Marked for Jack Thompson
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match26 Aug 2028
11 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.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Filip Vácha is the hero from the spot
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Filip Vácha: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Match23 Aug 2028
Stal Rzeszów are out and Wieczysta Kraków go through, 0‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match26 Aug 2028
A 0‑3 beating by Miedź Legnica was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Market28 Aug 2028
Kacper Tracz 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 Wieczysta Kraków can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets28 Aug 2028
$19.0K settles it between the clubs for Konrad Kożuchowski
Jagiellonia have accepted the money. What Wieczysta Kraków do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Transfer targets28 Aug 2028
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Wieczysta Kraków have done the hard part with Stal Mielec, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Aleksander Choina 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.
Match26 Aug 2028
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces7 Aug 2028
The mood at Wieczysta Kraków has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Market7 Aug 2028
“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.
Match5 Aug 2028
7 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.
The terraces7 Aug 2028
Supporters turn on the $66.0K sale of Dawid Szymonowicz
He is going to Cracovia, the club has $66.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Aleksander Choina and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets7 Aug 2028
Polonia Bytom wanted more than $46.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Market7 Aug 2028
Cracovia pay $66.0K, 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.
Transfer targets7 Aug 2028
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Words at Wieczysta Kraków training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jack Thompson 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market17 Jul 2028
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Market17 Jul 2028
“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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Wieczysta Kraków this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Jul 2028
The medical room confirms 20 days on the sidelines for Jack Thompson, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
Wieczysta Kraków asked and Piast said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
Korona have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Boardroom17 Jul 2028
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Wieczysta Kraków now.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Words at Wieczysta Kraków training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kingsford Boakye 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market19 Jun 2028
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Dawid Szymonowicz had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Market19 Jun 2028
“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 Wieczysta Kraków, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Wieczysta Kraków have done the hard part with Chrobry Głogów, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad19 Jun 2028
50 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Kacper Myszkowski 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.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Petar Pušić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lech have kept their man, and Wieczysta Kraków go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
A loan enquiry to Legia: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
A loan move for Jan Jędrzejczak is in the works
Wieczysta Kraków have made the call to Lechia. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match1 May 2028
Position 18, 21 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
The dugout1 May 2028
“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.
Market1 May 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Wieczysta Kraków can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom1 May 2028
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Wieczysta Kraków is running low.
Squad1 May 2028
Rudolf Obal 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.
Squad1 May 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Petar Pušić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad1 May 2028
“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 Wieczysta Kraków know it.
The dugout1 May 2028
Something was said to Petar Pušić and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Squad1 May 2028
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.