Marked for Christopher Simon
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match31 Oct 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Polonia Bytom, and it could have been more.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Up for the corner, and Erdal Rakip delivers — 7.86
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Erdal Rakip scored, was marked 7.86, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Erdal Rakip and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
A performance of 8.64 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Miedź Legnica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miloš Jovičić 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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
125% of the income goes out in wages at Miedź Legnica
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“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; Miedź Legnica are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad2 Nov 2026
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Mateusz Szymanski could afford to be generous.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.50 beside his name.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Erdal Rakip and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match3 Oct 2026
It finished 3‑2, and it was Kamil Antonik’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Miedź Legnica.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 148% of everything Miedź Legnica earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.57 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes of Daniel Stanclik at his very best
Marked 8.35. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Miedź Legnica.
Match3 Oct 2026
The goal that put Polonia Warszawa ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Miedź Legnica equalised, 3 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Mateusz Szymanski kept it short after the 3‑2 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout5 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match12 Sep 2026
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Pogoń Grodzisk Mazowiecki kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Miedź Legnica will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Squad14 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Miedź Legnica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Pardubice have kept their man, and Miedź Legnica go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Marked 8.07 — 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Miedź Legnica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miloš Jovičić 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.
Loan watch14 Sep 2026
“I watch every Miedź Legnica game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Pogoń Siedlce runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Match12 Sep 2026
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout14 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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Mateusz Szymanski was not hiding it after 2‑2, and nobody in the Miedź Legnica dressing room was either.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Sep 2026
$1.5M. No player has ever cost Miedź Legnica more, and expectation arrives with him.
Market7 Sep 2026
“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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 13 signed and 12 gone
That is the business done at Miedź Legnica until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Market7 Sep 2026
The offer from Jedinstvo Ub for Olivier Siniawski 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Mateusz Grudziński and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces7 Sep 2026
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Christopher Simon from Motor Lublin for $1.5M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sabadell have kept their man, and Miedź Legnica go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
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 Motor Lublin can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Motor Lublin close the window on a squad of their own making
12 in and 33 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Thomas Santos and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fábio Ronaldo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cremonese have kept their man, and Motor Lublin go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Filip Luberecki
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Filip Luberecki has come out of that comparison in the side, and Motor Lublin have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Looking ahead7 Sep 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Karol Czubak’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Motor Lublin needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Squad7 Sep 2026
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market24 Aug 2026
“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.
Match22 Aug 2026
No end in sight to Motor Lublin's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Motor Lublin has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Thomas Santos 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Motor Lublin training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fábio Ronaldo 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
GKS Katowice left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market17 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Motor Lublin did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $450.6K — a club that wants Kacper Krzepisz enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Motor Lublin offered $420.0K; Arka Gdynia said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad17 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Motor Lublin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cracovia have kept their man, and Motor Lublin go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Fábio Ronaldo 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
Half-satisfied: Jan Grosicki on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match1 Aug 2026
0‑3 against Lech, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Fábio Ronaldo and Motor Lublin agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Thomas Santos and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fábio Ronaldo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom3 Aug 2026
Nobody left the Motor Lublin 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Motor Lublin can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Market3 Aug 2026
Still no offer on the table, and Thomas Santos’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.