Seriously, just let him prove his fitness this season - which is what he has been doing.

He'll look a completely different player (hopefully not due to injury) when he starts playing in our setup once again.

Nice move for him, they're top of the Championship. He's not got a future here though.

Zelalem to VV Venlo, some no name tier 2 Dutch team

Not a good indication for him and surely a step down after a good loan at Rangers last year?

Summary of our January Loans

Akpom > Brighton
Zelalem > VV Venlo
Mavididi > Charlton
Hinds > Stevenage
Bennacer > Tours
Toral > Rangers
Crowley > Go Ahead Eagles

Looks like we are doing well on this front. Bielik is the only one remaining that probably won't feature at all and needs a loan.

Hasn't Bielik gone to Birmingham on loan?

Yep, wasn't confirmed at that time I posted that.

Shame Toral couldn't break into Granada's team more....seemed to start well by scoring a screamer.

Clrnc wrote:

Summary of our January Loans

Akpom > Brighton
Zelalem > VV Venlo
Mavididi > Charlton
Hinds > Stevenage
Bennacer > Tours
Toral > Rangers
Crowley > Go Ahead Eagles

Looks like we are doing well on this front. Bielik is the only one remaining that probably won't feature at all and needs a loan.

Greater than?

East facing baseless isosceles.

flobaba wrote:

East facing baseless isosceles.

Terrorists.

a month later

Jack dropped again for Bournemouth. This isn't looking good.

I don't think it really means much, I gunuinely think someon as good as Ozil would potentially be dropped by these kinds of teams. More worrying for me is that mentally he looks like a 35yr old out there, more concerned with telling people where to pass it and walking around the pitch watching others attack rather than having the enthusiasm to demand the ball for himself or trying to find a pocket of space. He's genuinely one of the worst players I've ever seen off the ball, literally has no positional sense.

Think that's the a result of him being groomed as a "10" vs a central midfield. That same criticism could be put forward in regards to Ozil.....

Not if you have actually watched Özil. Ever. Because he moves better off the ball than 99.9 percent of footballers.

Yep, Jack walks around too much and only starts moving when he gets the ball so he can do one-two's with the striker. I don't know if it has anything to do with his fitness levels but it seems to have gotten worse at Bournemouth.

I'm not Ozil's biggest fan on this board but he's the exact opposite, always drifting wide or making little runs off the striker or winger. Spatial awareness is probably his most special quality along with passing technique

Yeah, hasty comment by me.....I was trying to suggest that Ozil wouldn't look good off the ball if he was playing CM (where Jack has often been playing with Bournemouth).

Then Jack is fucked, because he's not good enough to play either CM or No10. Time to move on.

Was reading an article about Wilshere today and holy fuck he's 25?! Time has flown, seems like yesterday he was bossing Barcelona's midfield as a teen.

Honestly just sell him while he has some value, he's not suddenly going to overcome his injury issues and develop into the player he promised to be.

That was some time ago IG. We moved on from annual Barca CL ties to annual Bayern Munich ones instead

Arseblog running a story that we're heavily involved in Jack's fitness program and that his absences from the Bournemouth squad are part of it.

Yeah that was a good read, and explains a lot about his random looking ins and outs at Bournemouth.

I don't buy it, at least not for the recent omissions. Howe hinted it's because they changed shape with two up top.

Wilshere, who is on a season-long loan at Bournemouth from Arsenal, was described as the ‘ultimate professional’ and a ‘game-changer’ by Eddie Howe after coming off the bench to set up Josh King’s winner in the 3-2 victory over West Ham on Saturday.

Interestingly, many commentators said he had been ‘dropped’ for the Cherries' last two games, which showed a fundamental lack of understanding about the way players are managed following injuries.

Roberts added: “Literally with Jack we would say, ‘this session he can do so many metres, that’s it, until we’ve built him up to a stage where he is able to cope with the load’.

Wait what, so he was injured again?

The quotes don't contain anything to suggest he wasn't dropped.

The discussion with Roberts makes it fairly clear that he was rested because he reached a target they'd mapped out beforehand. They don't specifically say that he wasn't dropped, nor would you expect them to address something that didn't happen. The entire article is about how they're carefully monitoring how much he trains and plays though since his ankles tend to break from overuse.

7 days later

Good performance from the kid. Clean sheet against the league leaders. He's taken to first team football like a duck to water, by all accounts. Zola is impressed:

Bielik can become a 'top player'
Wed 22 Mar 2017 11:29
Gianfranco Zola is delighted with the impact made by defender Krystian Bielik.
The 19-year-old followed up a hardy performance at Cardiff City in a difficult match with another impressive showing, on his home debut, against Newcastle United.

As part of a new-look three centre-half system, Bielik has slotted in as if he were a seasoned professional.

"It reminds me of when (Hector) Bellerin came to Watford (on loan from Arsenal)," mused Zola. "He stayed with me one week, then I said 'go!'.

"You see the player straightaway when he has got something special.

"Krystian is calm with the ball. In a tough match against Newcastle because of their strikers, the pressure, I don't think he lost his composure once.

"He came here on the back of a problem, maybe defending on physicality. But Newcastle, Cardiff and Wolves as well, he has shown he can do that and he enjoys that side of it, too.

"I think he is going to become a top player."

Bielik joined Blues with 15 minutes to spare on transfer deadline day from Arsenal. His loan runs to the season's end.

He has already declared that if the Gunners were to loan him again in 2017-18, Blues would be his destination of choice.

And certainly as Zola is such a fan of the Polish prodigy, he might already have an eye on trying to make that happen, too.

http://mobile.bcfc.com/news/article/2016-17/krystian-bielik-3638103.aspx

I really rate him. Got every thing you could want in a centrehalf. Also love that he's very good and very aggressive in the air. Something we lack right now at first team level.

Better than that clown Gabriel.

Just watch him come into our system and become complete clownshoes. Seems to happen to all players not named Alexis. Even Kos has become a liability these days.

So Bielik is full-time centre half now? Didn't we sign him as a midfielder?

Do you think that his long-term future is in defence or is this stint at CB just a part of his footballing education (a bit like Song)?

Definitely a centreback. The club have worked hard to teach him the position and should take a lot of credit for how quickly he's improved there.

I saw his cameo performance when he came on against Wolves and he was excellent. Championship is really not an easy place for any CB, especially physically but he seems to cope no problems.

I rate him highly, think he will make it here.

It's interesting that we have 3 very good young CBs, never have we ever had so much depth in that position.

Saw Pleguezelo this season as well, don't think he will make it here or at any good clubs.

Clrnc wrote:

Championship is really not an easy place for any CB, especially physically but he seems to cope no problems.

People always say that but I don't agree. There's an ocean of time and space compared to Premier League. It's a much less physical league.

Yeah but it's less technical in there, more long balls and more direct attacks to deal with. Generally CBs who are outstanding in there have no problems coping with the step up to the PL.

CBs in promoted teams always seem competent, yea.

That video is like watching table tennis with the ball being pinged back and forth so fast that even Anzac would struggle to explain the patterns.
I don't think i saw a passage of play where there were more than 2 passes and neither team retained possession for more than 2 seconds.

16 days later

Dan Crowley scored a great goal, and was the best player on the pitch for his team.

Krystian Bielik won MotM in Birminghams 2-1 loss to Derby. And Zola said that he want's to keep him on loan next season as well. He is doing great there.

Kelechi Nwakali scores in MVV Maastricht's 2-1 loss

Bielik looks like a great talent. I saw him play live in Youth Champions League and he just looked class, commanding, calm, smart .. and just a level above the rest. Really think he can make it here.