Marked for Piotr Liszewski
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad16 Aug 2027
107 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hatayspor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 134 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market16 Aug 2027
Hatayspor say no — this time
The offer from Ermis for Adem Arous 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.
Match14 Aug 2027
No end in sight to Hatayspor's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Hatayspor has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Adem Arous is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Match14 Aug 2027
The goals have deserted Hatayspor
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Hatayspor can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Sean Davis 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.
Market16 Aug 2027
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Piotr Liszewski is a Hatayspor player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Boardroom16 Aug 2027
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match13 Feb 2027
Chastening afternoon for Piast
A 0‑3 beating by Gornik Leczna was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Tempers go at Piast
Dominik Holec 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 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jakub Czerwiński, and the manager let it.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Emmanuel Twumasi 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.
Boardroom15 Feb 2027
Inquest at Piast
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Squad15 Feb 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Adrián Dalmau'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.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Marked 4.26, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
The terraces15 Feb 2027
Everybody has an opinion about Dominik Holec
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.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
5.34. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match24 Oct 2026
10 matches without a win for Piast
The run now stands at 10, and the questions being asked around Piast are no longer polite ones.
The terraces26 Oct 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 7 of the 30 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Juande Rivas in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Piast this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match24 Oct 2026
Adrián Dalmau scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Cracovia, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad26 Oct 2026
“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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Elton Fikaj commits to Piast for another 4 years.
Squad26 Oct 2026
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 11. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
An afternoon Hugo Vallejo will want back
Marked 5.70. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
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.
Match12 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Piast
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Piast are no longer polite ones.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Hugo Vallejo and Piast agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Adrián Dalmau, and the manager let it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
54 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Match12 Sep 2026
It needed Quentin Boisgard to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Zaglebie, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Sep 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Piast can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Ivan Lima runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Piast
Juande Rivas 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
Cracovia pay $80.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Quentin Boisgard at his very best
Marked 8.43. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Piast.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“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.
Match5 Sep 2026
Piast share the spoils with Korona
A 1‑1 draw with Korona leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The captaincy has been taken off Dominik Holec. Piast will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
The terraces7 Sep 2026
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.