16 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.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ondřej Zmrzlý 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 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Yvan Ikia Dimi 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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 10 actions, 7.79, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
“I watch every Gornik Zabrze game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at FC Bihor Oradea runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“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 The request is on a desk at Gornik Zabrze, and it is not being withdrawn.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Kacper Urbański scored, was marked 7.27, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Kacper Urbański 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.
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Gornik Zabrze training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Josema 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Gornik Zabrze told Ondřej Zmrzlý something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 2‑3 defeat, delivered by Tomasz Lewandowski to a room that had heard them before.
“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.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Legia moved on, Kacper Urbański reports back to Gornik Zabrze, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
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.
The shirt still fits. Krzysztof Kubica is back at Gornik Zabrze, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ondřej Zmrzlý was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Adam Ryczkowski is a Gornik Zabrze player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Gornik Zabrze can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Josema was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Miedź Legnica scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
“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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Barcelona keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Roberto Massimo and Gornik Zabrze agree another 4 years.
Gornik Zabrze asked and GKS Tychy said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Kamil Lukoszek 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
11 new faces, and Gornik Zabrze 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Gornik Zabrze, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Iwo Świerkot will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Gornik Zabrze the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Kacper Urbański 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 phone has started ringing about Michał Rakoczy again, and this time the name on the line is Stal Mielec. Gornik Zabrze are listening politely and promising nothing.
33 games, 17 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Gornik Zabrze now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Wieczysta Kraków have kept their man, and Gornik Zabrze 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 Josema was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad7 Jun 2027
9 new faces, and Gornik Zabrze 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.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Michał Rakoczy is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Gornik Zabrze, another week without a signature from Kacper Urbański.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mateusz Posmyk and Gornik Zabrze agree another 4 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 Gornik Zabrze this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Róber Pier has come out of that comparison in the side, and Gornik Zabrze have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Peter Federico signs something — a contract at Gornik Zabrze or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutSondre Liseth asks for a word with the manager
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Radomiak Radom can pretend not to have heard.
14 seasons and 386 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Josh Wilson-Esbrand was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Josh Wilson-Esbrand 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 Luquinhas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Radomiak Radom can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Radomiak Radom, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Radomiak Radom they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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 not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Nobody at Radomiak Radom 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Radomiak Radom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Radomiak Radom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Josh Wilson-Esbrand 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Radomiak Radom can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Kornel Lisman is the division's best young player this month
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Radomiak Radom will try very hard not to make too much of it.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Abdoul Tapsoba, and the manager let it.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Lukasz Piatek left the room before anybody could ask which.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Maksym Khlan.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Josh Wilson-Esbrand and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Luquinhas 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 Radomiak Radom know it.
Marked 8.00 — 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 dugout8 Mar 2027
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.” Lukasz Piatek kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. João Pedro will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Radomiak Radom the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Radomiak Radom will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Radomiak Radom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Radomiak Radom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vasco Lopes 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 shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Radomiak Radom will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Radomiak Radom waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Gornik Zabrze is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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.
The offer from Raufoss for Sondre Liseth 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Paweł Bochniewicz and Gornik Zabrze agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Josema was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Radomiak Radom, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everything agreed with Gornik Zabrze, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Filip Majchrowicz 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.
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.
“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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Gornik Zabrze close the window on a squad of their own making
0 in and 1 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.
The name of Maksym Khlan has come up in conversations Gornik Zabrze were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Gornik Zabrze asked and Bruk-Bet Termalica said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I did not go to Puszcza Niepołomice to sit and watch. I want to come back to Gornik Zabrze and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 22 matches say the rest.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Gornik Zabrze training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Josema 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.
Thodoros Tsirigotis 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Pogoń Siedlce waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Radomiak Radom is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Radomiak Radom, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
$270.0K settles it between the clubs for Łukasz Bomba
ŁKS Łódź have accepted the money. What Radomiak Radom do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Radomiak Radom close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 0 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.
Josh Wilson-Esbrand 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 Luquinhas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Radomiak Radom asked and Chrobry Głogów said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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; Radomiak Radom are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Radomiak Radom have made the call to Gornik Zabrze. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Christos Donis
Marked 10.00 — 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.
6 goals in one match, Erik Prekop on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Gornik Zabrze and Wisła Płock.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Roberto Massimo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.32. 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.
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 decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Maksym Khlan and Gornik Zabrze agree another 4 years.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Gornik Zabrze prefer.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Tomasz Lewandowski after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Thodoros Tsirigotis 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.
8 goals in 16 games at Polonia Warszawa — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Gornik Zabrze updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Kacper Urbański 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Erik Prekop. 3‑2 against Pogon, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.43 — 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.
200 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Gornik Zabrze training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thodoros Tsirigotis 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 earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Tomasz Lewandowski on a 3‑2 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Squad23 Nov 2026
The division's best last weekend was a Gornik Zabrze man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Erik Prekop was the best thing in any of them.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Josema was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
10 new faces, and Gornik Zabrze 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.
“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.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Peter Federico signs something — a contract at Gornik Zabrze or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
5 goals in 11 games at Polonia Warszawa — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Gornik Zabrze updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Gornik Leczna the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Gornik Zabrze will enjoy reviewing.
Two goals and a mark of 8.86 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Two goals and a mark of 8.81 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Tomasz Loska: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Maksym Khlan 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.
In brief
SquadJosema falls out with a teammate over standards
The bid was some way short and Gornik Zabrze did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Gornik Zabrze close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 11 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Gornik Leczna have kept their man, and Gornik Zabrze go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Gornik Zabrze than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Gornik Zabrze has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.