Comments on: You Are Not A Beautiful Or Unique Snowflake Mr Wichniarek.

By: dezerter

dezerter — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 16:15:41 +0000

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.

By: tomasz

tomasz — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 18:58:20 +0000

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.

By: dezerter

dezerter — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 16:02:26 +0000

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.

By: MarcinO

MarcinO — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 13:02:03 +0000

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: tomasz

tomasz — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 12:20:22 +0000

@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.

By: zaraza

zaraza — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 07:49:33 +0000

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.

By: Pawel (drugi Cristiano Ronaldo i Franz Beckenbauer) i Polski Goral

Pawel (drugi Cristiano Ronaldo i Franz Beckenbauer) i Polski Goral — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 03:32:43 +0000

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?

By: Witold

Witold — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 00:19:33 +0000

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.

By: MarcinO

MarcinO — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 21:50:52 +0000

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: Chris

Chris — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 20:21:41 +0000

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.