Dennis Politic has completed his long-awaited move to Italian side Cremonese.
The Romanian, who had come through our academy and was part of the group of youngsters that kept the club going through the summer of 2019, had just months left on his contract. He had been offered a new one, but for whatever reason he wanted to go elsewhere.
It’s a shame, because at one point Politic seemed to be the one that would be part of the first team for years to come. He was a regular in the 2019-20 season, and in the run up to the start of the pandemic looked like a player that was comfortable at League One level, with one notable highlight being the rocket of a goal against Tranmere in February 2020. But that summer he broke his leg in pre-season and never played another competitive game for us again.
This season he was loaned out to League Two side Port Vale, where he wasn’t always playing, but impressed enough to the point they wanted to keep him. There was some criticism out there of Ian Evatt for not being able to keep him, but without knowing the ins and outs of what was offered, if you offer a deal and the player won’t sign, what can you do? It’s better to get some money now, and from what has been said by the club we could pocket some more money if he does well.
Arguably, we could have not loaned him out, but to recover he probably needed regular football, and he wasn’t getting ahead of Dapo Afolayan on the left, and at that point Lloyd Isgrove was fairly established on the right.
Another factor is where Politic has ended up, Cremonese aren’t nobodies, they sit fourth in Serie B and are just three points off the top. A lot of things still need to fall into place, but he has a possibility of playing away games next season in Serie A at Inter, Juventus and Milan. It would be hard to not jump at the prospect.