What next after one of the most damaging weeks for Polish football?

Image via @LaczyNasPilka on Twitter

Forgive the hyperbole in the headline, but actually, is it such a stretch to say there have been few weeks as grim as this last one for the whole of Polish football?

I can maybe only think of previous scandals to do with match-fixing or the bonus scandal following the 2022 World Cup exit, but for once this is a scandal which has little or nothing to do with finances.

Instead this has been a purely sporting catastrophe, which started with now ex-Selekcjoner Michał Probierz entering a largely futile war with his star player in Robert Lewandowski, which backfired so spectacularly even before Poland lost in Helsinki last Tuesday night.

I’d been able to cover things pretty fully up to that point so I won’t go over them again here, but it was perhaps the following evening last Wednesday when the despair really began to set in like rolling clouds coming over the horizon.

Said clouds arrived in the shape of Poland’s U-21 Euro getting underway in Slovenia, which was so much like the senior side it was comical, right down to the cheap, last-minute goal that consigned Poland to defeat. I’m sure if you’re reading this you’ll have seen it by now: Michał Rakoczy attempts to shield the ball out for a goal kick, instead he is bundled over (fairly, I suppose) and the ball is played across for a Georgian winner. Then he misses a glorious point-blank opportunity up the other end, and this is all after coming on as a late substitute for Poland’s best player, Mariusz Fornalczyk.

It didn’t help that as this collapse occurred I could feel myself coming down with a nasty cold, which seemed to be the universe just rubbing it in, frankly. Indeed as I felt worse the next morning, on Thursday, I did at least have my spirits raised by Michał Probierz’s resignation. 

Hard to say in the end whether he made the decision wholly himself or not, but one thing which could be agreed on by all was that it was at least 24 hours too late following the whole captaincy debacle with Lewandowski which was only compounded by the loss to Finland.

Then came the usual bandying about of potential new or returning Selekcjoners. Quite absurdly Adam Nawałka’s name was mentioned again, as it has been practically every time this job has come up since he left his post. Jerzy Brzęczek, because who knows why he should return. More sensible suggestions of a domestic choice were Jan Urban and Marek Papszun, as well as the very difficult to achieve but ideal candidate in Maciej Skorża. 

Reports in the days since have suggested that Skorża will indeed be first choice but is expected to turn down the opportunity, so Brzęczek has been contacted and Urban has not. However this is Cezary Kulesza’s PZPN, so who knows really what is going to happen. 

As for foreign names Nenad Bjelica has reportedly thrown his hat into the ring, which is a bit of an odd one given he has no experience of national team management and other than his admittedly decent stint with Lech Poznań which ended seven years ago, little experience of the Polish game. 

Likewise reports of Miroslav Klose being an option, which I had to smile at. Here we have someone who despite having obvious connections with Poland, hasn’t really paid Polish football much attention ever since declaring to play for Germany. It’s basically the polar opposite situation of someone like Lukas Podolski, and in fairness I don’t think Klose can be blamed too much for what was clearly a straightforward decision he made in his early twenties. Klose wouldn’t be the worse choice but it doesn’t really make a lot of sense for anyone other than furthering his own career by being in a bigger job than he currently is.

As the weekend started, my cold worsened, and so did the U-21s’ tournament over in Slovenia. After a positive opening quarter of an hour, they were torn apart by Portugal, as the score was 4-0 before half-time and 5-0 by the end of the match. It really did just cap off a horrid week for Polish football and as the full-time whistle went, it sounded the starting gun to really let loose on what is wrong with Polish football.

Fingers have been squarely pointed at the PZPN and Cezary Kulesza, and in my opinion rightly so. Even if we hadn’t had the drama with Probierz, the decision to award U-21 coach Adam Majewski with a new contract on the day of the opening match now looks like it has the potential to be just as embarrassing a cock-up.

So where do we go next? The U-21s have one more match in which to save face, tomorrow against France. To be brutally honest I can’t see this going any better than the Portugal match did, but we live in hope and at the very least the tournament will be even more over for Poland than it already is. 

Following this tournament there will be a relatively thorough refresh of the U-21s I would imagine, even if Majewski remains at the helm. I would be extremely surprised to see a back three remain, given how out of fashion it is at U-21 level nowadays, but even if Majewski does stick with that formation he faces the task of reintegrating players like Kacper Urbański and Maxi Oyedele, who have tasted senior football with Poland and aren’t getting a look-in there again right now. They will be among the more senior members of future U-21 sides, but personally I hope they remain part of the senior set-up where possible.

As for the senior side, the lack of a outstanding, unemployed candidate for Selekcjoner means that the merry-go-round of names will continue for a few more weeks yet I would imagine, and how convenient it is that such deliberating buys Kulesza time which should stave off some of the more vociferous criticism he’s facing.

To be fair, Kulesza has all the time in the world given he is running unopposed to lead the PZPN again, something which no-one apart from him is seemingly pleased about. Make no mistake, it will not be down to Kulesza that we see an improvement in Polish football, rather whoever agrees to work in the increasingly basket case conditions that the national team is becoming in these last few years.

Who takes the blame for that? The PZPN and namely Kulesza sit highest on this pyramid of blame, after all it is he who hired the past three Selekcjoners, all of whom have left in acrimonious and largely career-ending ways. Obviously therefore a fair portion of blame should therefore also be doled out to those three as well, perhaps Fernando Santos was clearly the worst, Czesław Michniewicz certainly the least convincing and as for Probierz, well. Much as he started positively, the results and performances improved but once Euro 2024 ended and the Nations League and World Cup qualifiers began not only did the wheels start falling off but he increasingly lost his handle on the players and this obviously culminated in the past week.

Blame should therefore be portioned out to them too, the players. Not overly, given the environment that has been created for them, but nonetheless. How many times in the last three years did we see something like last Tuesday night against Finland? Outplaying the opponent, much the better team before conceding a sloppy goal and suddenly it’s like no-one can do anything right, confidence completely shot to pieces.

Excruciating as it is to watch, it’s also become quite predictable. Whoever the new Selekcjoner may be, they have to get a handle on the players’ confidence for overcoming difficult situations. We’ve been saying this for some time now though, so who knows what could really change. 

At the very least, my cold is starting to clear up. Unfortunately, I have a feeling the maladies affecting Polish football will take a bit longer to sort themselves out.

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