As the weeks go by for Jan Bednarek, the decision to move to Southampton appears to have been a mistake.
Bought from Lech Poznan for just under £5.5m during the 2017 summer transfer window, the 22-year-old, so far, only has seven Premier League appearances to his name.
The fact he isn’t even a regular for the cups, as shown by Mark Hughes’ decision to leave him out of the game against Leicester, says everything there is to know about his situation, but there is some hope in Poland that Ralph Hasenhüttl’s arrival could change that.
His omission from the squad for the 3-1 defeat against Tottenham wasn’t the best of starts, but there’s still plenty of time for Bednarek to change things.
We write all this because things could have been very different for the defender had Southampton not stood in his way over the summer.
According to Sportowe Fakty, Bednarek wanted to leave St Mary’s in the summer on loan to a club in the lower leagues, and he had ‘a lot of offers’.
However, those in charge at Southampton ‘vetoed’ the move and both the training and management staff decided they needed him as a safety net in case of injuries.
Unfortunately, that breakthrough hasn’t happened, and Bednarek is left ‘trapped’ at the club.
We’ll have to see if things change, but if Hasenhüttl doesn’t start playing him, something will need to change.
