“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Maccabi Haifa can pretend not to have heard.
5 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cédric Don was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Pedrão, and the manager let it.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Sean Goldberg's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Nobody at Maccabi Haifa 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.
Kawasaki Frontale wanted more than $13.5M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $7.8M has been paid because Mees Hilgers is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Hapoel Acre waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Maccabi Haifa is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $4.7M has been paid because Emmanuel Dennis is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
$710.0K on the table at Beitar Jerusalem. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Bruninho 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.
Boardroom30 Aug 2027
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Maccabi Haifa
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
The terraces30 Aug 2027
Maccabi Haifa spend $7.8M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $7.8M for Mees Hilgers, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Maccabi Haifa can pretend not to have heard.
“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; Maccabi Haifa are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Cédric Don 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.
14 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.
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.
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 Maccabi Haifa would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Maccabi Haifa can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Hapoel Acre waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Maccabi Haifa is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I watch every Maccabi Haifa game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Maccabi Petach Tikva 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.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Maccabi Haifa, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Maccabi Haifa know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
62 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
The chase for Sayed Abu Farchi ended with $2.1M changing hands and Maccabi Tel Aviv out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Show 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 terraces12 Jul 2027
Maccabi Haifa spend $2.1M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $2.1M for Sayed Abu Farchi, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Maccabi Haifa has been clear about where Nahuel Leiva stands, which is more than many ever get.
14 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.
Nobody at Maccabi Haifa 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Maccabi Haifa are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Facundo Pellistri 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 phone has started ringing about Paweł Czułowski again, and this time the name on the line is Stal Rzeszów. Jagiellonia are listening politely and promising nothing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Korona have kept their man, and Jagiellonia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 35 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Squad28 Jun 2027
5 new faces, and Jagiellonia 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.
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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutOusmane Sow asks for a word with the manager
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jagiellonia 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 Andy Pelmard was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Nahuel Leiva is on it.
53 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
Taras Romanczuk 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 Andy Pelmard was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Jagiellonia 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Jagiellonia, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Position 5, 53 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
Bernardo Vital and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Andy Pelmard 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 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 Jagiellonia know it.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Sebastian Grosicki could afford to be generous.
Squad12 Apr 2027
The division's best last weekend was a Jagiellonia man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Facundo Pellistri was the best thing in any of them.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Jesús Imaz 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Guilherme Montóia and Jagiellonia agree another 5 years.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Andy Pelmard 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 88. Cracovia had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
18 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Jagiellonia lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Rodrigo Conceição 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Jagiellonia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ousmane Sow 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.
At 34, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
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 Nahuel Leiva is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Sławomir Abramowicz signs something — a contract at Jagiellonia or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Jagiellonia. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nahuel Leiva trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
MatchContinental football is in reach for Jagiellonia
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Jagiellonia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Sebastian Grosicki after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“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 Jagiellonia, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Jagiellonia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jagiellonia 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 Andy Pelmard was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8.30. 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Sebastian Grosicki on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Facundo Pellistri 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.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Sebastian Grosicki on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
In brief
SquadWords at Jagiellonia training over how hard people work
13 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Jagiellonia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andy Pelmard 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.
Rodrigo Conceição 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Jagiellonia, and 0 appearances in 15 say he has earned the hearing.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Jeremy Agbonifo has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Damian Kądzior and Jagiellonia agree another 1 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jagiellonia 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 Ousmane Sow was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It needed Jesús Imaz to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Piast, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
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.” Sebastian Grosicki chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nik Prelec, and the manager let it.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Nahuel Leiva
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.
In brief
The dugoutAnders Klynge has become a man the manager trusts
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Dawid Drachal is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Jagiellonia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andy Pelmard 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.
Rodrigo Conceição 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Jeremy Agbonifo 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Damian Kądzior and Jagiellonia agree another 1 years.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Sebastian Grosicki kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jagiellonia 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 Bartłomiej Wdowik was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.