As Derby County prepare for life in League One next season, questions are circling around the future of star centre-half Krystian Bielik.
Bielik, who came through the ranks at Premier League side Arsenal, has impressed in 15 games for Derby this season – after making his comeback in January following a knee ligament injury that caused him to miss the first half of the season.
The 24-year-old Polish defender would be greatly valued in the league below, after putting in some superb performances this season.
Interest could be increased by the fact that he’s also expected to be part of Poland’s squad at the World Cup in Qatar, which takes place in November this year.
According to SofaScore’s metrics, he hasn’t played a match below a 6/10 in his last eight games.
His profile, again on SofaScore, has him valued at just over £5m with no outstanding weaknesses in his game. The strengths of the player are his aerial ability, positioning and long balls – all of which are skills that would serve him and his club very well in the third tier of English football next season.
Wayne Rooney addressed these concerns after the Blackpool game, telling Derbyshire Live that “He [Bielik] is a Derby player, he is contracted to this club and unless anything drastic happens he will still be here next season.”
The Rams boss continued: “I think the break in the summer will do him good because he has played a lot of football coming back from his second cruciate injury. This break will do him good and then come back strong for the start of next season.”
Rooney said he “absolutely” anticipates the player wearing white and black colours in League One next season.
