Urban is the best current option

Jan Urban is not Carlo Ancelotti. And he has never pretended to be. 

But, Urban is the right choice to be the next head coach of the Polish national team. 

Ideally, the best choice would be Maciej Skorza or Marek Papszun, but both are currently leading successful clubs. Skorza just finished the Club World Cup with Japanese Urawa, is a coach who has job security and a good paying job for a prominent Asian football club. To leave that, for a team half-way through qualifying for the World Cup, which Poland has small odds of making, just wouldn't make sense.

Rashford had to leave Manchester United

Things are not always as great as they seem. Marcus Rashford, a homegrown talent, a boyhood supporter of Manchester United and statistically one of the best producers ever at the club. Rashford scored 138 goals in 426 matches for Manchester United, that's 15th all-time on the clubs scoring list. 

But things got shaky at United following Erik Ten Hag's first season as manager when the club finished 3rd with 75 points, and Rashford was the catalyzed scoring 17 goals. The following season, Rashford scored just 7, in a downward spiral season which United just wasn't able to find any chemistry. Fans quickly used Rashford as a whipping boy. 

Wolfsburg has the most wasted potential in the league

Wolfsburg just missed a Europa league spot by one point last season after the team dropped their final two matches to Freiburg and Hertha Berlin. A finish like that would normally ring an alarm bell. But for Wolfsburg the season was still seen as a positive one. Wolfsburg had one of the youngest teams in the league and the club was ready to invest in Nico Kovač's team to make a push forward and contend for a top-6 spot this upcoming season.

However, this season hasn't gone the way anybody could've predicted. 

Tomczyk is betting on himself

It was supposed to have been Spain? Or a club from England? Or maybe a move to Belgium? The options available to Poland U17 star striker Oskar Tomczyk last summer seemed endless. Labeled as potentially one of the players who could eventually fill Robert Lewandowski's national team void after he retires.

Tomczyk was one of the key players for one of the most successful age groups in Polish youth football history. In U16, he scored 11 goals in 9 matches. For the U17, he scored 12 goals in 14 matches, including a goal in the U17 European championships. 

The American Dream

The football landscape is always changing and the destinations and routes players take are also constantly changing. United States' Major League Soccer, for years seen by many as a retirement league, has more accurately become a transition league. The league has made a lot of money by signing notably young South American talents and selling them for a big profit margin to Europe. 

This path has also recently been used by Polish players looking to find a bridge deal into Europe's top-5 leagues. These players are essentially too good to stay in Poland but also not good enough yet for a top European league. A report from Meczyki on Wednesday said Legia Warszawa's Bartosz Slisz is close to a deal with Atlanta United.

Plain and simple: Santos won't be missed

It had the makings of a great journey similarly to the time when Leo Beenhakker became the Polish national team head coach. Poland needed a boost, and the teams style of play left nobody impressed at the winter's World Cup in Qatar. The team advanced, by some miracle, despite being rated as the worst team at the tournament with the worst style of any of the 32 teams. The team needed help and someone with the resume of Fernando Santos who not only can get results but also play with a style that Polish fans and players can be proud of.

On January 24, 2023, it seemed like a perfect match. Santos was hired to guide a aging Polish team, fix their issues on the fly and not only make it to Euro 2024, but also make a run and play a attractive style of play at the same time. He said all the right things at his opening press conference. He'll be living in Poland, he will attend Polish league matches, he will work with youth coaches and in player development, he said maybe the Portuguese do some things different then in Poland and he can help close the gaps.

Champions on the bench

On paper it would look like Poland's defense might be the strength of the team. Jan Bednarek and Matty Cash regulars in the Premier League, Robert Gumny a regular for Augsburg in Germany, Kamil Glik a reliable veteran who had a glorious career in Seria A and Ligue 1 and always is a impact player for the national team, and two, soon-to-be league champions in Jakub Kiwior with Arsenal and Bartosz Bereszynski with Napoli. 

Except, the games arent played on paper. Glik is 35 and past his best. Bednarek also has seen his form drop in the past year and Kiwior and Bereszynski, play on clubs who have much better options ahead of them and are there for depth purposes. 

What we learned from Santos' first camp

Patience. It's going to take time. 

All the cliche's Polish fans have been told after a false-start for new Polish head coach Fernando Santos. Poland lost in Prague to the Czech Republic 1-3 on Friday and came out with a lucky victory over Albania 1-0 in Warsaw, in a match that likely should've ended in a draw. 

After all, previous coaches, such as Leo Beenhakker and Adam Nawalka also started very poorly and worse then Santos' three points out of possible six. 

The camp was short and Poland played two matches, but there is plenty we can take away from this grouping as Santos and Poland look forward to their next grouping in June. 

Poland's wildcard

Karol Swiderski came through yet again for Poland as they held on to a tight 1-0 win over Albania at Narodowy stadium in Warsaw on a lone goal by Swiderski. 

Swiderski who left Europe in early 2022 to join Charlotte in Major League Soccer to earn some extra money in a league that will pay extra to attract european talent and also to rejuvenate his career. MLS is a league that has shown it can help re-develop players and re-sale them back to Europe, most recently with Polish players Przemyzlaw Frankowski and Patryk Klimala. 

Eriksen collapse: A year later

 

Euro 2020 in 2021. From the minute UEFA announced the European Cup would be played as a "continental" Euro, it was met with widespread anguish by fans who knew the Euros they've always come to expect would not be replicated in 2020. And that was before any of us know what Covid-19 was. 

After Covid-19 shut the world down, Euro 2020 was moved to 2021 in hopes the world would be back like it was just two years prior. But that wasn't the case. With Covid-19 still spreading all over the world, half filled stadiums, little to no buzz in host cities, fans either barred from traveling due to covid restrictions or just frankly refusing to do so, made Euro 2021 most likely the worst European Cup to date. And that was before Denmark took on Finland in Group B. The match the world thought it lost Christian Eriksen.

Skorupski makes declaration to be Poland's #2

When the May/June international window opened, one of the most interesting position battles on the Polish national team was who will become the teams' backup goalkeeper to Wojtek Szczesny. And in theory, whoever wins the backup job, will have a edge on who becomes the next NT #1 keeper once the 32-year old Juventus shot stopper retires from national team duty.

The top two candidates, 23-year old Kamil Grabara and 24-year old Bartlomiej Dragowski received the first looks and were the clear favorites when camp opened. But it could be that 31-year old Lukasz Skorupski could swoop in and steal the gig from either of the two young keepers in short term until they're ready.

Poland's catastrophic second half

Robert Lewandowski scored mid-way through the first half to give Poland a 1-0 lead. Despite having their backs against the wall most of the half, it wasn't until the 42nd minute til Belgium tied the match 1-1 after a defensive error by Sebastian Szymanski easily losing a rebound to Axel Witsel who put past a diving Bartek Dragowski. 

Even then, despite signs of brilliance throughout that half by Kevin de Bruyne that signaled that he and his teammates were not going to be stopped on this evening. Poland went into half-time tied 1-1, and with a few adjustments and locking down a bit more defensively, the moral surrounding the team was high with the thought that this team might actually go into Belgium and steal crucial Nations League points from one of the best teams in the world. 

Bosz on verge of another collapse

Peter Bosz was clearly showing frustration after his side Bayer Leverkusen 1-0 loss over the weekend to RB Leipzig, as all signs are pointing to another collapse for the Dutch manager at a major bundesliga club. "It was a top game, but not top football" Bosz told reporters after the match. 

Bayer Leverkusen after a hot start to the season with the breakout year for German teen prodigy Florian Wirtz, are beginning to mirror Bosz's Borussia Dortmund's side which showed all the promise in the world but to fall hard at the end. 

Revamped Atletico Madrid

"This will be the biggest task of my career" is how Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone in June described the upcoming off-season. It wasn't a secret to anyone, that Atletico Madrid had run into a dead end with the club they have build and the team has peaked. Going into the summer, Atletico knew it would lose three of it's starting defenders: Juanfran, captain Diego Godin and Filipe Luis, due to their ages and declining skills. It was time to rebuild that defense into a younger and quicker group.

Losing three starters on defense wouldn't be the biggest shakeup on the team. Their star and face of the franchise Antoine Griezmann, 28, was looking to further his career and play with a better team and add some trophies to his resume, after winning the 2018 World Cup with France. The Griezmann transfer saga had many twists and turns, and sometimes turned ugly, but eventually the French superstar made his move to Barcelona for $139 million.

Arp could be the steal of the summer

Last season did not go as planned for 19-year old Jann-Fiete Arp, once a top prospect in German football. After training camp with Hamburger SV, newly appointed coach Hannes Wolf determined that Arp was not good enough to compete in the 2.Bundesliga, and shipped him away to the Hamburg reserves which played in the fourth division, where he spend most of the season. Thus, plummeting his value.

That did not deter Bayern Munich this summer of taking the risk and trying to rejuvenate the former youth star. Signing him at a discounted fee of €3 million, Bayern Munich figured they could take their time developing the youngster under the eyeful watch of their staff and eventually turning him into a replacement for Robert Lewandowski.

Legend's son joins Borussia Monchengladbach

His father holds the all-time record for appearances for the France national team. During his playing career, he also won the World Cup and the European Cup. Simply put, Lilian Thuram is a legend in French football.

That is what his 21-year old son Marcus is going to try to replicate, as he competes his first major move of his career, transferring from Ligue 1 club Guingamp, where he scored 12 goals in 64 matches in his two seasons, to the German bundesliga club Borussia Monchengladbach for a reported €12 million.

Piast Gliwice blew their own chance at history

Piast Gliwice captain Marcin Pietrowski said it best moments after a crushing 2-1 defeat to BATE in the second leg of the Champions League qualifier, saying that "Every kid growing up always dreams of playing in the Champions league, and now it's over."

Last week, to everyone's surprise, Piast Gliwice went on the road and drew BATE 1-1. They even were the better team, outplaying the Belarusian champions, a team that has had a lot of experience in Europe the past 10 or so seasons. Piast returned home for leg two and even took a early 1-0 lead, just 21 minutes into the game after a excellent header from Jakub Czerwinski.

And that's where this story took a turn.

Giampaolo could bring more Poles to Milan soon

If you ask Polish football fans to fantasize about a scenario where a dream coach would come and manage the Polish national team, you'll almost surely get a unanimous response for Jurgen Klopp, who has raved about Polish players and Polish football fan culture from when he coached three of them, Robert Lewandowski, Jakub Blaszczykowski and Lukasz Pisczcek with Borussia Dortmund. One time i remember, when Dortmund played Lech Poznan in a friendly (part of the Lewandowski transfer agreement), a Polish tv station asked Klopp for an interview and were rejected by the Dortmund press secretary, saying he won't be doing any interviews. Shortly after, Klopp popped up onto the set and on live tv, apologized for the staffer who told them he wouldn't do one, saying he'll always be available to Polish media because he loves their passion and love for the game. He's been true to his word too, as he's always accepted interview requests after big matches in the bundesliga, premier league or champions league from Polish media.

But, there should be someone else that fans should glamour about. A person who shares a similar love for Polish players. That's new AC Milan manager Marco Giampaolo. The reason for Giampaolo and Klopp to love Polish footballers isn't because their being nice, but it's a understanding and a respect they have for them. Giampaolo once told Polish Seria A TV rights holder Eleven Sport that as long as he's a manager he will always give Polish players chances because of three reasons: 1. They always work hard, even if they are not as skilled, you won't notice by their work ethic. 2. They genuinely love the game. And 3. They are cheap.

Leipzig under Nagelsmann

One of the more fascinating storylines going into the new bundesliga season is how RB Leipzig will look and preform with new manager Julian Nagelsmann in charge. Nagelsmann comes to Leipzig from Hoffenhiem, where he was consistently fielding one of the most offensive teams in the league. Last season they were among the league-leaders with 70 goals scored, 8 more then Leipzig had scored, despite Leipzig finishing several spots above Hoffenhiem. One constant negative for Nagelsmann in Hoffenhiem was that each summer he has had to deal with one-or more departures from his squad. As is the norm for a budget club.

In Leipzig, for the most part, they are not depended on transfers. They are not a feeder club. Atleast not to the extend a Hoffenhiem is. In recent summers, Leipzig has been approached by major clubs trying to get their hands on several of their marquee players, namely striker Timo Werner and midfielder Emil Forsberg. Yet, RB Leipzig hasn't seen a offer they've liked and both players still remain with the club currently. Even if that means risking Werner leave as a free agent next summer and gain nothing in return, the club refuses to sell players at a discounted price.

VfL Wolfsburg ready to fight for top 4

By now, every club in the top European leagues has begun preparations for the new season. Within the next month, all leagues will be back under way and we'll all be sucked in each weekend to our TVs watching and analyzing each game.

In Germany, most of the attention of the summer has been on Bayern Munich's and Borussia Dortmund's reconstruction. Dortmund trying to keep up with Bayern, and Bayern trying to get younger and rebrand all at the same time as they lose legends of the club such as Franck Ribery, Arjen Robben and Mats Hummels. While Dortmund tries to keep up with Bayern, Bayern is trying to keep up with the elite European clubs such as Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester City and Juventus.

One club not on the radar of many is VfL Wolfsburg. The club was devastated last several seasons due to a emissions-cheating scandal at the car manufacture Volkswagon that cost it's owners over $5.5 billion in penalties. The scandal forced the owners to put the club on the back burner and focus on the legal on-goings. Despite all odds against them, Wolfsburg survived relegation by winning in the relegation playoff match in back to back seasons.