“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Cracovia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Dijon Kameri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Cracovia did not have in the autumn.
Squad1 Oct 2029
Stanko Jurić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Cracovia are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Cracovia, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cracovia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cracovia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Words at Cracovia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ajdin Hasić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Alexey Tataev is living that version at Cracovia, and it tends to show in the first month.
Dijon Kameri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Stanko Jurić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.79, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings17 Sep 2029
Ajdin Hasić was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.58. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Marked 8.55 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Gornik Zabrze kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Cracovia will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cracovia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cracovia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Words at Cracovia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stanko Jurić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
8.71. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Cracovia, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Cracovia heard it as anything else.
Dijon Kameri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad3 Sep 2029
Ajdin Hasić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A mark of 3.13 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
Squad3 Sep 2029
The manager has not finished forgetting Beno Selan's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Mateusz Praszelik obliged against Ruch. 3‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Cracovia.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Cracovia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Two goals and a mark of 8.57 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The offer from Ruch for Dawid Kaczor was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Lautaro Ríos wants continental football; whether Cracovia can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cracovia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Aug 2029
Words at Cracovia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stanko Jurić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Cracovia are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Dijon Kameri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Stanko Jurić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cracovia can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cracovia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Dijon Kameri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Stanko Jurić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Cracovia are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Gustav Henriksson has his answer from Cracovia; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cracovia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 9.88 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Words at Cracovia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stanko Jurić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
11 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Cracovia moved before anybody else could: a new deal for Tomasz Linetty, agreed quietly and announced loudly. Boards extend managers for many reasons; the good one is the one this looks like.
Dijon Kameri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Boardroom23 Jul 2029
8 academy players handed senior numbers at Cracovia
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Beno Selan falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Grzegorz Bednarek is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cracovia can pretend not to have heard.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Cracovia hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cracovia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Words at Cracovia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stanko Jurić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Dijon Kameri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Przemysław Mizera is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Add another name to the list: Slask have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Dawid Kaczor. The answer from Cracovia has not changed — yet.
The offer from Slask for Dawid Kaczor was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Lautaro Ríos wants continental football; whether Cracovia can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cracovia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Brahim Traoré has improved at 25, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cracovia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Words at Cracovia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stanko Jurić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Dijon Kameri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Beno Selan falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Nobody at Cracovia will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
A clause somebody insisted on years ago, in a negotiation nobody remembers, has just paid Cracovia $313.3K. Dominik Piła left a long time ago; the paperwork stayed.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Cracovia, another week without a signature from Juan Camilo Córdoba.
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Lautaro Ríos arrives at Cracovia with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Cracovia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cracovia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cracovia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Words at Cracovia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stanko Jurić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
Position 2, 59 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Cracovia, and it is not being withdrawn.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Cracovia have had the benefit of it.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Cracovia hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cracovia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadWords at Cracovia training over how hard people work
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Thiago Souza will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cracovia the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Dijon Kameri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
In brief
SquadBeno Selan falls out with a teammate over standards
SquadBeno Selan has become a man the manager trusts
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cracovia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 May 2029
Words at Cracovia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stanko Jurić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cracovia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadWords at Cracovia training over how hard people work
SquadDijon Kameri has become a man the manager trusts
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Nazar Domchak is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cracovia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Dijon Kameri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
In brief
SquadStanko Jurić falls out with a teammate over standards
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cracovia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Words at Cracovia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stanko Jurić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cracovia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Cracovia heard it as anything else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cracovia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Thiago Souza will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cracovia the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Dijon Kameri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Stanko Jurić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cracovia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Dijon Kameri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
In brief
SquadStanko Jurić falls out with a teammate over standards
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cracovia can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cracovia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
290 appearances across 8 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cracovia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Lech go through and Cracovia go home, 1‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cracovia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Dijon Kameri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Beno Selan falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Cracovia hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cracovia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.06, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Words at Cracovia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stanko Jurić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Cracovia know it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 26 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dawid Kaczor will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cracovia the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Dijon Kameri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Stanko Jurić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Nazar Domchak has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Getting past Nazar Domchak has become the hardest job in the division
11 clean sheets and counting. Forwards used to back themselves here; now they shoot early, shoot wide, and look for somebody to blame.
“Another season, another badge, another dressing room to win over. I would like one pre-season at Cracovia where somebody actually looks at me.” He belongs to Gornik Zabrze until the spell ends; the argument is with the club that owns him.
Ajdin Hasić had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Piast were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Position 2, 58 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Cracovia, and it is not being withdrawn.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
11 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cracovia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
2‑0 against Wisla Krakow, and the songs went on long after the whistle. League positions come and go; days like this get retold at family dinners for years.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cracovia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cracovia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Stanko Jurić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Wisla Krakow tried to reorganise, Cracovia did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cracovia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Nazar Domchak is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cracovia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cracovia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Milton Valenzuela wants continental football; whether Cracovia can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Dijon Kameri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Beno Selan falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The words a physio says slowly. 34 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Position 1 and 54 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Player ratings8 Jan 2029
A brace, and Brahim Traoré takes the afternoon — 9.09
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Brahim Traoré provided it, and the 9.09 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cracovia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Words at Cracovia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stanko Jurić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Brahim Traoré. 2‑1 against Ruch, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The words a physio says slowly. 41 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Cracovia will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cracovia can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Thiago Souza will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cracovia the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Cracovia hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Dominik Baumgartner was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Cracovia, and 2 appearances in 23 say he has earned the hearing.
The words a physio says slowly. 48 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cracovia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Cracovia and Gornik Zabrze in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings25 Dec 2028
Dijon Kameri was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.75. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The words a physio says slowly. 55 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Cracovia are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Dijon Kameri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Beno Selan has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings18 Dec 2028
Martin Minchev was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.54. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
70 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cracovia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Thiago Souza will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cracovia the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Thiago Souza has agreed terms with Zaglebie for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cracovia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Ajdin Hasić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The words a physio says slowly. 78 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
1‑0 against Galatasaray, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
A mark of 8.71 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cracovia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Words at Cracovia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stanko Jurić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
In brief
Player ratingsMateusz Praszelik was on a different afternoon to everybody else
The words a physio says slowly. 87 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Dijon Kameri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Stanko Jurić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ajdin Hasić. 2‑1 against Pogon, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Beno Selan has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Marked 8.71 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The words a physio says slowly. 94 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Martin Minchev had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Zaglebie were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Stanko Jurić was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Words at Cracovia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ajdin Hasić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
102 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cracovia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
2‑2 against Bayern Munich, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Dijon Kameri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Stanko Jurić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ajdin Hasić. 2‑1 against Korona, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.53 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Marked 8.54 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The words a physio says slowly. 126 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Cracovia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There are goals, and then there are goals against that particular opponent. The Cracovia support have their bragging rights for a year and they know exactly whose name is on them.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Cracovia know it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cracovia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Dijon Kameri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Ajdin Hasić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cracovia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
1‑2 away to the standard of Racing Genk. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cracovia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 7.87. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Words at Cracovia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ajdin Hasić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Cracovia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Dijon Kameri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Stanko Jurić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
2‑2 against Galatasaray, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Position 1, 21 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Stanko Jurić was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Words at Cracovia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ajdin Hasić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
2 behind and going nowhere, until Dijon Kameri decided otherwise. Gornik Zabrze had done the hard part and then watched it come apart, and the noise at the final whistle was the sort a ground keeps.
Two goals and a mark of 9.13 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Stanko Jurić was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Three points for Cracovia, 3‑2 the final word against Gornik Zabrze in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Words at Cracovia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Otar Kakabadze is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
7.79, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Cracovia are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cracovia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 26 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
Dijon Kameri was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.16. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cracovia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Nazar Domchak is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. David Murillo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cracovia the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cracovia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.57 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Bartosz Biedrzycki has his answer from Cracovia; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mateusz Pomietło is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Stanko Jurić was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Words at Cracovia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ajdin Hasić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Two goals and a mark of 8.51 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
A new deal for the man in the dugout, and the clearest thing a board can say without calling a press conference about it. Stability is cheap to promise and expensive to deliver.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Dijon Kameri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom24 Jul 2028
6 academy players handed senior numbers at Cracovia
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Three points for Cracovia, 3‑2 the final word against Korona in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Stanko Jurić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Amir Al-Ammari has improved at 31, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Cracovia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Mario Jurčevič has just signed for Cracovia, and for once the answer mattered.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Cracovia, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cracovia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Words at Cracovia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stanko Jurić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Cracovia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Dániel Tiefenbach is living that version at Cracovia, and it tends to show in the first month.
Dijon Kameri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Stanko Jurić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Cracovia has been clear about where Wiktor Żołądź stands, which is more than many ever get.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Cracovia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cracovia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Words at Cracovia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ajdin Hasić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 64 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. David Murillo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cracovia the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cracovia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 71 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Dijon Kameri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad15 May 2028
Ajdin Hasić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 78 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Aleksander Wyganowski is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 87 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Dijon Kameri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 94 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cracovia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Cracovia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Dijon Kameri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
In brief
SquadMauro Perković falls out with a teammate over standards
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Cracovia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Dijon Kameri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
In brief
SquadAjdin Hasić falls out with a teammate over standards
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. David Murillo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cracovia the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cracovia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Cracovia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mauro Perković is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Cracovia will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Dijon Kameri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Ajdin Hasić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cracovia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cracovia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words at Cracovia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ajdin Hasić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Dijon Kameri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cracovia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cracovia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cracovia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words at Cracovia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ajdin Hasić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Nono has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Cracovia have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
In brief
SquadThe manager has not finished forgetting Gabriel Kobylak's mistake
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Dominik Piła reports back to Cracovia with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cracovia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at Cracovia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mauro Perković is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Cracovia know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
Player ratingsAn afternoon Michał Litwa will want back
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cracovia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 5.02 for the rest of it.
The offer from Piast for David Murillo was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Dijon Kameri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Ajdin Hasić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Bartosz Śpiączka has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Cracovia have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Cracovia, and 2 appearances in 24 say he has earned the hearing.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Ajdin Hasić will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Cracovia escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Two goals and a mark of 9.76 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Cracovia, and it is not being withdrawn.
The fee is $620.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Legia drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Otar Kakabadze was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at Cracovia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ajdin Hasić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Dijon Kameri has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cracovia can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cracovia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The offer from Gornik Leczna for Dominik Piła was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cracovia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Cracovia and Legia in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Marked 9.49. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Cracovia.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words at Cracovia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ajdin Hasić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Two goals and a mark of 8.00 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cracovia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Dominik Baumgartner was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Cracovia, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kahveh Zahiroleslam provided it, and the 8.00 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Otar Kakabadze was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Cracovia and Zaglebie in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Cracovia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ajdin Hasić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It needed Kahveh Zahiroleslam to find the net to bring anything home at all: 3‑3 against Zaglebie, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.