Marked for Jake Leake
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad29 May 2028
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.
Boardroom29 May 2028
Pressure builds in the Gornik Leczna boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad29 May 2028
Víctor Villacañas and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 May 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 dugout29 May 2028
Michał Litwa has become a man the manager trusts
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.
The dugout29 May 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad15 May 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 118 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Patryk Janasik was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom15 May 2028
Wages eat 122% of everything Gornik Leczna earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad15 May 2028
Too much change too quickly at Gornik Leczna
16 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.
Loan watch15 May 2028
“I watch every Gornik Leczna game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Pogon runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
The dugout15 May 2028
Jacob Mendy 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.
Market15 May 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Patryk Janasik signs something — a contract at Gornik Leczna or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 May 2028
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.
Boardroom8 May 2028
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market8 May 2028
Kamil Kruk hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gornik Leczna can pretend not to have heard.
Squad8 May 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Branislav Pindroch and Gornik Leczna agree another 2 years.
Squad8 May 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.
Squad8 May 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 dugout8 May 2028
Coban Bird 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 dugout8 May 2028
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Branislav Pindroch is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
The dugout8 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 Mirosław Tabor has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Apr 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Michał Rzuchowski
20 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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Henrique Arreiol and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Apr 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 dugout17 Apr 2028
The manager makes an example of Patryk Janasik
“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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
The medical room confirms 34 days on the sidelines for Damian Piszczek, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Boardroom17 Apr 2028
Wages swallow 120% of the Gornik Leczna income
Every club 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 it has been tried.
Market17 Apr 2028
Jakub Stasiak is 19, and Gornik Leczna have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
The dugout17 Apr 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.
Market17 Apr 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Patryk Janasik signs something — a contract at Gornik Leczna or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Aug 2027
A fracture rules Jordan Bowery out for 19 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Oldham Athletic will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
The deal with Millwall 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.
Market9 Aug 2027
“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.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
Oldham Athletic had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Hull City, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“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; Oldham Athletic are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
$110.0K was the most the club would pay and Reading 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Derek Mazou-Sacko 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 targets9 Aug 2027
Oldham Athletic asked and Wolverhampton said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jordan Bowery and Oldham Athletic agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Jul 2027
57 days out for Jordan Bowery after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Oldham Athletic will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
Matthew Carter has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Oldham Athletic can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market5 Jul 2027
“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.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Millwall have kept their man, and Oldham Athletic go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Everything agreed with Brentford, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Manchester United is saying, and nobody at Oldham Athletic is enjoying the guessing.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Derek Mazou-Sacko 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Adam Forshaw in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Oldham Athletic this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout5 Jul 2027
“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
Steady
Squad24 Aug 2026
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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 ratings24 Aug 2026
Ryan Woods goes up and wins it — 7.70
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 7.70 for the rest of it.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Blackburn Rovers, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Mathew Hudson 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hull City have kept their man, and Oldham Athletic go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match22 Aug 2026
Ryan Woods scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Chesterfield, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
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.