Things haven’t being going too well recently for head coach of the Slovak national football team after Slovakia were knocked out of the 2012 European Championships thanks mostly to defeats to Armenia, so there is now talk of ousting him from his position.
Weiss’ contract as national team coach doesn’t run out until the end of 2013, and so if the Slovak Football ASsocaition want to replace him, they will have to pay him off the EUR 800,000 in salaries that he would get for the contractual term. According to daily Hospodarske Noviny, head of the Slovak Football Association, Jan Kovacik, is trying to get Weiss replaced, possibly by the coach of Viktoria Plzen, Pavel Vrba.
Kovacik admitted enquiring a few months ago about when Vrba’s contract with the Czech champions ends, while Tomas Paclik, owner of the Plzen club, also admitted talks about Vrba with Kovacik. Paclik said simply ” we will see what happens after the Christmas holidays”. Given the handsome pay-off Weiss would receive, he himself is probably hoping to be sacked.
Coach Weiss is also not doing so well with Slovan Bratislava, where he is the acting coach, as the team ended its Europa League aspirations with just one point from six games. Slovan lost its last game at home 2-3 to Salzburg.
Weiss has been held in great esteem in Slovakia since he led to the team to victory over Italy in the World Cup, but some vulgar outbursts at journalists combined with recent results have sent his popularity into a nosedive.
Shock horror , I actually agree with you James, although I really dont believe size matters , but pride , attitude and the smell of money …..The Czech Republic are hardly a big country , but managed until recently a worthy record on the world stage since 1992 . I do note, hardly any of the Slovak picked national players , a) play in Slovakia, b) play for front line Champions League team ( always some obscure, hopeless Russian, Turkish or such second string outfit ) . I will skip the hype over Hamsik , who is actually a journeyman player, who happens to be brand because of his stupid haircut …..and of course Skirtel the man god mad as ugly as he could , then hit him in the face with shovel . His joke exploits are a Liverpool folk law !
What can they do ……? Well replacing Weiss is not the answer, but changing a few of Vlado`s pets as you say .
You’re right about the Czech Rep in that we can class them as a small nation and their record from ’96 to ’08. But if ever there was a golden generation of players, that was it ; Berger, Smicer, Nedved, Rosicky, even dear old Jan Koller.
The current Czech team, while obviously nowhere near as good, is picking players from Plzen while our Vlad snubs the Slovaks who play there.
**folklore
I love making deliberate grammar and spelling mistakes. It makes the cretins who find them, feel all warm, smug and happy with themselves .
It also show the webmaster, how many people actually read my informative, amusing and even factual posted whittering, even many claim I am totally bonkers. Bit like throwing darts ….
Merry Christmas emm, G
Where would the SFZ get this pay-off money from when they claimed not to have enough to fulfil a friendly with Belarus last month?
As for Vrba, well today’s Sport is speculating about him going to Wisla Krakow.
As for Weiss as an international coach, on one hand, he’s only as good as his last campaign and admittedly that was pretty poor. I also increasingly think he’s guilty of favouritism.
On the other, he’s the one we should credit for raising expectations – by qualifying for the World Cup and getting to the last 16. It’s unrealistic to expect a country of Slovakia’s size to qualify for every international tournament, especially when there is no ‘golden generation’ of players.