January Recruitment Research: Poland, Hungary & Czechia

Kacper Buziuk delivers us a report with some players to take from three good Band 4 and Band 5 leagues

Andy Watson: We know that recent January windows have seen a major increase in Band 4 and Band 5 transfers into England. However, there are still a couple of leagues in these categories which seem to be underscouted and underreseourced, despite the undoubted talent that exists in these leagues.

Poland is chief among those underused markets in my mind. There is a good group of clubs in the Ekstraklasa, Poland have been highly FIFA ranked for many years in a row, which suggests that their youth development has been pretty consistent as well. There is also the perceived belief in the UK game that Polish players tend to acclimatise well to the UK and the football that is played there.

Hungary and Czechia are also underrused. Both national teams have done fairly well in recent years, and Czechia have benefitted from an automatic entry to the Champions League due to their high UEFA coefficient. The quality there compared to the wages paid, especially in the lower reaches of the league, looks to be a really promising disparity to capitalise upon.

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