Marked for Sondre Liseth
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match30 Aug 2031
The longest week starts now for Legia
Beaten 0‑2 by Lech in the one fixture that is never just a fixture. Work, school, the corner shop — there will be no getting away from this one.
Market1 Sep 2031
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Legia have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad1 Sep 2031
58 days out for Ramiro Rúmbolo after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Legia will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout1 Sep 2031
“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.
Player ratings1 Sep 2031
Successful dribbles: 28. 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.
Market1 Sep 2031
“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.
Market1 Sep 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Legia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom1 Sep 2031
Legia close the window on a squad of their own making
49 in and 36 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Market1 Sep 2031
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match20 Aug 2031
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Sondre Liseth obliged against Ruch. 3‑2 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Legia.
Squad25 Aug 2031
A fracture rules Ramiro Rúmbolo out for 65 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Legia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match23 Aug 2031
The 87th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Dimitris Rallis decided nobody was going anywhere. Pogon had no time left to answer.
Market25 Aug 2031
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Legia people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Player ratings25 Aug 2031
Two goals and a mark of 7.96 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market25 Aug 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Legia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market25 Aug 2031
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Legia can pretend not to have heard.
Squad25 Aug 2031
Mateusz Praszelik arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Mateusz Praszelik has, at Legia, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The dugout25 Aug 2031
Toni Frau keeps the receipts
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Legia may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
In brief
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Market
Legia say no — this time
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Boardroom
Still nobody in the Legia dugout
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Match
Nobody wants to play Legia right now
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market28 Jul 2031
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and HJK waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Legia is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad28 Jul 2031
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 93 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout28 Jul 2031
“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.
Market28 Jul 2031
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market28 Jul 2031
“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.
Market28 Jul 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Legia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Transfer targets28 Jul 2031
Everything agreed with Porto, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Boardroom28 Jul 2031
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.
Squad28 Jul 2031
A falling-out at Legia
Mileta Rajović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market13 Jan 2031
Valentín Vada has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Legia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market13 Jan 2031
“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 Legia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings13 Jan 2031
A defender's goal wins it for Legia — 7.95
1 for Lukas Willen, marked 7.95, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Squad13 Jan 2031
The medical room confirms 35 days on the sidelines for David Affengruber, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Market13 Jan 2031
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad13 Jan 2031
A move Sondre Liseth would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Sondre Liseth is living that version at Legia, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad13 Jan 2031
Bruno Durdov pulls a muscle — 15 days out
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.
Transfer targets13 Jan 2031
The paperwork begins on Jack Porter
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Legia have done the hard part with Nottingham Forest, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Boardroom13 Jan 2031
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Mujaid Sadick has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Jan 2030
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market14 Jan 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 Piast, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets14 Jan 2030
The clubs have shaken hands with Zaglebie; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The dugout14 Jan 2030
Igor Woś: 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.” Piast have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market14 Jan 2030
Piast say no — this time
The offer from Legia for Andreas Katsantonis 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.
Squad14 Jan 2030
Juande Rivas 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 Piast this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Jan 2030
A row about effort at Piast
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Quentin Boisgard was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom14 Jan 2030
Jagiellonia will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Krystian Tymoszczuk has pre-agreed a move to Piast, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Transfer targets14 Jan 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Crvena Zvezda have kept their man, and Piast go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match22 Dec 2029
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Market24 Dec 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 Piast can pretend not to have heard.
Squad24 Dec 2029
The match ball belongs to German Barkovskiy, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Market24 Dec 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Piast is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout24 Dec 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad24 Dec 2029
Luis Palma is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.42 with 16 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad24 Dec 2029
Tempers go at Piast
Juande Rivas 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.
Player ratings24 Dec 2029
Marked 9.83 — 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.
Squad24 Dec 2029
Quentin Boisgard 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
Crisis
Market17 Dec 2029
“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 Piast, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match15 Dec 2029
The wait goes on for Piast
4 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.
Squad17 Dec 2029
Juande Rivas 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 Piast this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Dec 2029
A row about effort at Piast
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Michał Gurgul was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match15 Dec 2029
3 matches without a goal for Piast
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Match15 Dec 2029
Piast come up short against Korona
Korona left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout17 Dec 2029
The manager makes an example of Sondre Liseth
“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.
The dugout17 Dec 2029
“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 dugout17 Dec 2029
German Barkovskiy has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Piast 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match21 Nov 2029
Piast through in the cup
A 2‑1 win over Legia, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings26 Nov 2029
A brace, and Luis Palma takes the afternoon — 9.15
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Luis Palma provided it, and the 9.15 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad26 Nov 2029
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market26 Nov 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.
Market26 Nov 2029
Only the photograph left for Sondre Liseth
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sondre Liseth will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Piast the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout26 Nov 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad26 Nov 2029
Defences have started doubling up on Luis Palma
16 goals and a season average of 7.43 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Market26 Nov 2029
Luis Palma has his eye on Europe
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Piast can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Tempers go at Piast
Juande Rivas 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market19 Nov 2029
“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 Piast, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Juande Rivas 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 Piast this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Quentin Boisgard 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 dugout19 Nov 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sondre Liseth, and the manager let it.
The dugout19 Nov 2029
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.
Market19 Nov 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Luis Palma’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout19 Nov 2029
Jorge Félix knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jorge Félix trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Looking ahead19 Nov 2029
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Rafał Janicki’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Piast needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Market19 Nov 2029
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Piast, another week without a signature from Iwo Polakow.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market29 Oct 2029
Only the photograph left for Sondre Liseth
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sondre Liseth will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Piast the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout29 Oct 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad29 Oct 2029
Tempers go at Piast
Juande Rivas 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.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Words at Piast training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Quentin Boisgard 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.
Match27 Oct 2029
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Luis Palma. 1‑0 against Gornik Leczna, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings29 Oct 2029
Ninety minutes of Luis Palma at his very best
Marked 8.44. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Piast.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Luis Palma is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.27 with 9 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
The dugout29 Oct 2029
“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.
The dugout29 Oct 2029
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Michal Grosicki, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market22 Oct 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.
Squad22 Oct 2029
Juande Rivas 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 Piast this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Oct 2029
Words at Piast training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Quentin Boisgard 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.
Match20 Oct 2029
Cracovia left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout22 Oct 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sondre Liseth, and the manager let it.
The dugout22 Oct 2029
“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 dugout22 Oct 2029
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.
Market22 Oct 2029
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Radosław Żelezny has his answer from Piast; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout22 Oct 2029
Somebody else is better right now than Kornel Osyra
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.