Poland boss has not done Bielik any favours with transfer talk
KRYSTIAN IN AN AWKWARD POSITION AFTER NATIONAL COACH SUGGESTS HE NEEDS TO MOVE TO BOOST HIS WORLD CUP AMBITIONS
WHEN Wayne Rooney was asked about Krystian Bielik’s future three weeks ago, the response from Derby County’s manager was emphatic.
“Absolutely,” he answered when asked if he anticipates the player being at Derby in League One. “He is a Derby player, he is contracted to this club and unless anything drastic happens he will still be here next season.”
If Derby are to make a swift return to the Championship next season under the ownership of Chris Kirchner, then keeping hold of Bielik would undoubtedly strengthen their cause.
But this week, the coach of Poland, Czeslaw Michniewicz, stuck his oar in by insisting he would have to leave the club this summer in order to be on the plane for the World Cup in November.
Going public on a matter that really should have been kept inhouse has now put Bielik at the front and centre of a club versus country debate. It is an awkward position to be put into because we all get that no player will ever want to jeopardise playing in a World Cup given it is the grandest stage in football.
But let’s be frank. Poland are not going to win the World Cup and it is wrong to use Derby’s relegation to hold Bielik hostage.
Michniewicz claims that by playing in League One, the standard of competition will not be an ample enough test of the quality required to play for his country.
But his argument carries zero weight given the World Cup begins in November so what could he possibly learn in three months from the start of the English season that he does not already know? Besides, there are no guarantees that if Bielik was to quit for the Championship that he would be a guaranteed starter.
Surely the risk of sitting on the bench would do more harm to Bielik’s World Cup chances than playing regularly under Rooney in League One.
If Michniewicz had concerns about Bielik, then he should have kept his mouth shut and dealt with it in-house. He has not done any favours to Bielik, who is now faced with some awkward conversations that are not of his own making.
It is understood that Michniewicz’s comments have not gone down well at Derby, who will no doubt want to remind Poland’s manager that they are the ones who pay his wages.
They have nursed him back through two serious ACL injuries and have every right to be furious at such a public transfer demand.
There may well need to be a conversation about Bielik and where he sees future at some point this summer.
But it should not involve the manager of his country unless he is going to start paying his salary.