From Tom : Deyna
Hello Myles.
I was pleasantly surprised to find an article about Deyna on an Arsenal blog but as Arsenal blogs go , yours is right up there, so maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised after all.
As someone who personally knew Kaziu Deyna and played professionally in Poland in the eighties, although admittedly never at Deyna’s lofty level( not many did) ,I might be able to shed some light on the subject of his ” innate sadness ” , as Colin put it.
Deyna was arguably one of the best players of the Polish golden generation, who never got the proper recognition during his playing days in his own country.
Player of his immense talent should’ve been able to play for the Europe’s most prestigious clubs.
Unfortunately the stingy transfer policy of the Komunist regime prohibiting Polish best players plying they trade abroad before their thirtieth birthday, made it almost impossible.
Deyna’s transfer to Man City in 1978 was about four years too late, and at 29 he might have been ill- suited to the pace of the English game.
Imagine Mezut Ozil starting his Arsenal stint at 29.
Deyna’s style was not very dissimilar to that of Ozil’s, although he was ambidextrous, unlike Ozil, Deyna was predominantly right footed ( this part your reader Colin got wrong).
Deyna’s stay at City was riddled with injuries which prevented him from showcasing his true talents.
He quietly complained to friends that his City teammates couldn’t read his passes, which was of atmost frustrating to him. He did score, however , seven goals in his final six games , before transferring to Dan Diego Sockers FC.
His drinking problem which ultimately got him killed , wasn’t just Deyna’s problem. There was a whole generation of Polish players , who either never realized their true talents , or had their careers cut short because of drinking.
How rampant was it? Well , suffice to say that Polish no. 1 keeper ( Mlynarczyk) showed up to the airport before the flight for Spain for the World Cup in 1982, drunk out of his mind and had to be helped on to the airplane by his teammates.
The whole nation watched it live in amusement.
Deyna’s drinking problem persisted while Stateside and every time he came back to visit Poland , it got worse for him.
He was showing signs of depression but unfortunately there was no one whiling to help him.
His situation wasn’t dissimilar to another footballing star from the same era – Gerd Muller’s, who also found himself playing in North America and who also was hitting the bottle hard.
Fortunately for Muller, he had his former German National teammates lend the helping hand and brought him back to Bayern in a capacity of a youth coach. This probably saved the ” bomber’s ” life.
Deyna wasn’t so lucky. The stigma for Polish footballers who pushed for foreign transfers was still strong in the Komunist regime, and there was no helping hand to be offered to Deyna.
Keep up the good work.
Myles says:
So many tragedies in the Cold War, so many cruelties caused by ideology.
Years ago Rob Hughes told me about Beckenbauer and Hoeness bringing Gerd back to the club.
And I do remember Deyna being right-footed.
From Colin Shanner:
From Peter Andrews :1974 World Cup
When West Germany lost to their East German equivalents they had already qualified for the next stage.
Sparwasser’s goal meant that East Germany also qualified. I am not accusing the two German teams of collusion, just that the West Germans were less motivated than usual.