Krystian Bielik - Joined Birmingham on a 3 year deal

[Jubbs]

11 hours ago, cannable said:

Hmmm… depends though. Thorne made the best Derby side in 25 years look better.

Bielik absolutely bossed games single-handedly for a Derby team that would have been relegated but for his ten game intervention.

Bielik in that 10 ish game spell in 20/21 was easily one of the best spells of games a player has had for Derby in the past 15 years, like you said, he single-handedly kept us up with amazing performances. The performances against Swansea, Brentford and Bournemouth were incredible. 

Thorne was quality, but he didn't drag us through games like Bielik did, he fit seamlessly into the team, but the team was already good. We were perfectly capable with Eustace in the team too. But as soon as Bielik was injured in 2021, we only won 4/20 games.

In the 13 games Bielik played in 20/21, we scored 11 goals and conceded 5 at 1.62 points per game.

[SK47]

10 hours ago, IslandExile said:

Appears as though I am the only one sorry to see him leave.

Money, wages, injuries, yeah, yeah.

I just like to see quality players at the club. That man mountain could play a bit.

Ok, we move on. Let's hope it's upwards soon so we can start recruiting quality again.

I'd much rather have loyal players. Too long I've seen people use this club and jump ship at the first sign of greener grass, only to fall flat on their face, but sometimes at our expense.

Stevie Mac did it with Newcastle, Lampard with Chelsea, Rooney after saying he would stay, a list of players too.

IMO Bielik is a great championship player. When fully fit, by far the best cdm in the league. But after we shelled out a hell of a lot of money for his services.. (regardless of whether he has control over that or not) he spent alot of the time here on the physio table... we get relegated, and he holds us to ransom to get a swift exit.

If a plumber turned up to your house, did a horrendous job and charged you a fortune, you'd expect them to fix it. 

I just expected more from Bielik as a person rather than a player, but as a player on his day, agreed he is quality. But he could of helped us when we needed him most.

[Tamworthram]

7 minutes ago, SK47 said:

I'd much rather have loyal players. Too long I've seen people use this club and jump ship at the first sign of greener grass, only to fall flat on their face, but sometimes at our expense.

Stevie Mac did it with Newcastle, Lampard with Chelsea, Rooney after saying he would stay, a list of players too.

IMO Bielik is a great championship player. When fully fit, by far the best cdm in the league. But after we shelled out a hell of a lot of money for his services.. (regardless of whether he has control over that or not) he spent alot of the time here on the physio table... we get relegated, and he holds us to ransom to get a swift exit.

If a plumber turned up to your house, did a horrendous job and charged you a fortune, you'd expect them to fix it. 

I just expected more from Bielik as a person rather than a player, but as a player on his day, agreed he is quality. But he could of helped us when we needed him most.

Perhaps less cynical but more naively, I am a little more generous to Bielik:

How on earth you can potentially hold him responsible for the transfer fee we paid is a mystery.

Yes, he was injured a lot but, I don’t think you can blame him for that. I don’t think he got injured deliberately.

From what I can see, whilst he has said he wants to play at a higher level than league 1 (which player wouldn’t?) I don’t think he has ever said he doesn’t wants to play for Derby. 

None of us know the facts but my gut feeling is that, whilst he/his agent may have had a part in the loan to Birmingham I also think it suited Derby (to help cover his wages and keep him in the shop window to hopefully increase his potential sale value) and the club may well have been the driving force behind the deal. Similarly, he may not be making any noises about a desire to return to Derby (sensibly given it looks very likely he will remain at Birmingham) but what have the club indicated to him? It could well be that directly or indirectly Derby have said something like we can’t afford your wages and therefore need to move you on (they may of course have sold it a bit better by agreeing with him that it would be better for his career for him to play at a higher level).

 

 

 

[Sparkle]

Not his fault what we paid in transfer fee 

Not his fault what we paid him in wages 

Not his fault how long his contract was 

Not his fault that he had two serious injuries with us

I still think this was one of the most stupid transfers we made in recent history based on exactly where we were in relation to our finances and the club knew it, as a player un injured he may well have done very well for us but we simply didn’t need him or that level of expense when we had plenty of other areas where the team needed reinforcements.

Good luck to him and I hope he stays injury free because now Birmingham city is his level 

[Jram]

1 hour ago, SK47 said:

I'd much rather have loyal players. Too long I've seen people use this club and jump ship at the first sign of greener grass, only to fall flat on their face, but sometimes at our expense.

Stevie Mac did it with Newcastle, Lampard with Chelsea, Rooney after saying he would stay, a list of players too.

IMO Bielik is a great championship player. When fully fit, by far the best cdm in the league. But after we shelled out a hell of a lot of money for his services.. (regardless of whether he has control over that or not) he spent alot of the time here on the physio table... we get relegated, and he holds us to ransom to get a swift exit.

If a plumber turned up to your house, did a horrendous job and charged you a fortune, you'd expect them to fix it. 

I just expected more from Bielik as a person rather than a player, but as a player on his day, agreed he is quality. But he could of helped us when we needed him most.

I highly highly doubt he held derby to ransom. We definitely didn’t want him last season earning 20+k a week 

[QuitYourJibbaJivin]

We know he’s a decent player, if the fee is as low as is being made out I’m genuinely surprised other clubs don’t think it’s worth a punt.

[RoyMac5]

1 hour ago, Sparkle said:

Not his fault what we paid in transfer fee 

Not his fault what we paid him in wages 

Not his fault how long his contract was 

Not his fault that he had two serious injuries with us

I still think this was one of the most stupid transfers we made in recent history based on exactly where we were in relation to our finances and the club knew it, as a player un injured he may well have done very well for us but we simply didn’t need him or that level of expense when we had plenty of other areas where the team needed reinforcements.

Good luck to him and I hope he stays injury free because now Birmingham city is his level 

His fault he wouldn't play for us last season.

His fault he still didn't want to play for us this season.

Or maybe Warne saw him play and thought 'not my type of player', I'd bet on that. He'd have been right with how he looked at the World Cup. 😄

Edited June 28, 2023 by RoyMac5

[May Contain Nuts]

No evidence he wouldn't play for us last season or this, had we told him that we weren't letting him out.

[Tamworthram]

13 minutes ago, RoyMac5 said:

His fault he wouldn't play for us last season.

His fault he still didn't want to play for us this season.

Or maybe Warne saw him play and thought 'not my type of player', I'd bet on that. He'd have been right with how he looked at the World Cup. 😄

Do you know that for a fact or Derby farmed him out in order to help cover his wages and keep him in a bigger shop window? Maybe Derby didn’t try too hard or at all to encourage him to stay/come back. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[dcfcreece1601]

8 minutes ago, Tamworthram said:

Do you know that for a fact or Derby farmed him out in order to help cover his wages and keep him in a bigger shop window? Maybe Derby didn’t try too hard or at all to encourage him to stay/come back. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Let's not forget beilik forced arsenal to sell him by saying he wanted to be in the first team or leave , so it's very logical to assume he indicated something atleast with us last season although it can't be proved 

[Tamworthram]

3 minutes ago, dcfcreece1601 said:

Let's not forget beilik forced arsenal to sell him by saying he wanted to be in the first team or leave , so it's very logical to assume he indicated something atleast with us last season although it can't be proved 

Did he “force” Arsenal or just express a desire to get time which isn’t that unusual? 
 

How did he “force” Arsenal?

Without knowing the details of the conversations between Derby and KB (let alone Arsenal and KB) it’s a theory but not necessarily the right one. Perhaps it’s a failing of mine to give people the benefit of the doubt in the absence of any real evidence. At the end of the day though, it is what it is and it’s looking very likely that, in the interests of both the club and the player, he will be sold. I just don’t get the hatred some folk seem to have without knowing the full facts.

[RoyMac5]

23 minutes ago, Tamworthram said:

Do you know that for a fact or Derby farmed him out in order to help cover his wages and keep him in a bigger shop window? Maybe Derby didn’t try too hard or at all to encourage him to stay/come back. 🤷🏻‍♂️

His wages were budgeted for last season and this. We were under budget last season, so he could have played.

But when the Poland manager says what he did how likely was it that Bielik wanted to play for us. This is the player that when he joined said he was wanting to play in the Prem. So I bet my assessment is on the mark, but no I didn't actually speak to Bielik! 😄

Edited June 28, 2023 by RoyMac5

[Tamworthram]

1 hour ago, RoyMac5 said:

His wages were budgeted for last season and this. We were under budget last season, so he could have played.

But when the Poland manager says what he did how likely was it that Bielik wanted to play for us. This is the player that when he joined said he was wanting to play in the Prem. So I bet my assessment is on the mark, but no I didn't actually speak to Bielik! 😄

Maybe so but perhaps it also suited us to keep him in a higher profile shop window (Polish national team and the championship) with a view to selling him before his contract ran out. If we could do that and save some of his wages even if they had been budgeted for then happy days. Maybe we hoped he'd have a decent world cup and attract bids from the UK and abroad. Seems reasonably plausible to me.

Regarding wanting to play in the prem league, surely that's the kind of ambition we'd expect and want from our players?

[RoyMac5]

9 minutes ago, Tamworthram said:

Maybe so but perhaps it also suited us to keep him in a higher profile shop window (Polish national team and the championship) with a view to selling him before his contract ran out. If we could do that and save some of his wages even if they had been budgeted for then happy days. Maybe we hoped he'd have a decent world cup and attract bids from the UK and abroad. Seems reasonably plausible to me.

Regarding wanting to play in the prem league, surely that's the kind of ambition we'd expect and want from our players?

It was how it came across at the time - we were Championship and competing, he was aiming to play in the Prem, and it sounded like with or without Derby.

The bit about playing in the shop window worked well didn't it? 😄

He was much more interested in playing for Poland than playing for us.

Edited June 28, 2023 by RoyMac5

[bucktwo]

As much as many parts to this saga are not Beiliks fault , he does leave a nasty odour on exit ...maybe as part of mad Mels legacy , maybe lost in Polish ,English translation and maybe agent pressure.   Better off getting shut whilst we can . 

Edited June 28, 2023 by bucktwo

[Tamworthram]

11 minutes ago, RoyMac5 said:

It was how it came across at the time - we were Championship and competing, he was aiming to play in the Prem, and it sounded like with or without Derby.

The bit about playing in the shop window worked well didn't it? 😄

He was much more interested in playing for Poland than playing for us.

So saying he wanted to play in the premier league when he joined a competitive championship club is surely a good thing and something you’d expect?
 

Regarding the shop window, I guess we didn’t consult the correct oracle if that was in the clubs mind at the time. (If you could share this coming Saturday’s winning lottery numbers I’d be very grateful 😀).

[Jimbo Ram]

4 hours ago, Jram said:

I highly highly doubt he held derby to ransom. We definitely didn’t want him last season earning 20+k a week 

Steve Mac committed to Derby before he was sacked 😊

[RoyMac5]

52 minutes ago, Tamworthram said:

So saying he wanted to play in the premier league when he joined a competitive championship club is surely a good thing and something you’d expect?

Not when you'd just joined a Championship club.

[Macintosh]

38 minutes ago, Jimbo Ram said:

Steve Mac committed to Derby before he was sacked 😊

I wish there was a thread on here stating the facts about McClaren leaving Derby that first time. And the second time to give Rowett time to get to know the squad was an equally daft decision by Morris. 

 

Here's Paul Simpson, assistant manager at the time:

“There’s an opportunity and we could go to Newcastle” but I told him I didn’t want to go. He asked for my opinion and I said, “You have to turn it down. This is where we need to stay.” He thought about it for a while and said, “I’m going to turn it down, as long as we’re able to commit ourselves for the next three years to finish this job.” I was willing to sign another contact.

‘I know for a fact that Steve turned Newcastle down. I said to Steve, “Look, I’m absolutely knackered. I want to go away with my wife for a couple of days, can I do it?” and he said, “Yeah, go and have some days in Spain.” So, he rang me on the Wednesday night and asked me when I was coming back, which was the next day. “Right, I think I’m getting the sack. I need you to come back.” He turned Newcastle down and then he got the sack.

‘We were left in a situation with nothing. Even when it got to the point that I was still employed, he said to me that Newcastle had come in for him again. When he got the job, he wanted me to come as his assistant and I said, “No. I’m not coming.” I told him I would only go if I got the sack at Derby. I wasn’t leaving Derby.’

Simpson wasn’t made to wait long before returning McClaren’s call.

[Gee SCREAMER !!]

1 hour ago, RoyMac5 said:

It was how it came across at the time - we were Championship and competing, he was aiming to play in the Prem, and it sounded like with or without Derby.

The bit about playing in the shop window worked well didn't it? 😄

He was much more interested in playing for Poland than playing for us.

Signed a 5 yr deal, then a few weeks later said he would give Derby two years to get in the premier league before looking at premier league options.  Polish newspaper interview if I recall.