Cash’s new contract, Krychowiak calls time on his career, drama (and a lack of it) in Sunday’s Ekstraklasa games and more: Polish football’s hot topics as October nears an end

Images via @AVFCOfficial on Twitter and Mikolaj Barbanell/Shutterstock

Sitting down to write this article almost feels like a mammoth task before I’ve concluded the headline, so in order to save time if you’re reading for a particular reason, I’ll attempt a rapid rundown of the topics mentioned in the following paragraphs.

Today’s we’ll be speaking about Matty Cash getting his great form rewarded with a new contract at Aston Villa, Grzegorz Krychowiak hanging up his boots, the refereeing drama in the Ekstraklasa and the damp squib that was Sunday night’s Klasyk, plus a variety of Polish players in good form at both ends of the pitch and a little look ahead to Jan Urban’s biggest headaches as November’s crunch internationals hove into view.

Where better to start than at the top with Cash and his new contract with Aston Villa, announced the morning after his winning goal against Manchester City. This new contract was a while in the offing, as reportedly Cash’s representatives had begun talks with the Villa hierarchy over the summer about extending or improving the terms of his current deal. 

With this new contract running until 2029, Cash would in theory remain at Villa Park into his early 30s, but on current evidence there is no sign of a player who is past their prime. If anything Cash’s goalscoring exploits this season are that of a player at the peak of their powers, and it would not be ridiculous to say that he is perhaps the best in the Premier League in that position at present. 

In previous years there has been a bit of handwringing both at club and international level about affording Cash so much offensive responsibility in teams which more often than not had reputations for being defensively solid first and foremost, but Cash has reaped the rewards consistently for so long now that every time the ball falls to him within sight of goal, you’re begging for him to have an effort. So far this season, those strikes have proved immensely valuable for both Aston Villa and Poland. 

Moving on, and it was with some sadness reading Grzegorz Krychowiak’s announcement that his career has officially come to a conclusion. Whilst it is undeniably in French football where he is remembered most fondly, I always associate Krychowiak with the Sevilla teams that seemed to be perennial Europa League winners in the early to mid-2010s. No surprise that this is when he as a player was at his best, which would also be true of his international career.

Therefore it is also a sad fact that the big money move to Paris Saint-Germain saw Krychowiak fade into mild obscurity as was very much commonplace with the “smaller name” players as the PSG project worked out the kinks in those first five to ten years of Qatari state ownership. 

As the transfers increased in frequency and the years took their toll, it was inevitable that Krychowiak would sadly not find himself back at the truly world-class level he reached in the mid-2010s. For what it’s worth I do find myself slightly surprised that Krychowiak did not receive any attractive offers from the Ekstraklasa or indeed any “smaller” clubs in France, even if he has been very much past his prime in the last few years. His relatively early retirement at the age of 35 is yet another signifier that many of Poland’s recent “golden generation” are now coming to the end of their careers.

Speaking of the Ekstraklasa, there was perhaps one of the worst officiating mistakes we’ve seen for some time on Sunday evening as Górnik Zabrze took on Jagiellonia Białystok. With the score level, Jagiellonia’s Dimitris Rallis was brought down by the last man, Górnik’s Josema. It was one of the clearest professional fouls you would hope to see, a clear sending off and yet referee Bartosz Frankowski chose not to make such a decision. 

It is without doubt an inexcusable error, proven by the PZPN statement issued shortly after the final whistle in a game which Górnik went on to win with a last minute own-goal from Jaga’s Alex Pozo. Whilst a horrendous error on the part of the whole officiating team, it is being blown slightly out of proportion. On account of the fact that had the foul not occurred there is no guarantee the attack would’ve ended with the ball in the back of the Górnik net, it’s not like you can retrospectively declare the result void. 

The hands of all involved are tied, and I’m sure Frankowski and the rest of the officials will be feeling absolutely mortified at such a public mistake. However, we are all human and whilst such an obvious mistake should be rectified as ably as possible, there isn’t really a lot anyone can do except apologise, recognise the massive error and try and put it in the past. 

Look, it’s easy to be magnanimous when it’s not your team involved, and I do wrestle with the fact than when my football team has been on the end of clear, objectively wrong decisions no amount of contrition makes up for it. What I will say however is that there was a pleasing cultural difference here between England’s top flight and Poland’s in the reaction to this mistake. An apology was issued as soon as possible, whereas in England you get several hours of pretending everything is fine before a milquetoast apology is issued lacking in accountability.

We should discuss Sunday night’s other Ekstraklasa highlight, or should I sat low-light. The Klasyk between Legia Warszawa and Lech Poznań has not been the most electrifying of fixtures in recent seasons, and that continued again. It wasn’t for lack of trying, many good efforts from Legia and Kacper Urbański in particular, with Lech a real danger on the counter. 

Special praise really should be reserved for Urbański, as it was clear to see Legia weren’t the same threat without him on the pitch after he was substituted. If I was Jan Urban, I’d be thinking very hard about reintegrating Urbański into the senior Polish set-up at the earliest possible opportunity. 

Also nice to see was Kamil Grabara making a result-saving performance in the Wolfsburg goal against Hamburg this past weekend, as not only did he make several key stops in open play but also made a penalty save at the end of the first half, with Wolfsburg eventually running out slender, 0-1 winners.

We know that Grabara wants to be Poland’s No. 1 sooner rather than later, and this isn’t doing his chances any harm. We shouldn’t be quick to write off Łukasz Skorupski though, as he has for the most part been very good for his country in the 12 or so months since assuming the mantle of Poland’s first-choice goalkeeper.

At the opposite end, Karol Świderski has been scoring for fun with three goals in his last three games across domestic and European competition for Panathinaikos. Since his return to Greek football last January, he’s got a very respectable 11 goals in 32 appearances. 

Quite frankly it couldn’t be coming at a better time for Świderski, as no doubt the onus will be on him should Robert Lewandowski not be fit enough to join up with Poland for November’s World Cup qualifying matches. We all saw what happened the last time Lewandowski was not present, and a repeat would be nothing short of disastrous. 

Pleasingly, even if Poland’s captain were absent for the games against Holland and Malta, the general mood around it would be starkly different thanks to the start Jan Urban has made as Selekcjoner. The biggest definite difficulty for Urban is to find someone who can fill in for the suspended Bartosz Slisz against the Dutch, as that holding midfield spot remains lacking in quality for Poland. 

Were I in Urban’s shoes, I’d be giving serious consideration to calling up Rafał Augustyniak. Whilst I don’t think he’s a great option, he is at the very least in good form and has some experience of playing for Poland in the past. However, I think the sensible option will be to dip into the U-21 set-up and have Antoni Kozubal take up that defensive midfield spot. 

Urban could fiddle with formation, but why change what has been working so far. Plus, Poland’s U-21s have been so good of late that several members of that squad are deserving of a chance in the senior squad. 

Indeed it won’t be long now until Jan Urban announces that squad for November’s Poland games, and I’ll be back to give the verdict on that as and when the time comes. 

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