When asked why Inter Milan defender Robin Gosens had missed the cut for Germany’s 2022 World Cup squad, it was hard to disagree with Hansi Flick’s stance.
“Robin Gosens had very few appearances last year,” explains the former Bayern Munich boss. “I think he himself can understand very well why we made this decision. It has nothing to do with his quality but with the rhythm.
“Both (David) Raum and (Christian) Gunter are doing well at their clubs.”
The always-underrated Gunter is a major reason why Freiburg are currently keeping pace with Bayern at the top of the Bundesliga charts. Raum, meanwhile, is a regular in the RB Leipzig XI, even if he has not quite rediscovered the form that made him such a star at Hoffenheim.
And the unique timing of this World Cup puts extra emphasis on players in form, playing week-in, week-out, given the shortest of breaks between the club season and the beginning of an international tournament. Gunter and Raum will touch down in Qatar fully fit and confident. As such, Gosens was always likely to fall by the wayside; regardless of how impressive he might have been in the European Championships 18 months ago.
Inter Milan’s Robin Gosens left out of Germany’s World Cup squad
Since the start of this season, Gosens has started just four games. Three in the Champions League. One in Serie A. The former Atalanta flyer turned down Newcastle United in favour of a £21 million move to Inter Milan in January and it’s difficult not to imagine that, if he’d made a different decision 10 months ago, he would now be dusting off his passport and heading to the Middle East.
“That’s true. (The interest from Newcastle) was real,” Gosens told Sky Italia. “And the negotiations went far. Just without the fact that I said yes.
“And then came Inter, who wanted to finalise everything relatively quickly. Accordingly, the transfer took place within 48 hours.”
If Gosens could turn back the clock, maybe he should have taken more time to stop and consider the potential downsides to joining a club already boasting one of the finest left-backs around in Federico Dimarco. At Newcastle, he’d have almost certainly waltzed into Eddie Howe’s XI ahead of Javi Manquillo, Paul Dummett and the versatile but hardly-swashbuckling Dan Burn.
Gosens made his bed, however. Now comes the time to lie in it.
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