Jan Urban’s potential changes and some surprising transfers: Polish football in the last two weeks of July

Image via @FCPorto on Twitter

With Poland’s domestic league well underway and the final weeks of pre-season for a whole host of other clubs around Europe, there are a pretty good breadth of topics to discuss.

Thinking about how to tackle these disparate strands of news, it became quite clear that all of it will undoubtedly revolve around Poland’s next two World Cup qualifiers in September. These will be new Selekcjoner Jan Urban’s first games in charge of Poland, and unfortunately for him we are rapidly approaching the “make or break” portion of the tournament qualifying cycle.

Realistically, we know that there will be a healthy level of change but Urban has already declared he is not planning some kind of revolution, either in terms of the tactics or the personnel. 

Urban has however gone on record with two (technically three) players he wishes to welcome back into the national team fold, should the opportunity arise. It’s practically a given at this point that Robert Lewandowski will return for these matches in the autumn, but just as interesting was Urban’s suggestion in his initial press conference that Kamil Grosicki could very much still contribute for Poland despite having a farewell match less than two months ago. 

In the last few days, Urban has also spoken about a willingness to have Wojciech Szczęsny come out of international retirement, likely to be discussed when Urban travels to Barcelona to meet both the former Polish no.1 and Lewandowski in the coming weeks.

As for any potential tactical changes, Urban said he would be open to trying a back four should the situation require it. Given that the last time Poland played this way approximately 2 years ago, they were generally stuck for candidates at that left-back position, more often than not playing whoever was second choice right-back. 

In theory, Jakub Kiwior has had plenty of experience playing in that position, but why deviate from his preferred central role without good reason? In short, I would be very surprised if we see Urban choose a back four in either of his first two matches in charge of Poland. 

Moving on to some pretty intriguing transfers and transfer rumours from the past two weeks, the most notable of which being Jan Bednarek’s switch to Porto. After eight years of (mostly) Premier League football with Southampton and Aston Villa, an opportunity to move to a team regularly competing for domestic titles in Portugal and often in European competition seems a good move for Bednarek at this stage of his career. 

It also hasn’t gone unnoticed that many of the same talking heads that populate the world of Polish football usually slating Bednarek for his performances in the national team seem overjoyed at him getting this move to Porto and the fact he is unquestionably a decent defender. Hopefully this will still apply next time we’re all looking for a scapegoat when Poland inevitably make some defensive errors, given that there has been such a long period where Bednarek was criticised for anything and everything.

On the more disconcerting end of the scale, reports in Italy have suggested that Piotr Zieliński now finds himself out of favour at Inter Milan. It’s been a summer of upheaval for Zieliński at both club and international level, not to mention the fact he has been injured for practically the entire time period we’re talking about. 

In the space of about six weeks, Zieliński has seen his club comprehensively beaten in the Champions League final, a talented and consistent manager replaced by a relative newcomer and crash out of the Club World Cup. All the while he was promoted to national team captain in the midst of a massive controversy, which will likely rear its ugly head again (albeit in a more cordial manner) in the coming weeks.

It is this new manager at club level however which poses the most immediate question to Zieliński. Cristian Chivu has reportedly conveyed that he doesn’t see the 31 year-old as a part of his squad for the coming season. Currently there are no other clubs formally interested in Zieliński, but if there is accuracy to these stories I can see him being moved out to another top Italian side before the end of the summer window.

Drawing this article to an end, there are a few other transfer stories that piqued my interests. Jakub Piotrowski has joined Udinese, which is be a great opportunity to test himself in a top league and potentially his last chance at a relatively high-profile move. Przemysław Frankowski also seems near to a transfer back to France, less than eight months after leaving Lens. Rennes are reportedly the team offering the terms Galatasaray want, which does beg the double question of why did the Turkish champions buy Frankowski in the first place, and why did he choose to leave Lens in the first place? Regardless, Rennes would likely be a good destination for him. 

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