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You Are Not A Beautiful Or Unique Snowflake Mr Wichniarek.

September 8th, 2008 | By: tomasz | 12 Comments »

As expected, Artur Wichniarek announced his retirement from the national team for as long as Leo Beenhakker remains the manager. This only added to the bad press that our team is receiving at the moment. Did Wichniarek have the right to do it? Could he be considered a potential saviour of the national team?

First of all, I understand Wichniarek’s frustration. He’s been scoring regularly in the Bundesliga for over a year now and all he got was 45 minutes against Czech Republic (where he didn’t play that bad). He’s the most respected and well known Polish player in Germany. He’s in great form this season; he even received a Player of the Month award. Maybe he would have helped the national team, maybe he would have scored the decisive goal against Slovenia. Or maybe not.

Can Wichniarek, or in fact any other Polish player, consider himself a saviour of the national team. My answer is no. I have watched the national team for far too long now to believe that a single player can bring us to a higher level. It would be different if we had players at Barcelona, Real Madrid, Arsenal, Milan or Liverpool. Hell, even Werder Bremen or Lyon would do. But we have guys who play for Bielefeld, Auxerre, Bolton, Anderlecht or Shakhtar. These are not top European teams. If Wichniarek was this awaited for saviour genius he would have played for Bayern Munich now. There are always players that journalists are dying to see in the national team. It was the same with Gilewicz, Juskowiak or Wichniarek while Engel was the manager. None of them proved much useful to the team. Wichniarek was given his chance under Boniek and Janas, but failed to do anything noticeable. Is it a coincidence that he never established himself in the national team, though being called up by five different managers (Wojcik, Engel, Boniek, Janas, Beenhakker)? He played 17 times for the nt, scoring four goals; only one in a competetive game (Luxembourg), three other in friendlies (Czech Rep, Estonia, Kazachstan). If you ask me, the so laughed at Radoslaw Matusiak did more for the team. I don’t know, but I never associated the nt with Wichniarek; out of those 17 caps I can’t remember a single dazzling performance (can you?). In fact, the only time when media pressure did anyhing good for the nt was when Janas had to call up Frankowski. But the Goal Hunter was able to prove his point on the field, not in a TV studio.

As Leo rightly said, Wichniarek is not playing for him, but for Polish fans. Therefore, he’s not turning his back to Leo but to us. I think I can as easily turn my back to him. Sure his current form is good enough for a call up, but he’s never done enough for the nt to act like a prima ballerina now. You’re not a beautiful or unique snowflake Mr Wichniarek, none of Polish players is.

Tags: Beenhakker, Group A, Poland, Wichniarek

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Comments

By gregorio | September 8th, 2008 at 7:29 am

michał pol had a good text about wichniar. what is artur actually turning down? not call ups, for sure, as he doesn’t get any.
so nothing changes for us.

Posted from Poland

By Brian | September 8th, 2008 at 12:33 pm

great article, i agree with you 100%

Posted from United States

By Chris | September 8th, 2008 at 3:21 pm

Spot on article. We shouldn’t confuse the mistake of Leo’s striker free line up on Saturday with a delusion that Wichniarek or Jelen are the answer long term. Had Wichniarek not moved to Berlin a few years back maybe he would have shown the consistency to make it in the national team.
Whilst only a half against the Czechs was an unfair run out as a recall, the fact is he will be too old by 2010 let alone 2012.

So true that Poles are only turning out for 2nd tier european sides at best right now, I don’t see any new stars emerging in the next year or so. We’d better hope that Blaszczykowski stays fit and Smolarek somehow finds form at Bolton - 2nd place in the group is still easily achievable.

By MarcinO | September 8th, 2008 at 4:50 pm

This type of Wichniarek attitude has hurt the nt in the past. Good to see that any negativity or cancer type players are kept off the squad.

By Witold | September 8th, 2008 at 7:19 pm

Tomasz, sorry, but I desagree, I find that it is so easy to shoot on Wichniarek, as you said, Leo never wants him in the team, and didn’t give him a real chance, so why the shame is only on Wichniarek? He just told that in other words, that if Leo don’t want him, he don’t play for him, where is the surprise? I don’t cry because Wichniarek don’t have the chance to play in 2010, I’m only very nervous because we need asap a striker for the next few matches, and Leo prefer to trying strange things. I’m very happy that the next match is against a low level team, and that we can’t loose that kind of game even if we have our Team “C” on the field.
Wichniarek doesn’t play for Lyon or Munich or Celtics or Wisla, but he plays in a league that is a bigger level than Ekstraklasa and Ligue 1, and in this league he scores 4 goals in 3 matchs, don’t tell me that it is nothing. I don’t think that Wichniarek will score 20 goals this year, but as Leo didn’t play Smolarek because is out of form, he should play Wichniarek because he is in form.

Posted from Canada

By Pawel (drugi Cristiano Ronaldo i Franz Beckenbauer) i Polski Goral | September 8th, 2008 at 10:32 pm

Is Lukas Jutkiewicz playing for Poland? He is at Everton. Sebastian Tyrala Borussia Dortmund is waiting for a Polish passport and papers. Ludovic Obraniak a Polish player that plays for Lille has applied to the consulate in Poland to play for the national team. They are young and it is a matter of time till they wear the white and red and their backs. Ben Starosta, maybe? Kamil Grosicki FC Sion! Daniel Sikorski (striker) Polish player for FC Bayern Mucich II thgat wants to play for Poland! Get the counsalate! Get Lech, Poland’s Premier, Get Donald Tusk! Come on, lets make Poland play Joga Bonita football! Poland can do it but it is a matter of time and investments. Will Poland have a better Ekstraklasa in the 2012-2013 season?

Posted from United States

By zaraza | September 9th, 2008 at 2:49 am

Jutkiewicz, not yet, he first needs to get a Polish passport but he’s complained several times that PZPN haven’t helped him with that….

Obraniak - Leo expressed interest in him a few months ago but later said that Ludovic is no longer eligible because he played for French U21s….

Grosicki is on his way out of FC Sion, the fans felt he had a lot of potential but even after half a year he still doesn’t understand a word of French and the new coach has lost patience with him… They were expecting him to know at least basic football-related vocabulary by now.

We also have some talented players in Germany but they’re too young. Stulin and Zakrzewski might start breaking through in the next year, but I don’t really know the situation over there.

Posted from Canada

By tomasz | September 9th, 2008 at 7:20 am

@Witold
I never underestimated Wichniarek’s abilities; he’s one of a few Polish players that really succeeded abroad. I would like to see him in the nt, at least for this year’s games because he’s playing great at the moment. However, he’s never been an important player for the national team so it just sounds stupid when he rejects future call ups that nobody is offering to him. Putting such a show just shows how enormous is his ego. He has no right to do it as, contrary to Leo, he’s never done anything for the nt. He’s not a saviour of Polish football and he acts like one. Plus going to press with all this only harms the team chemistry.
@Pawel
I’m very cautious when counting on our youngsters abroad, mainly because I haven’t seen them play. As zaraza wrote, both Jutkiewicz and Obraniak don’t have our citizenship (the latter is illegible to play for us, otherwise we’d have heard something new about his case). Tyrala wasn’t good enough for Dortmund, I don’t know if he plays anywhere at the moment. Grosicki blew his chances at Sion; come on not learning at least a bit of French is just insanely stupid. Starosta returned to Poland and will play for Lechia Gdansk. I heard about Sikorski, but I don’t know what’s exactly his situation.
Janota, Kupisz, Fojut, Krychowiak are youngsters that we hear positive things about.

Posted from Poland

By MarcinO | September 9th, 2008 at 8:02 am

Just to name of few: Janota, Kupisz, Fojut, Krychowiak, Janczyk, Adam Kokoszka, Kamil Łukasz Król, Michał Pazdan, Wojciech Szczęsny, Robert Lewandowski,Tomasz Cywka, Adam Danch, Kamil Jacek Glik, and Dawid Jarka.

For a complete list of probably any Polish footballer (I think there is 250): http://www.football-talents.co.uk/Naechste_Spieler_suche–COUNTRY,170-3_7-0-2.html

By dezerter | September 11th, 2008 at 11:02 am

I have to disagree with you on this one. AW is in top notch form and only because of Leo resentment to media he kept Artur away from the team. How can you blame AW for being frustrated about this all situation? He feels unwanted and for that reason he is not big of a fan of Leo. It is only logical thing to do for him then to turn his back on coach who showed him the door. Honestly, show me better strikers on NT at this time. Why Zurawski is still there, why Saganowski? Those guys are terrible and for sure Wichniarek is better then them. I know he can’t change the way NT is playing by himself but it could only help.

Posted from United States

By tomasz | September 11th, 2008 at 1:58 pm

I understand that Wichniarek is frustrated, but he can as well keep this frustration to himself and not go to media with it. It only added fuel to fire in our current situation. Wichniarek is a great league striker, but he’s never proved himself in the nt. Treating him now as the last hope of the nt is just illogical. At the same time, I have nothing against calling him up for next games, why not? I just don’t like the whole media frenzy that he sparked.

Posted from Poland

By dezerter | September 12th, 2008 at 11:15 am

Leo doesn’t like when someone is telling him “what to do” and this is the only reason why AW is not in NT. Saying that he did not proved himself years ago means nothing. Maybe then he was not a player like he is now? Maybe his form then was not up to par with his form today. Anyway Leo with his stubbornness is not winning any vote for himself and he is hurting his own image. He is not invisible anymore.
Sure AW could go about this different way and by saying that he will not play for this coach he is trying to undermine his authority. I don’t blame him for it and I think that is just one of many things surrounding unhealthy atmosphere of Polish National team.

Posted from United States

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