Image via Mikolaj Barbanell/Shutterstock
This summer, Grzegorz Krychowiak seemed desperate to ensure he didn’t suffer the same fate as Maciej Rybus and miss out on a place in Czesław Michniewicz’s World Cup squad due to political reasons. He played in Greece for the last few months of the 21-22 season, but AEK Athens were unwilling to make the transfer permanent.
Despite this burning desire to move on from Krasnodar, Krychowiak seemed unwilling to take a significant pay cut, which has led to him securing a move to Al-Shabab in Saudi Arabia, albeit on another loan.
Whatever the other obvious political and ethical issues this move throws up, it is completely understandable that at this stage of his career, Krychowiak is focused on his quality of his wage rather than the quality of the league he is playing in. Given that he is now 32, and his career has been running somewhat backwards since he was lured to PSG by Unai Emery, this could be his last big pay packet, and also last chance at a major tournament.
Krychowiak has played adequately for the national team, including winning the penalty that put Poland 1-0 up in their World Cup playoff against Sweden back in March. This makes recent comments by Michniewicz all the more baffling. These comments were reported by TVP Sport.
In case you missed them, what Michniewicz said implies it may be a problem that Krychowiak has gone to what he perceives as a weak league, which will break for the World Cup in mid-October, nearly a full month before most major European leagues take the equivalent break. Michniewicz appears to believe this break will do more harm than good to Krychowiak’s fitness and form.
It does boggle the mind a little that Michniewicz seems to have made his mind up before these things have had a chance to play out, but the Selekcjoner has already confirmed that, if fit, Krystian Bielik will be his first choice in his midfield.
In my opinion, Krychowiak going to the World Cup makes more sense than him not going, given he still possesses an air of quality about his play, even if he is likely to pick up a cheap booking here and there. What concerns me more is Michniewicz’s readiness to name the majority of the players he would ideally take to the World Cup. This kind of thinking might make it difficult for any players that haven’t been provisionally named in some of this week’s quotes to break into Michniewicz’s plans for the squad.
Perhaps, though, we’re all getting carried away with Michniewicz’s quotes and he is simply providing a discussion worth having. Again, in my opinion, the discussion around which strikers to take to the World Cup seems a little more pertinent than the midfield discussion, even though a spot has certainly opened up given the news surrounding Jakub Moder.
We are still over three months away from Poland playing Mexico in Doha, so World Cup discussion is sure to reach even sillier heights before then, and I’m sure I will be contributing to that. Despite this, it is still notable that even after everything positive that was said in regards to him leaving Russia, Krychowiak still may not go to the World Cup.
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