Images via Mikolaj Barbanell/Shutterstock
Brighton and Hove Albion capped off a wonderful season by holding champions Manchester City to a 1-1 draw on Wednesday night, thus confirming their Europa League status for the 2023-24 season.
Whilst this is undoubtedly impressive for the players, coaching staff and club as a whole, let’s take a look at what this might mean for the three Polish players currently under contract with Brighton: Jakub Moder, Kacper Kozłowski and Michał Karbownik.
Moder has been out of action for over a year since sustaining an ACL injury in April 2022, and has faced a complex and well-documented recovery process. Manager Roberto De Zerbi has offered several reassuring if cautious updates since Moder returned to the training pitches a few days before Christmas last year.
De Zerbi had stated that Moder would not feature for Brighton at all this season as he continues his recovery, and it’s unlikely that he would have any part in Brighton’s final game of the season away to Aston Villa on Sunday afternoon.
What might be encouraging is that with some of Brighton’s highest profile players being midfielders such as Alexis MacAllister and Moises Caicedo, both poised to leave the Seagulls this summer, is that Moder may well get as many chances as he had been prior to injury assuming that Brighton don’t bring in a wealth of midfield reinforcements.
It is of concern that having faced such a long period out of the game that Moder will struggle to ever get back up to speed, but given he is still a relatively young player at 24 years-old he has time on his side.
Moving onto Kozłowski, whose development has clearly been aided by the season he has spent on loan with Vitesse in the Netherlands. With three goals and five assists in 29 games for the Eredivisie club, there has been a marked improvement in his decision making if not great leaps and bounds in terms of end product.
Brighton have got plenty of talented young players, especially in midfield. We’ve already established that some of Brighton’s players are likely to leave. In Kozłowski they might have a player who can go onto great things, but given the current pathway to minutes in the Brighton first-team he may well end-up on loan again next season.
That said, the demands of playing Thursday-Sunday, not to mention League and FA Cup fixtures, mean that regular rotation is likely for De Zerbi in order to manage the fitness and workloads of his squad, and this could definitely see Kozłowski benefit.
Karbownik is practically already out the door at Brighton, and as much as this is a shame he’s been having such a renewed lease of life at Fortuna Düsseldorf playing a left full-back role that has seen him recalled into the Polish national team under Fernando Santos, even if his first game back was difficult for him to manage.
Brighton will be looking to recoup most of the £3 million they paid for Karbownik in 2020, although an option to buy was reportedly inserted into the loan deal negotiated with Fortuna last summer at €3 million. The 2. Bundesliga club would love to secure Karbownik’s services on a permanent basis, but Fortuna’s sporting director Christian Weber informed the German press this week that the club simply couldn’t afford the fee Brighton want for Karbownik.
As for where therefore Karbownik might end up, other clubs in Germany have sat up and taken notice after this excellent loan spell, but there is supposedly no concrete interest in him right now. As things stand, Karbownik will return to Brighton in July and both club and player will assess the options for a transfer at that point.
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