Marked for Szymon Pycek
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Feb 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 67 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market19 Feb 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.
Match17 Feb 2029
13 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Market19 Feb 2029
Szymon Pycek has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Gornik Leczna they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Víctor Villacañas 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 Feb 2029
Egzon Kryeziu 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.
Match17 Feb 2029
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Cipriano Sampaio. 2‑1 against Polonia Warszawa, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
The manager makes an example of Matvey Bokhno
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad22 Jan 2029
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Gornik Leczna will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market22 Jan 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 Leczna can pretend not to have heard.
Market22 Jan 2029
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Gornik Leczna have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Market22 Jan 2029
Only the photograph left for Szymon Pycek
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Szymon Pycek will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Gornik Leczna the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market22 Jan 2029
The chase for Oumar Camara Sinaba ended with $56.0K changing hands and GKS Tychy out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Víctor Villacañas 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.
Match20 Jan 2029
Whatever happens, Gornik Leczna do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Transfer targets22 Jan 2029
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.
Player ratings22 Jan 2029
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 13 combined actions and a mark of 6.89, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market25 Dec 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.
The dugout25 Dec 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.
Market25 Dec 2028
Only the photograph left for Szymon Pycek
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Szymon Pycek will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Gornik Leczna the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad25 Dec 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 Gornik Leczna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Michał Jerke was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad25 Dec 2028
58 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Match23 Dec 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Patryk Szysz. 1‑0 against Radomiak Radom, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad25 Dec 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 Gornik Leczna know it.
Player ratings25 Dec 2028
Marked 7.46. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
The form table has caught Thiago Gigena
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The dugout
Patryk Janasik asks for a word with the manager
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout27 Nov 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Gornik Leczna may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market27 Nov 2028
Szymon Pycek has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Gornik Leczna they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad27 Nov 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 Gornik Leczna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Words at Gornik Leczna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Egzon Kryeziu 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 terraces27 Nov 2028
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Thiago Gigena 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.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dawid Tkacz, and the manager let it.
Match25 Nov 2028
It finished 1‑0, and it was Thiago Gigena’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Gornik Leczna.
Squad27 Nov 2028
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Gornik Leczna can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Player ratings27 Nov 2028
Nobody on the pitch touched Thiago Gigena
7.41, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Gornik Leczna had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad20 Nov 2028
21 days out for Patryk Janasik after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Gornik Leczna will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout20 Nov 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.
Squad20 Nov 2028
The medical room confirms 31 days on the sidelines for Cipriano Sampaio, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Patryk Janasik 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.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Egzon Kryeziu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Gornik Leczna told Patryk Szysz something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
Piotr Pyrdoł gets it from the manager
“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 dugout20 Nov 2028
Adrian Sandach knocks on the manager's door
“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 Leczna, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Looking ahead20 Nov 2028
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Ruch in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad30 Oct 2028
A fracture rules Patryk Janasik out for 46 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gornik Leczna will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match28 Oct 2028
3‑0, and Cipriano Sampaio took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Gornik Leczna tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Squad30 Oct 2028
The match ball belongs to Cipriano Sampaio, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Market30 Oct 2028
Only the photograph left for Szymon Pycek
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Szymon Pycek will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Gornik Leczna the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad30 Oct 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 Gornik Leczna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings30 Oct 2028
Cipriano Sampaio was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.63. 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.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Egzon Kryeziu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces30 Oct 2028
He is 22 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.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
The manager makes an example of Filip Szabaciuk
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad2 Oct 2028
76 days out for Patryk Janasik after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Gornik Leczna will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad2 Oct 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Patryk Kukulski
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gornik Leczna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout2 Oct 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Gornik Leczna may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market2 Oct 2028
Only the photograph left for Szymon Pycek
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Szymon Pycek will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Gornik Leczna the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom2 Oct 2028
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Szymon Pycek has agreed terms with Radomiak Radom for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad2 Oct 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Víctor Villacañas and Gornik Leczna agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Víctor Villacañas 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.
The terraces2 Oct 2028
The crowd has taken to Dawid Tkacz
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Jul 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Egzon Kryeziu and Gornik Leczna agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Thiago Gigena 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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Egzon Kryeziu 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.
Transfer targets17 Jul 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.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
A loan enquiry to Oțelul Galați: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout17 Jul 2028
Egzon Kryeziu asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market17 Jul 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.
Market17 Jul 2028
2 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Gornik Leczna money.
Market17 Jul 2028
The name of Bekzod Ahmedov keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Gornik Leczna say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Jul 2028
$800.0K from GKS Katowice for Michał Litwa. Money is money, but the dressing room has lost the man it looked to.
Market3 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.
The terraces3 Jul 2028
Gornik Leczna sell a favourite for $800.0K
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Michał Litwa was one of the reasons people came, and $800.0K does not replace that by itself.
Market3 Jul 2028
Spartaks come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Gornik Leczna did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad3 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 Gornik Leczna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Egzon Kryeziu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad3 Jul 2028
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Gornik Leczna can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
Market3 Jul 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
Steady
Squad15 May 2028
Víctor Villacañas 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 May 2028
Jarosław Kubicki 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 dugout15 May 2028
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.
The dugout15 May 2028
Egzon Kryeziu asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout15 May 2028
Nobody at Gornik Leczna 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.
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 Gornik Leczna would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Match15 May 2028
Gornik Leczna have something to play for
Position 5 on 52 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
The dugout15 May 2028
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 Branislav Pindroch has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match10 Apr 2028
52 points, and the season has a number on it. Whatever it felt like from the inside, this is what it will look like in a book.
Squad10 Apr 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 Gornik Leczna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Gornik Leczna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jarosław Kubicki 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 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.
Match8 Apr 2028
Wieczysta Kraków left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Boardroom10 Apr 2028
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.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Gornik Leczna told Bekzod Ahmedov something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Off the academy pitches and onto a senior team sheet at 20. The debut is the easy part; the second appearance is the one every young player has to earn.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout27 Mar 2028
Piotr Pyrdoł: 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 Leczna have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Víctor Villacañas 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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Gornik Leczna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patryk Janasik 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 dugout27 Mar 2028
Egzon Kryeziu asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad27 Mar 2028
The formation has left Péter Sebők behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Gornik Leczna will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Looking ahead27 Mar 2028
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against ŁKS Łódź in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Market27 Mar 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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Gornik Leczna would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words at Gornik Leczna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jarosław Kubicki 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.
Match11 Mar 2028
Dawid Tkacz scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Motor Lublin, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Dominik Sarga and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Borja López, and the manager let it.
Market13 Mar 2028
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Gornik Leczna, another week without a signature from Egzon Kryeziu.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Robert Bednarek to a room that had heard them before.
Market13 Mar 2028
He is 20, and nobody at Gornik Leczna signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
Patryk Janasik asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
Somebody else is better right now than Kamil Orlik
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.