Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Wisła Płock will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Pascal Mozie did not need any: 8.17, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Ervin Omić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Mar 2030
Words at Wisła Płock training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Tavares 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Pascal Mozie 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.
“I watch every Wisła Płock game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Miedź Legnica runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad25 Mar 2030
6 new faces, and Wisła Płock are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Wisła Płock will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Wisła Płock have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
29 appearances away from home and 16 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Squad25 Feb 2030
Words at Wisła Płock training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Tavares 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 player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Hubert Adamczyk will call it something else in private.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Wisła Płock can pretend not to have heard.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Boardroom4 Feb 2030
Deadline passes with 4 signed and 7 gone
That is the business done at Wisła Płock 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.
The phone has started ringing about Rafał Leszczyński again, and this time the name on the line is Arka Gdynia. Wisła Płock are listening politely and promising nothing.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Matvey Bokhno will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Wisła Płock the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The deal with Miedź Legnica 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.
Ervin Omić 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomás Tavares was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Wisła Płock this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Guillem Molina and Wisła Płock agree another 3 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Saïd Hamulić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Wisła Płock asked and Stal Mielec said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Wisła Płock lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Pascal Mozie did not need any: 8.17, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Hubert Adamczyk 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Saïd Hamulić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Pascal Mozie 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.
Minute 91, against Pogon, 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 26 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.
Ervin Omić 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 Saïd Hamulić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“I watch every Wisła Płock game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Miedź Legnica runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 dugout17 Dec 2029
Pascal Mozie is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
13 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
The words a physio says slowly. 68 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.
Hubert Adamczyk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Saïd Hamulić 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.
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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Wisła Płock can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Wisła Płock is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Wisła Płock 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 Saïd Hamulić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Serhii Chobotenko, and the manager let it.
The dugout15 Oct 2029
Pascal Mozie is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Wisła Płock are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“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 Wisła Płock, and it is not being withdrawn.
Hubert Adamczyk 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 Oct 2029
Saïd Hamulić 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.
At 21 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Wisła Płock will try not to make too much of it.
“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.
Boardroom8 Oct 2029
101% of the income goes out in wages at Wisła Płock
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Wisła Płock can pretend not to have heard.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $2.8M of what Wisła Płock paid for Ivan Durdov is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 25 arrived, 21 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Wisła Płock have gone to Korona 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Jagiellonia keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Hubert Adamczyk 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 Sep 2029
Saïd Hamulić 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.
“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; Wisła Płock are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Wisła Płock will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Wisła Płock have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Wisła Płock they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 Wisła Płock, and it is not being withdrawn.
The name of Ivan Durdov has come up in conversations Wisła Płock were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Wisła Płock this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Stal Rzeszów have kept their man, and Wisła Płock go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomás Tavares was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 87 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Wisła Płock have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Wisła Płock can pretend not to have heard.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.91 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.52 for the rest of it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Wisła Płock they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Wisła Płock can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Daniel Szczepan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Wisła Płock the goodbyes have quietly begun.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Wisła Płock have done the hard part with Shakhtar, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Ervin Omić 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 Saïd Hamulić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Wisła Płock asked and Motor Lublin said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Eric Topór is in the works
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Bruk-Bet Termalica waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Wisła Płock is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Wisła Płock can pretend not to have heard.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Hubert Adamczyk 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
Words at Wisła Płock training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Tavares 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Werder Bremen have kept their man, and Wisła Płock go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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.
The offer from Korona for Ivan Durdov 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.
Everything agreed with Rapid Bucharest, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Hubert Adamczyk 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.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Words at Wisła Płock training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saïd Hamulić 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.
Add another name to the list: Stal Mielec have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Daniel Szczepan. The answer from Wisła Płock has not changed — yet.
Wisła Płock have made the call to Arsenal. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“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 Wisła Płock, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad28 May 2029
Tomás Tavares 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Wisła Płock can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Wisła Płock this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
30 appearances and 16 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Saïd Hamulić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Guillem Molina 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Wisła Płock, another week without a signature from Pascal Mozie.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Wisła Płock know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Matúš Holíček trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Wisła Płock 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Wisła Płock will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Wisła Płock can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Wisła Płock they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Ervin Omić 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 Saïd Hamulić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Wisła Płock has been clear about where Szymon Łapiński stands, which is more than many ever get.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ervin Omić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Pascal Mozie is on it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Wojciech Kamiński will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Wisła Płock the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomás Tavares was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Guillem Molina 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.
Squad16 Apr 2029
A last season at home is what Ibán Salvador is after
It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ivan Durdov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Hubert Adamczyk 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.
16 goals in 30 games at Nafta 1903 — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Wisła Płock updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Saïd Hamulić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Pascal Mozie is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Wisła Płock, and both men came out saying it was fine.
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Wisła Płock lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
1‑4 to Gornik Zabrze, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Wisła Płock they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Saïd Hamulić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Squad19 Mar 2029
8 new faces, and Wisła Płock are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
53 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Wisła Płock lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Wisła Płock is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Dawid Drachal 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
Words at Wisła Płock training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saïd Hamulić 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Slavia Prague have kept their man, and Wisła Płock go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
7 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 dugout19 Feb 2029
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Mateusz Frankowski chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Jonatan Braut Brunes 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 Wisła Płock training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Tavares 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Mateusz Frankowski after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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 Pascal Mozie is on it.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Wisła Płock will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Jonatan Braut Brunes and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Words at Wisła Płock training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Tavares 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.
“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; Wisła Płock are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Nobody at Wisła Płock 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jonatan Braut Brunes signs something — a contract at Wisła Płock or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Ervin Omić’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Wisła Płock needing him to play as if none of it matters.
1 on the scoresheet on his first appearance and a mark of 7.37 beside it. Most debuts are got through; this one was enjoyed, by him and by everybody watching it.
Hubert Adamczyk 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Tomás Tavares 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.
He is 23 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 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.
Marked 8.06 — 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ivan Durdov has his answer from Wisła Płock; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Two goals and a mark of 8.89 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Pascal Mozie did not need any: 8.23, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Wisła Płock this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Wisła Płock and Raków Częstochowa in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
“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; Wisła Płock are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Words at Wisła Płock training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Tavares 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.
He is 20 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Wisła Płock can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Wojciech Kamiński will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Wisła Płock the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 16 arrived, 12 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Bodo/Glimt keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Jonatan Braut Brunes 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 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jonatan Braut Brunes. 2‑1 against Slask, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Pogoń Siedlce waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Wisła Płock is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The deal with Lokomotiva Zagreb 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.
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 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 Wisła Płock know it.
Wisła Płock asked and AEK said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Nobody at Wisła Płock 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.
Jonatan Braut Brunes 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.
“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; Wisła Płock are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at Wisła Płock training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Tavares 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.
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 Pascal Mozie is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Wisła Płock know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Wisła Płock has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.