“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 The request is on a desk at Atyrau, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vadim Zubavlenko will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Atyrau the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atyrau this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Atyrau training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mario Rabiu 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 words a physio says slowly. 18 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Jagiellonia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Jagiellonia, and 5 appearances in 15 say he has earned the hearing.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
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.” Jakub Blaszczykowski kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
In brief
The dugoutAnders Klynge has become a man the manager trusts
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Atyrau can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Bruno Durdov 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.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Oleksandr Noiok was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
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.
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 Sanzhar Satanov is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Azamat Tuiakbaev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Abzal Tagybergen has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 26 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The deal with Tobol is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Bruno Durdov 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mario Rabiu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Atyrau know it.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Atyrau will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 Atyrau, and it is not being withdrawn.
Bruno Durdov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at Atyrau training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mario Rabiu 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.
A loan enquiry to Spartak Moscow: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Atyrau have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Bruno Durdov 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 Aug 2027
Mario Rabiu 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.
Atyrau asked and Ujpest said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Azamat Tuiakbaev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Anton Kamyshenko will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Atyrau the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Stjepan Davidović scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Aktobe, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Mario Rabiu 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
22 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.
A mark of 7.89 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Mario Rabiu 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Orenburg have kept their man, and Atyrau go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Anton Kamyshenko will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Atyrau the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Kairat have kept their man, and Atyrau go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Egor Khvalko 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.
Both clubs in the mire, one fixture between them, and a ground that will be louder and more frightened than at any point in the season. Atyrau know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.
Bernardo Vital 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Paweł Czułowski is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moha was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Norbert Wojtuszek has written the date down.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Jagiellonia people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Sławomir Abramowicz is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Jagiellonia have gone to Gornik Zabrze with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sławomir Abramowicz and Jagiellonia agree another 5 years.
Bernardo Vital 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Sergio Lozano 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.
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 Jeremy Agbonifo is on it.
The words a physio says slowly. 28 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Jagiellonia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Bernardo Vital 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Jagiellonia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sergio Lozano 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.
Nobody at Jagiellonia 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 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 146 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Jagiellonia have lost him in all but the paperwork.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.89 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Position 3, 55 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Jagiellonia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Jagiellonia and Gornik Zabrze have settled on $660.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Successful dribbles: 25. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 1 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Jagiellonia 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.
Bernardo Vital 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 name of Stjepan Davidović has come up in conversations Jagiellonia were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Jagiellonia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andy Pelmard 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Luis Hernández
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jagiellonia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andy Pelmard was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Ousmane Sow was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.00. 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 board was up, the win was priced in, and then Pogon scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
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 Luis Hernández.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
71 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Jagiellonia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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.
Jagiellonia asked and Podbeskidzie said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The words a physio says slowly. 79 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Jagiellonia have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Jeremy Agbonifo did not need any: 8.34, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The chase for Stjepan Davidović ended with $1.4M changing hands and Korona out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Legia paid $1.2M and Jagiellonia took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The offer went to Wisla Krakow this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
4 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Korona have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Lech for Bartłomiej Smolarczyk 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.
Ondřej Lingr 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Rafał Mamla 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Pau Resta 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 offer went to Korona this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The offer from NK Krka for Dušan Stojinović 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.
$340.0K was the most the club would pay and Korona were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
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.
11 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Korona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Stjepan Davidović has come up in conversations Korona were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wiktor Długosz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Camilo Mena was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.22. 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.
8.07. 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.