Images via @sscnapoli, @juventusfcen and @ASRomaEN on Twitter
Yesterday saw the end of the Serie A season in terms of the teams with the most to play for in their league positions. Napoli’s trophy presentation, European places confirmed and drama at the bottom of the table all featuring Polish players.
We start by looking at Piotr Zieliński and Bartosz Bereszyński, who both had parts to play for Napoli against the latter’s parent club, Sampdoria. The team from Genoa travelled to the league champions on the final day already relegated, and with Napoli choosing not to exercise the purchase option in Bereszyński’s loan deal he won’t plan on staying long with Sampdoria in Serie B. It’s not out of the realms of possibility that he stays with Sampdoria in the hope they bounce back next season, but you imagine he will prefer an option that allows him to play top-flight football next season either on a permanent or temporary deal.
As for Zieliński, question marks remain over whether he will be departing Napoli in the summer like manager Luciano Spalletti and sporting director Cristiano Giuntoli, with Giuntoli rumoured to be off to Juventus and Spalletti off for a year-long sabbatical on his farm.
Zieliński looks likely to remain in Italy at time of writing, with the latest reports in said country suggesting that he is Lazio’s number one transfer target this summer. This is much the same as it was a few weeks ago, when reports suggested that Napoli would refuse to extend Zielu’s contract and Lazio would have to pay a reported €25 million to sign him. Also reportedly still in the race are Liverpool, although those reports have become quieter in recent days. Zieliński is supposedly very happy in Italy and Naples, so it wouldn’t surprise me if he accepted a lower wage to stay at Napoli. Or, he would get paid a bit more money and join a project at Lazio that remains very attractive given the underrated job Maurizio Sarri has done there this season. Much as I personally would like him to join Liverpool, it isn’t a transfer I really see happening at this moment in time.
Appearing draped in the Polish flag for the trophy presentation, Zieliński had his name shouted by the entirety of the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona in Naples, and whilst he went through proceedings with a smile on his face you couldn't help get the feeling he looked like a man who wouldn't be there much longer.
In the later games, Arkadiusz Milik and Wojciech Szczęsny took part in Juventus’ last game of the season away to Udinese, a 1-0 win for the away side. A difficult season for the Turin club, they have struggled with a surprising lack of creatively and a swathe of off-field issues that mean they only managed to qualify for the Europa Conference League, assuming Uefa allow them to compete in European competition next season.
Szczęsny is certain to be there and has recently had his contract extended to 2025, and he was named in Serie A’s team of the season which is certainly deserved given how little protection he has had at times. Milik’s future is less certain, despite interest from both sides about making this loan permanent. It would not be an exaggeration to say he has played better at times than Dusan Vlahovic this season, and given his general level of performance Juve could make worse decisions than to exercise their purchase option on Milik’s loan, reported to be less than €10 million.
Milik is allegedly also of interest to Premier League clubs Burnley and Newcastle, as well as the aforementioned Lazio, were Juventus not to take up their purchase option. Personally speaking, I can’t see Milik fitting in too well at Newcastle, but given the heavily possession-based style of both Burnley and Lazio, a striker like Milik who often drops deeper to link play could really thrive.
Finally, a game which featured four Polish players on the pitch from the start was Roma vs Spezia. Nicola Zalewski scored an equaliser for the home side in what became a narrow and oftentimes ill-tempered but entertaining affair that ended 2-1 to the hosts. Spezia lined up with Przemysław Wiśniewski, Arkadiusz Reca and Szymon Żurkowski with regular first-choice goalkeeper Bartłomiej Drągowski on the bench for a match which could have saved the away side from relegation.
As it was, Spezia now go to the first relegation play-off in Serie A since 2005, taking place next Sunday against Paweł Dawidowicz’s Hellas Verona side. Spezia are owned by Polish-American Robert Płatek and chaired by his brother Philip, and both have recently also looked to invest in Ekstraklasa-bound ŁKS Łódź. It's because of this Polish connection that they tend to focus on signing Polish players, and retaining their top-flight status would be advantageous to the visibility of Polish players in the rest of Europe, in my opinion.
Wiśniewski has been a replacement of sorts for Jakub Kiwior who left for Arsenal in January, and for the most part has adjusted well to his first six months in Serie A. Reca has had a perfectly decent season as well, and Drągowski has saved Spezia points on more occasions than cost them.
Żurkowski was another January signing and has largely had a season to forget, mostly sitting in the stands at Fiorentina in the first half of the season before having a mostly injury-ridden time of it since joining Spezia. Nothing summed this up more than a chance he had when the game was 1-1, and he had the ball squared to him yards out from goal. In fairness to Żurkowski, the ball was played across with a lot of pace and he was always stretching for it, but a player in form takes that chance. Hopefully next season will have him back to being the energetic box-to-box midfielder he was on loan at Empoli.
I imagine all of Spezia’s four Polish players will play some part in the play-off game against Verona next Sunday, which is to take place in an as-yet unspecified neutral location.
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