Marked for Brahim Traoré
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market5 May 2031
“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.
Market5 May 2031
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.
Squad5 May 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Martin Minchev and Cracovia agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 May 2031
Words exchanged at Cracovia
Sayfallah Ltaief and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad5 May 2031
“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.
Squad5 May 2031
A row about effort at Cracovia
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sebastian Walukiewicz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout5 May 2031
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market5 May 2031
“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 Otar Kakabadze.
The dugout5 May 2031
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Apr 2031
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.
Squad7 Apr 2031
Words exchanged at Cracovia
Sayfallah Ltaief and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad7 Apr 2031
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 dugout7 Apr 2031
The manager makes an example of Niko Sigur
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad7 Apr 2031
Lluís is no longer first choice
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Lluís has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
The dugout7 Apr 2031
Sayfallah Ltaief has become a man the manager trusts
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.
The dugout7 Apr 2031
Guido Rodríguez asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market7 Apr 2031
The name of Brahim Traoré keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Cracovia say nothing, which says plenty.
Squad7 Apr 2031
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Cracovia would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout10 Mar 2031
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market10 Mar 2031
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market10 Mar 2031
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.
Boardroom10 Mar 2031
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.
Squad10 Mar 2031
Words exchanged at Cracovia
Sayfallah Ltaief and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad10 Mar 2031
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.
Squad10 Mar 2031
Kamil Dudek gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Kamil Dudek has just signed for Cracovia, and for once the answer mattered.
The dugout10 Mar 2031
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad10 Mar 2031
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Kamil Dudek commits to Cracovia for another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Dec 2030
21 goals and a season average of 7.59. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Market16 Dec 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match14 Dec 2030
Nobody wants to play Cracovia right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad16 Dec 2030
Words exchanged at Cracovia
Sayfallah Ltaief and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad16 Dec 2030
Words at Cracovia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastian Walukiewicz 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.
Player ratings16 Dec 2030
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Match14 Dec 2030
Podbeskidzie made Cracovia work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings16 Dec 2030
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.36, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings16 Dec 2030
Mihael Mlinarić was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.30. 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings23 Sep 2030
Successful dribbles: 32. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings23 Sep 2030
A brace, and Kahveh Zahiroleslam takes the afternoon — 9.23
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kahveh Zahiroleslam provided it, and the 9.23 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market23 Sep 2030
Harry Winks hands in a written request
“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.
Squad23 Sep 2030
A falling-out at Cracovia
Sayfallah Ltaief and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Sep 2030
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.
Squad23 Sep 2030
“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.
Match21 Sep 2030
It finished 2‑0, and it was Kahveh Zahiroleslam’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Cracovia.
Squad23 Sep 2030
200 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
The dugout23 Sep 2030
news_b_reunited_with_his_manager
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market3 Jun 2030
“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.
Market3 Jun 2030
The bid was some way short and Cracovia did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom3 Jun 2030
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.
Squad3 Jun 2030
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Brahim Traoré commits to Cracovia for another 5 years.
Squad3 Jun 2030
A falling-out at Cracovia
Sayfallah Ltaief and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Jun 2030
A move Federico Medina would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Federico Medina is living that version at Cracovia, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad3 Jun 2030
Words at Cracovia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dominik Baumgartner 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.
Boardroom3 Jun 2030
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Market3 Jun 2030
The phone has started ringing about Piotr Pietryga again, and this time the name on the line is Zaglebie. Cracovia are listening politely and promising nothing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market20 May 2030
“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.
Market20 May 2030
Only the photograph left for Ismael Sierra
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ismael Sierra will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cracovia the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad20 May 2030
Sayfallah Ltaief 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 May 2030
A row about effort at Cracovia
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sebastian Walukiewicz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout20 May 2030
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.
The dugout20 May 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jakub Falkiewicz, and the manager let it.
The dugout20 May 2030
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cracovia, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market20 May 2030
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Brahim Traoré signs something — a contract at Cracovia or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market20 May 2030
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market22 Apr 2030
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.
Squad22 Apr 2030
Sayfallah Ltaief 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 dugout22 Apr 2030
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Kahveh Zahiroleslam is on it.
Market22 Apr 2030
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Brahim Traoré signs something — a contract at Cracovia or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout22 Apr 2030
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Cracovia. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The dugout22 Apr 2030
Mateusz Klich knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mateusz Klich trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout25 Mar 2030
Mihael Mlinarić: that is not what I was promised
“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.
Market25 Mar 2030
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.
Squad25 Mar 2030
Sayfallah Ltaief 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 Mar 2030
Words at Cracovia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastian Walukiewicz 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 dugout25 Mar 2030
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout25 Mar 2030
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.
Market25 Mar 2030
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Brahim Traoré signs something — a contract at Cracovia or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad25 Mar 2030
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Cracovia would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
Squad25 Mar 2030
He goes off to be somebody else’s player for a fortnight. Cracovia lose him for the window and would like him returned in the condition he left.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings22 Oct 2029
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad22 Oct 2029
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.
Squad22 Oct 2029
A row about effort at Cracovia
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sebastian Walukiewicz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout22 Oct 2029
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match20 Oct 2029
It finished 1‑0, and it was Kahveh Zahiroleslam’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Cracovia.
Player ratings22 Oct 2029
Sayfallah Ltaief was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.11. 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 dugout22 Oct 2029
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Dominik Baumgartner.
Boardroom22 Oct 2029
Nobody left the Cracovia dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Market22 Oct 2029
Ismael Sierra is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Cracovia has been clear about where Ismael Sierra stands, which is more than many ever get.