloid. It is small minded, i think. There are, after all, ways of expressing your frustrations with more tack. Like you said Tomasz, in the end, it just bites him on the ass. Hey, on another subject, i’m going to the Wisla VS Brazil U-20 match in Toronto on the 24th. Obviously WK will not be fielding a A squad, but it should be a fun game to watch.

By Tomek | May 17th, 2008 at 9:58 am

And this is exactly the reason he was left off the team. Wichniarek has a difficult personality and bringing his poor attitude to the team is not worth his precious 10 Bundesliga goals. In a interview for Gazeta Wyborcza Leo mentioned that Artur was not selected because he has trouble playing with his back to the goal and keeping possesion. I agree fully , but there was more to it than just that. Leo was worried he could be a bad seed on the team. I believe it was the reason he was left off the squad by Engel and Janas as well. In any case this interview justified Beenhakker’s decision to dump his ass off the squad. Great call Leo!

Posted from United States

By tomasz | May 17th, 2008 at 5:17 pm

He definitely shouldn’t have reacted in this way, regardless of how disappointed he is. Dudek and Franek showed more class two years ago. Moreover, the situation was very different since they were almost certain to go and Wichniarek was only a wild card this year. Before the Czech call up Wichniarek was saying that he doesn’t consider his involvement in the nt. And now suddenly he acts like a huge harm was done to him. Where’s that professionalism that he always stresses when talking about Bundesliga? Leo had a right to make a decision of leaving him out of the squad.
@M.Zurawski
You’ll probably see some stars of the future…….in Wisla’s colours of course.

Posted from Poland

By Natie | May 17th, 2008 at 5:26 pm

Wow, looks like Wichniarek is a sort of black sheep since hasn’t been called by the previous nationl coaches (Engel and Janas ) as well.

Posted from Poland

By deyna199 | May 17th, 2008 at 5:35 pm

this article is by superexpress in Poland. they absolutely make up interviews and are a tabloid at best. wichniarek is not the most humble guy but i really doubt he said any of that.

By tomasz | May 18th, 2008 at 3:52 am

That’s possible deyna199, but would they go to such lengths to associate the interview with a German paper? I would like to see the original article.

Posted from Poland

By j | May 18th, 2008 at 4:58 am

I dont like this coach, he tried to steal Robert Aquafresca from Italy…basterd

Posted from Canada

By legia_piotr | May 18th, 2008 at 10:14 am

Like deyna199 said, SE is a tabloid @ best. I am willing to bet there will be an interview with Wichniarek in one of the respected Polish papers in the next few days to “clarify” what was said in this interview with SportBild.

as for point (b), let’s be honest here… Wichniarek has never been given a decent chance by any NT coach. Sure, Janas and Boniek gave him some time but it’s not overly fair to call him a NT disappointment. It’s crazy, especially when you consider that a guy like Rasiak has nearly 40 caps for our NT.

Posted from Canada

By tomasz | May 18th, 2008 at 10:51 am

Both SE and Sport Bild are tabloids so a misinterpretation is possible. Still, I find the story beleviable as Wichniarek was the only one of the left behind players who reacted in a very emotional way and expressed his irritation openly. As for the nt, he’s not a failure as Rasiak, I’d rather compare his situation with Saganowski’s. But on what grounds do you think he expected a call up? As much as I think he’d be useful during the Euros his absence is not something I lose any sleep over.

Posted from Poland

By legia_piotr | May 18th, 2008 at 11:57 am

I didn’t necessarily expect him to be called up and I am not losing too much sleep over it. For me, the question is why he didn’t get a better shot to prove his case?! I mean, he played 45 mins vs. the Czechs and was involved in one “training camp” as far as I know (please correct me if I am wrong).

I am not saying Wichniarek is the be-all and end-all for us, but we aren’t exactly overflowing with strikers at the moment… so a guy who can score 10+ goals in a top league should probably get a better look than 45 mins IMHO. (Especially when you consider guys like Sagan, Rasiak and Piszczek have gotten considerably better looks from Leo & co.)

Posted from Canada

By tomasz | May 18th, 2008 at 12:17 pm

I agree, he should be given as much playing time as Brozek to convince Leo. After that there would be no controversy, sink or swim. You’re right, those 45 mins against Czechs was the only time when he was called up by Leo. What’s even more surprising I recall Leo or one of the assistants saying that he’ll surely get a second chance. And I really wanted to see him once more just to finally make up my mind (as in the case of Brozek). Maybe there wasn’t enough time, but probably Wichniarek just isn’t the type of striker Leo considers good for the team.

Posted from Poland

By deyna199 | May 18th, 2008 at 9:09 pm

wichniarek really didn’t get a fair shot, and i think it was engel who said right before 2002 that it might of been a mistake to leave him off. anyways, maybe with more time they would have gave him a better look, but i still think they lied to him….like you said tomasz he was promised 2 games. we’ll see though. our back up choices aren’t spectacular as sagan only barries against crap teams, matusiak has depression and seems to have forgotten how to play. its a really poor situation. hopefully our midfield delivers….i mean we are going to be relying on them heavily if we are to do anything.

By tomasz | May 19th, 2008 at 4:09 am

The bottoma line is that Smolarek can play as a lone striker. Then we’ll have Krzyniu on the left wing, Kuba on the right and Zuraw/Roger/Gargula/Majewski as an attacking midfielder. If Leo wants to play Zuraw as a lone striker then Krzyniu can take the amc spot and Ebi play as a left winger. They change the positions during the game, of course. These are possible tactical changes if none of our ‘true’ strikers prove ready for the challenge. But I really hope that at least one of Matusiak/Sagan/Zahorski trio will prove useful.

Posted from Poland

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