A disciplinarian with self-discipline needed
The inevitable happened of course and only those who believe in miracles could have expected anything else. After going down meekly 0-2 to the Czech Republic, Poland are now officially out of World Cup 2010 and they won’t play another competitive game until 2012. It is almost three years to the day when Poland kick off Euro 2012 in the new Warszawa stadium that is currently being built.
What until then? Firstly PZPN has to appoint a manager/selekcjoner who can build a side that won’t disgrace itself, as this current team has done and their predecessors did at Austria/Switzerland 2008. Who can do that?
We thought we had such a man in Leo Beenhakker, someone with a proven track record at the highest level and, it was assumed, would instil the discipline that is obviously needed in making a Polish national team tick. But we were all wrong. By his own admission and in particular that of his fellow Dutch assistant Jan de Zeeuw, Beenhakker lost the dressing room. Not only was he unable to motivate his players on the field, it seems he was unable to control their off the pitch antics as well. When this happens, you end up with a shambles and in the highly-competitive world of international football, you lose to all but the weakest teams.
Stefan Majewski is the current selekcjoner, but he was only appointed as a caretaker until the proper man is found. Judging by the team’s performance (or lack of it) in Prague, he doesn’t seem to have been able to motivate his players either.
Perhaps Poland should look at England who, despite losing to Ukraine, had already qualified for 2010 with a 100% record. But more importantly, it was the way they qualified, and there is no doubt that this was down to one man – Fabio Capello. He is a top-drawer coach with an incredible record but even more importantly – he is a no-nonsense disciplinarian. And that doesn’t only mean he instils discipline in his players – he has demonstrated that he is also self-disciplined by not allowing the notorious English media to goad him into dropping his guard. Unlike McLaren, Eriksson and almost every English manager before them.
And – Leo Beenhakker! Perhaps this can explain why the Dutchman gradually lost the respect of his players, because he constantly allowed himself to be drawn into showing his frustration and anger over certain aspects of Polish football. Take that controversial Super Express front-page showing Beenhakker holding up the superimposed heads of Michael Ballack and coach Joachim Low over the caption “Leo – bring us their heads!”, before the Euro 2008 clash with Germany? You would have expected the Germans to get angry over this rubbish, but they took it calmly and philosophically. Ballack said: “Unfortunately, these things happen in football, although something like that is not normally seen.” Beenhakker on the other hand seemed to lose HIS head over it: “That is shit. Here one sees what sick people there are in this world. I disassociate myself from this made-up photo and hope that it is now only about the sport.” That was a disappointing response from the man in charge and may explain why his team flopped so dismally after qualifying so brilliantly.
But Polish football, like English, seems unable to produce managers who can instil real discipline and get back the ultimate respect from their players, like Capello does. The 2012 Euro Championships is very special and for this PZPN needs to get someone very special – like Capello. However, people like that don’t come cheap, but what’s another few tens of millions of zloty on top of the money already being spent? The nation’s honour is at stake here!
Hello Henry!
Firstly, on the Beenhakker issue, what seems to be forgotten here is that prior to coaching Poland Leo was the manager of the Trinidad & Tobago team which made history by qualifying for the 2006 World Cup. Now West Indian people by nature have a reputation of sorts of being rather boisterous people who love to relax, party and have fun, but the coach was able to work the team hard and demand total respect from his players. If Dwight Yorke and company were able to behave so impeccably during the tournament, why couldn’t Poland’s players? Beenhakker should have had the guts to drop those players who were not behaving well, but the fact that he was willing to give the likes of Artur Boruc and Dariusz Dudka more lives was galling in that regard. If the coach was not willing to use his power and authority to deal with the problem head on he has no business complaining of the malaise in football. Typical case of sour grapes. To me Franciszek Smuda’s attitude is the right one-anyone caught drinking should never play for the kadra again!
As far as the issue of the new coach, is concerned, I had said that if Majewski was able to pull the chestnuts out of the fire and get Poland into the playoffs or at least restore pride that he could be given the job full-time, but now I think those hopes have taken a beating. The problem with hiring a foreign coach is that really quality ones are thin on the ground these days, and Piechniczek was right in saying that it would be better to have a Pole who will work strongly than an average foreigner. I like the sound of Smuda, and another name that has been thrown into the hat is that of ex-international Piotr Nowak, who is now coaching in the US and doing a pretty good job. Do you have any ideas in mind?