Images via @BSC_YB, @juventusfcen and @Rote_Teufel on Twitter
The past fortnight has seen three moves confirmed, for three relatively high-profile Polish players: Young midfielder Łukasz Łakomy sealed a transfer to Young Boys, Arkadiusz Milik’s loan move to Juventus has turned into a permanent deal, and Tymoteusz Puchacz has joined Kaiserslautern on loan.
On paper, very little links these moves other than their nationality. Of course, you’ll likely be reading this on account of their nationality, but to me they all desperately have something to prove in the coming season. I’ll delve into these deals on a player-by-player basis, and perhaps you’ll see the overarching theme of having to prove themselves, which I think applies.
Łakomy was, for me, one of the best young midfielders in the Ekstraklasa last season. I’m not sure how many other people shared my opinion, but he gives a box-to-box quality that seems to sorely be lacking among young Polish midfielders. Moving to Young Boys in Switzerland is a smart choice, given they are one of, if not the best team in the country as reigning champions and they usually end up playing European football. That will certainly be the aim for this season as they aim to qualify for the group stages of the Champions League.
It’s a step up for Łakomy, but not as great a step up as the rumours of a move to Holland, Italy or the MLS that we had heard about since he first starting standing out at Zagłębie Lubin last season. In my view, a move like this to a fairly dominant team is smart for Łakomy, given he is still only 22 and can take 18 months or so to develop into a better player at Young Boys. As a club, they have a track record of developing talent to sell to teams in bigger leagues, so presumably that would be the plan with Łakomy. If he continued on the trajectory he currently is, I see no reason he couldn’t be playing for a decent side in the Bundesliga or Serie A by the time Łakomy is 25.
So, what is there to prove? Łakomy has to play to a good standard, obviously, but this move strikes me very much as a stepping stone where Łakomy can develop whilst playing European games and attracting the attention of a club in a Top 5 league. For that to happen, he really has to come in and immediately establish himself as a starting calibre midfielder, which he certainly has the talent to do. There are decent other promising midfielders at Young Boys, such as Fabian Rieder, so Łakomy will have his work cut out.
Milik getting his loan turned into a permanent deal was pleasing to see, and in my opinion richly deserved. He performed very well, arguably outperforming Dusan Vlahovic for large portions of the season, and for what proved to be a minimal outlay it made a lot of sense for Juventus to take up their option to buy Milik. Supposedly Max Allegri pushed for the deal to happen, which suggests that Milik will see a decent amount of time on the pitch next season as well.
It was no secret that Milik wanted the move, as he repeatedly said that the culture and language in Italy was far more to his taste than it was during his brief stint in France, and that the facilities and professionalism at Juventus was a level above.
Now is very much the time for him to push on and develop a level of consistency to his game that simply has never been there. Milik is often made fun of for missing easy chances, but last season seemed to bring out a level of play that I don’t think we’d seen of him since his ACL injuries in 2016 and 2017. He didn’t have any flare-ups of these issues last year, although did have some other injury problems, such as a hip injury which kept him out for a month or so. Milik now has the opportunity to prove to everyone that he really is capable of challenging for a starting spot at Juventus on a more consistent basis, and given he will turn 30 during the course of the upcoming season, perhaps there will be a case of mid-to-late career blossoming that we see from time to time in more inconsistent forward players.
Puchacz has struggled for time on the pitch since leaving Lech Poznań two summers ago. Bought by Union Berlin for €3.5 million, he has only made 10 appearances for the club in those two seasons and has been loaned out to Trabzonspor, Panathinaikos and now Kaiserslautern.
We’ve seen how the 2. Bundesliga can be a great proving ground for a young left-back, given the revival of Michał Karbownik’s young career after his recent loan spell at Fortuna Düsseldorf, and hopefully Puchacz can have the same experience at Kaiserslautern. That being said, Puchacz is now 24 and he really needs to be getting consistent time on the pitch somewhere to kick on.
I’m quite a big fan of Puchacz, certainly when it comes to the Polish national team. I think whenever Puchacz has played for Poland, he has played very well both at left-back and left wing-back. Obviously Nicola Zalewski is the best option by far in that left wing-back position, but in terms of a traditional left-back both Puchacz and Karbownik strike me as very exciting younger options (possibly Kamil Pestka too, but we’ll see how he comes back from injury).
Puchacz really has to get consistent playing time at Kaiserslautern to prove not just to Fernando Santos, but to everyone, that he still would have the required quality if called upon to represent Poland. Given the current questions being asked of the national team, it seems like a great opportunity for some of the players on the fringes, a category Puchacz definitely fits into.
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