Marked for Marcel Reguła
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match28 Nov 2029
Gornik Zabrze announce themselves in Europe
3‑0 against Viborg, on a night that will be replayed at this club for a generation. Continental reputations are made in single evenings and this was the evening.
Squad3 Dec 2029
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Match1 Dec 2029
6 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Market3 Dec 2029
“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 The request is on a desk at Gornik Zabrze, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings3 Dec 2029
Age has not caught Michal Sáček yet — 7.85
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.85 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Match1 Dec 2029
5 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Squad3 Dec 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 Gornik Zabrze this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings3 Dec 2029
A performance of 9.65 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match1 Dec 2029
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mateusz Bogusz. 1‑0 against Piast, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match25 Aug 2029
Gornik Zabrze make home a hard place to visit
30 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.
Squad27 Aug 2029
A fracture rules Malthe Højholt out for 16 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gornik Zabrze will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match25 Aug 2029
4‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Match22 Aug 2029
1‑1 against Zaglebie, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Squad27 Aug 2029
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Squad27 Aug 2029
1 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Market27 Aug 2029
“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 Gornik Zabrze, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market27 Aug 2029
Yvan Ikia Dimi has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Gornik Zabrze they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings27 Aug 2029
Age has not caught Lukáš Sadílek yet — 7.83
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.83 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad13 Aug 2029
A fracture rules Malthe Højholt out for 30 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gornik Zabrze will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market13 Aug 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gornik Zabrze can pretend not to have heard.
Market13 Aug 2029
Jagiellonia come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Gornik Zabrze did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market13 Aug 2029
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Gornik Zabrze heard it as anything else.
Player ratings13 Aug 2029
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.
Squad13 Aug 2029
Ondřej Zmrzlý 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 Aug 2029
The step up is real for Tomasz Glik
At 17 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad13 Aug 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mateusz Bogusz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout13 Aug 2029
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Jul 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 61 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Marcel Reguła is a better footballer than he was
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.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Ondřej Zmrzlý 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.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Kacper Urbański has improved at 24, 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.
Market16 Jul 2029
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Market16 Jul 2029
Ruch are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Gornik Zabrze will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
The dugout16 Jul 2029
Ondřej Zmrzlý gets picked when it counts
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 Ondřej Zmrzlý is on it.
The dugout16 Jul 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.
Market16 Jul 2029
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Gornik Zabrze know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Jul 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 79 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match2 Jul 2029
Gornik Zabrze refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 54 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.
Market2 Jul 2029
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Gornik Zabrze have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market2 Jul 2029
Martin Rýzek 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 Gornik Zabrze can pretend not to have heard.
Market2 Jul 2029
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Igor Nolewajka is a better footballer than he was
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.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Ondřej Zmrzlý and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Mateusz Bogusz has improved at 27, 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.
Market2 Jul 2029
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Sebastian Frankowski has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Jun 2029
97 days out for Malthe Højholt after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Gornik Zabrze will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market18 Jun 2029
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Gornik Zabrze people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market18 Jun 2029
“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 Gornik Zabrze, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout18 Jun 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Gornik Zabrze may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Ondřej Zmrzlý 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 Jun 2029
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Konrad Sobolewski has just signed for Gornik Zabrze, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad18 Jun 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Konrad Sobolewski and Gornik Zabrze agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout18 Jun 2029
Ondřej Zmrzlý gets picked when it counts
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 Ondřej Zmrzlý is on it.
The dugout18 Jun 2029
Peter Federico 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 Peter Federico trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market21 May 2029
“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.
Market21 May 2029
Kacper Urbański wants to know where this is going
“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 Gornik Zabrze hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad21 May 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 Gornik Zabrze this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 May 2029
14 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad21 May 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mateusz Bogusz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout21 May 2029
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.
The dugout21 May 2029
The manager makes an example of Marcel Reguła
“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.
Market21 May 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Kacper Urbański’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market21 May 2029
Jakub Hurny is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Gornik Zabrze has been clear about where Jakub Hurny stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Mar 2029
A fracture rules Michal Sáček out for 66 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gornik Zabrze will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market19 Mar 2029
Only the photograph left for Yvan Ikia Dimi
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yvan Ikia Dimi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Gornik Zabrze the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Ondřej Zmrzlý and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Peter Federico 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 dugout19 Mar 2029
Lukáš Sadílek has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Gornik Zabrze 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 dugout19 Mar 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.
Market19 Mar 2029
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Peter Federico signs something — a contract at Gornik Zabrze or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Gornik Zabrze, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market19 Mar 2029
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Gornik Zabrze, another week without a signature from Dominik Szala.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Feb 2029
A fracture rules Michal Sáček out for 98 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gornik Zabrze will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market19 Feb 2029
Yvan Ikia Dimi has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Gornik Zabrze they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Ondřej Zmrzlý and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Peter Federico was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad19 Feb 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jonasz Albert and Gornik Zabrze agree another 4 years.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
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.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marcel Reguła, and the manager let it.
Market19 Feb 2029
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Peter Federico signs something — a contract at Gornik Zabrze or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market19 Feb 2029
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match20 Jan 2029
The run at home goes on for Gornik Zabrze
26 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad22 Jan 2029
129 days out for Michal Sáček after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Gornik Zabrze will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match20 Jan 2029
Nobody wants to play Gornik Zabrze 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.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Ondřej Zmrzlý and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Getting past Kacper Tobiasz has become the hardest job in the division
14 clean sheets and counting. Forwards used to back themselves here; now they shoot early, shoot wide, and look for somebody to blame.
Match20 Jan 2029
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mateusz Bogusz. 2‑0 against Ruch, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings22 Jan 2029
Ninety minutes of Michał Rakoczy at his very best
Marked 8.42. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Gornik Zabrze.
Player ratings22 Jan 2029
Ninety minutes of Lukáš Sadílek at his very best
Marked 8.22. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Gornik Zabrze.
The dugout22 Jan 2029
The team sheet said everything about Kryspin Szcześniak
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 Kryspin Szcześniak.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match23 Dec 2028
The run at home goes on for Gornik Zabrze
24 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
Nikita Vlasenko: 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.” Gornik Zabrze have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Mateusz Bogusz 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.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Peter Federico was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match23 Dec 2028
Late, late show earns Gornik Zabrze a point
Minute 95, against Cracovia, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Player ratings25 Dec 2028
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Jarosław Kubicki will call it something else in private.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
Kacper Urbański has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Gornik Zabrze 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.
Match23 Dec 2028
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match18 Dec 2028
Gornik Zabrze refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 39 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.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Mateusz Bogusz and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Words at Gornik Zabrze training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Peter Federico 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.
Looking ahead18 Dec 2028
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Getting past Kacper Tobiasz 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.
Squad18 Dec 2028
24 shut-outs in 192 appearances. A keeper’s career is counted in games where nothing happened, and none of it happened by accident.
Player ratings18 Dec 2028
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout18 Dec 2028
Lukáš Sadílek has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Gornik Zabrze 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 dugout18 Dec 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marcel Reguła, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match11 Nov 2028
The run at home goes on for Gornik Zabrze
20 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 24 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market13 Nov 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.
Market13 Nov 2028
Only the photograph left for Yvan Ikia Dimi
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yvan Ikia Dimi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Gornik Zabrze the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Ondřej Zmrzlý 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 Gornik Zabrze training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Peter Federico 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 ratings13 Nov 2028
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
Match11 Nov 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Borislav Rupanov. 1‑0 against Slask, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Match13 Nov 2028
Halfway: Gornik Zabrze sit in position 2
29 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
In brief
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Player ratings
The afternoon belonged to Lukáš Sadílek
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
The manager makes an example of Marcel Reguła
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match14 Oct 2028
18 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gornik Zabrze will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market16 Oct 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 Gornik Zabrze can pretend not to have heard.
Market16 Oct 2028
Only the photograph left for Yvan Ikia Dimi
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yvan Ikia Dimi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Gornik Zabrze the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout16 Oct 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.
Player ratings16 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 25. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Ondřej Zmrzlý 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.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Words at Gornik Zabrze training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Peter Federico 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 terraces16 Oct 2028
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Marcel Reguła 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom29 May 2028
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.
Squad29 May 2028
Mateusz Jozwiak damages knee ligaments — 14 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 14 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.
Match24 May 2028
Lech ended it 1‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad29 May 2028
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 Gornik Zabrze have had the benefit of it.
Market29 May 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.
Player ratings29 May 2028
A defender's goal wins it for Gornik Zabrze — 7.98
1 for Kacper Urbański, marked 7.98, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Match24 May 2028
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Market29 May 2028
Marcel Reguła comes back from a loan that worked
18 appearances and 3 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
Squad29 May 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Malthe Højholt was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market15 May 2028
Léo Cordeiro 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 Ural can pretend not to have heard.
Squad15 May 2028
Ítalo 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 Ural this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at Ural training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Léo Cordeiro 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.
Squad15 May 2028
Ural are still strangers to each other
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout15 May 2028
The manager makes an example of Ilja Moseichuk
“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 dugout15 May 2028
Evgeny Markov gets picked when it counts
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 Evgeny Markov is on it.
Market15 May 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alexandr Selikhov signs something — a contract at Ural or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad15 May 2028
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Ural would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Market15 May 2028
“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
Squad8 May 2028
Paweł Olkowski damages knee ligaments — 57 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 57 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.
Squad8 May 2028
Ondřej Zmrzlý 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.
Squad8 May 2028
A move Jakub Stasiak 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. Jakub Stasiak is living that version at Gornik Zabrze, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad8 May 2028
Malthe Højholt 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.
Market8 May 2028
He is 19, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
The dugout8 May 2028
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.
Market8 May 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Gornik Zabrze know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Loan watch8 May 2028
18 appearances away from home and 3 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Market8 May 2028
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad10 Apr 2028
91 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Gornik Zabrze lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout10 Apr 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.
Market10 Apr 2028
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Ondřej Zmrzlý 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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Gornik Zabrze training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Malthe Højholt 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.
Market10 Apr 2028
He is 19, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
“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.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
Kacper Tobiasz has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Gornik Zabrze 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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
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
Market3 Apr 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 Ural, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout3 Apr 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.
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
The scrutiny sharpens at Ural
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Ural is running low.
Market3 Apr 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ural they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words exchanged at Ural
Léo Cordeiro 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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words at Ural training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Martin Sekulić 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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
The armband comes off Ítalo
Ural will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Marcel Reguła has moved up it.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
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 Ilja Moseichuk is on it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad13 Mar 2028
125 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Gornik Zabrze lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market13 Mar 2028
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Ondřej Zmrzlý 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 Mar 2028
A move Rodrigo Pires 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. Rodrigo Pires is living that version at Gornik Zabrze, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad13 Mar 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kamil Lukoszek and Gornik Zabrze agree another 3 years.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
The manager makes an example of Peter Federico
“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 dugout13 Mar 2028
Kacper Tobiasz has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Gornik Zabrze 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.
Market13 Mar 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Gornik Zabrze know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Gornik Zabrze, and both men came out saying it was fine.