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This past Monday, Jan Bednarek was recalled by Southampton after having spent the first half of the season on loan at Aston Villa. Bednarek was brought in as emergency cover after Villa summer signing Diego Carlos suffered a serious ankle injury, but failed to rarely make an impact in the Midlands under either Steven Gerrard or Unai Emery. The 26 year-old defender also only played a bit-part role in Czesław Michniewicz’s World Cup squad, only getting on the pitch for a few minutes of the Round of 16 tie against France.
Now, Bednarek returns to the south coast of England, with his parent club moving towards using younger players with lots of promise. Wonderful as this might sound on paper, the reality is that Southampton find themselves at the wrong end of the Premier League table and perhaps the recall of Bednarek will see Saints manager Nathan Jones turn towards experience in the coming months.
It’s also not unfathomable that Bednarek will be departing St Marys for good in the summer, given that there was interest this past summer from other Premier League clubs, namely West Ham, and it is also believed that Roma and Juventus have held long-standing admiration for Bednarek.
West Ham find themselves in a similar predicament to Southampton at present, and have been in need of defensive reinforcements for some time now. It’s not unfathomable that Bednarek may move to West Ham, but I would think Roma is a more attractive proposition for a player given their strong form, and given Juventus’ current situation I imagine many players will be having second thoughts about joining them.
Of course, this is all speculation as Bednarek’s contract with Southampton runs until 2024, but you would think that they would wish to cash in on him this summer rather than lose him for free. Where Bednarek moves and who shows interest in him will depend on how this second half of the season at Southampton goes, but I could see Roma or another club in the upper echelons of Serie A looking at him.
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