Marked for Igor Świerkowski
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market25 Nov 2030
“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.
Match23 Nov 2030
No end in sight to Gornik Zabrze's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Gornik Zabrze has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad25 Nov 2030
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.
Market25 Nov 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Gornik Zabrze is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad25 Nov 2030
Words at Gornik Zabrze training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adrian Przyborek 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 ratings25 Nov 2030
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout25 Nov 2030
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 dugout25 Nov 2030
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.” Grzegorz Buksa chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Match23 Nov 2030
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Lechia came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market28 Oct 2030
“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 ratings28 Oct 2030
Michal Sáček pops up at the right end — 7.77
7.77, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Squad28 Oct 2030
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.
Market28 Oct 2030
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.
Squad28 Oct 2030
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.
Match26 Oct 2030
Michal Sáček scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Lech, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Match26 Oct 2030
No time for Lech to settle
The goal that put Lech ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Gornik Zabrze equalised, 2 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
The dugout28 Oct 2030
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout28 Oct 2030
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market30 Sep 2030
“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.
Squad30 Sep 2030
The match ball belongs to Yvan Ikia Dimi, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Match28 Sep 2030
11 matches without a win, and then this, against Zaglebie. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
The dugout30 Sep 2030
Robert Barnes: 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.
Squad30 Sep 2030
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.
Market30 Sep 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Gornik Zabrze is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings30 Sep 2030
Marked 9.78 — 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.
Match28 Sep 2030
It finished 4‑2, and it was Yvan Ikia Dimi’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Gornik Zabrze.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market2 Sep 2030
“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.
Match31 Aug 2030
8 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.
Squad2 Sep 2030
A fracture rules Kajetan Fal out for 32 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.
Market2 Sep 2030
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.
Boardroom2 Sep 2030
Deadline passes with 28 signed and 28 gone
That is the business done at Gornik Zabrze 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.
Boardroom2 Sep 2030
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Igor Świerkowski has agreed terms with Zaglebie for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad2 Sep 2030
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.
Market2 Sep 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Gornik Zabrze is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad2 Sep 2030
Adrian Przyborek 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market22 Apr 2030
Only the photograph left for Michał Rakoczy
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Michał Rakoczy will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Gornik Zabrze the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad22 Apr 2030
Ondřej Zmrzlý 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.
Squad22 Apr 2030
35 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout22 Apr 2030
Ondřej Zmrzlý 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.
Squad22 Apr 2030
Words at Gornik Zabrze training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abbati Abdullahi 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 dugout22 Apr 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Karol Delikat, and the manager let it.
Market22 Apr 2030
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Adrian Przyborek’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout22 Apr 2030
Rafał Mikulec 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.
Market22 Apr 2030
2 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Gornik Zabrze money.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Mar 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Marcel Płocica
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gornik Zabrze lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market4 Mar 2030
Rafał Mikulec 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.
Squad4 Mar 2030
Ondřej Zmrzlý and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad4 Mar 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Grzegorz Krychowiak was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout4 Mar 2030
The manager makes an example of Dawid Piatek
“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.
Squad4 Mar 2030
Ottó Hindrich named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Ottó Hindrich is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout4 Mar 2030
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.
Market4 Mar 2030
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Bartosz Głogowski has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Gornik Zabrze.
Market4 Mar 2030
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
Squad31 Dec 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.
Squad31 Dec 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Grzegorz Krychowiak was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings31 Dec 2029
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market31 Dec 2029
Tomasz Makowski 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 Tomasz Makowski stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout31 Dec 2029
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 dugout31 Dec 2029
Alan Uryga 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 dugout31 Dec 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.” Grzegorz Buksa chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout31 Dec 2029
Michal Sáček 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 Michal Sáček is on it.
Squad31 Dec 2029
A club from his own country has asked the question, and he has never pretended he did not want to be asked. Gornik Zabrze have a conversation ahead of them that they will not win with money.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Dec 2029
Ondřej Zmrzlý 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.
Market24 Dec 2029
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Igor Świerkowski is a Gornik Zabrze player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Squad24 Dec 2029
Words at Gornik Zabrze training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Grzegorz Krychowiak is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match22 Dec 2029
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Michał Rakoczy. 2‑1 against Cracovia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings24 Dec 2029
Adrian Przyborek was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.35. 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.
Squad24 Dec 2029
200 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Player ratings24 Dec 2029
Marked 8.29 — 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.
Player ratings24 Dec 2029
Marked 8.24 — 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 dugout24 Dec 2029
No place for Rafał Mikulec on the big day
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Gornik Zabrze pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.