Sayfallah Ltaief 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 Lasse Nordås was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Sebastian Madejski is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Nobody at Cracovia 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 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.
Sayfallah Ltaief 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 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Pau Sans 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.
8.57. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lasse Nordås was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dominik Piła will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cracovia the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Cracovia had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at River Plate, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cracovia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
5 matches without defeat, and then Jagiellonia. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Lasse Nordås 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Adam Klich after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Cracovia people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Position 2, 58 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Successful dribbles: 31. 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.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Cracovia have done the hard part with River Plate, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Ajdin Hasić has gone, the accounts have $2.1M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Cracovia close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 2 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.
Legia paid $2.1M and Cracovia took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Score against anybody else and it is a goal. Score against them and it is a story with your name in it for a decade, and Cracovia supporters have already started telling it.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Shakhtar is saying, and nobody at Cracovia is enjoying the guessing.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Dominik Piła reports back to Cracovia with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Sayfallah Ltaief 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 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Lasse Nordås 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 fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes Cracovia will be judged on one thing only.
Cracovia have made the call to Boca Juniors. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
4 behind and going nowhere, until Sayfallah Ltaief decided otherwise. Legia had done the hard part and then watched it come apart, and the noise at the final whistle was the sort a ground keeps.
Two goals and a mark of 8.31 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cracovia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Cracovia asked and CSKA Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Cracovia have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The clubs have shaken hands with Lechia; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Boca Juniors keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
“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 Cracovia, and it is not being withdrawn.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Cracovia had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Dominik Baumgartner 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Martin Minchev. 3‑1 against Gornik Leczna, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Sayfallah Ltaief 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 ratings28 Dec 2026
Martin Minchev was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.36. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ajdin Hasić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A point taken on 88 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
It needed Martin Minchev to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Gornik Zabrze, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
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.
Something was said to Lasse Nordås and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for 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 Cracovia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.14 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.35, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Ajdin Hasić 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.
Pau Sans 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 watch every Cracovia game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Gornik Zabrze runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ajdin Hasić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8.14. 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 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.
Sayfallah Ltaief 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 Lasse Nordås was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Wojciech Lisowski commits to Cracovia for another 1 years.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
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 Adam Klich left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
In brief
The dugoutPau Sans has become a man the manager trusts
SquadThe division's best last weekend was a Cracovia man
Two goals and a mark of 9.45 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for 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 Cracovia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Lasse Nordås was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.55. 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sayfallah Ltaief. 2‑1 against Zaglebie, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
56 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Cracovia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ajdin Hasić 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.
8.15. 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.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cracovia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Sayfallah Ltaief 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Brahim Traoré 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.
Marked 8.35. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Cracovia.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Cracovia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lasse Nordås 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 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.80 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
A season average of 7.25 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Cracovia know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Dominik Baumgartner 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 Ajdin Hasić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Adam Klich to a room that had heard them before.
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.
In brief
SquadA place in the month's best eleven for Pau Sans
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Pau Sans will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Cracovia escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Two goals and a mark of 8.58 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cracovia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 21 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Cracovia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ajdin Hasić 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.
Successful dribbles: 32. 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Dominik Baumgartner and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Cracovia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lasse Nordås 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 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.
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 Sayfallah Ltaief is on it.
Dominik Baumgartner 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 easiest signature of my career.” Brahim Traoré and Cracovia agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Cracovia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ajdin Hasić 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.
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. Wisla Krakow on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
11 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.
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 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 Amir Al-Ammari has written the date down.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Dijon Kameri
Loan watchCracovia think about cutting the loan short
He is 21, he is averaging 7.19, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Dominik Baumgartner 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 first defeat in 7 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Legia; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
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.
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Sebastian Madejski has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Cracovia.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Ajdin Hasić 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Wojciech Lisowski and Cracovia agree another 1 years.
7 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
22 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cracovia 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 Lasse Nordås was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gabriel Charpentier. 3‑1 against Gornik Leczna, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Mauro Perković 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.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Gornik Leczna spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Cracovia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ajdin Hasić 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 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.00 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Dominik Baumgartner 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Legia have kept their man, and Cracovia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A 2‑1 win over Gornik Zabrze, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Cracovia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ajdin Hasić 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.
11 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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Pau Sans did not need any: 8.45, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 5 arrived, 8 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Piast keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Dominik Baumgartner 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.
“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 Cracovia, and it is not being withdrawn.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Pau Sans did not need any: 9.79, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The clubs have shaken hands with Piast; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The offer from ND Gorica for Beno Selan 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.
Cracovia asked and Jagiellonia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cracovia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Two goals and a mark of 9.06 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Cracovia and Ruch in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Cracovia people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The fee is $510.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Korona drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Dominik Baumgartner 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 Brahim Traoré again, and this time the name on the line is Lokomotivi. Cracovia are listening politely and promising nothing.
Cracovia asked and Corinthians said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sebastian Madejski and Cracovia agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cracovia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The phone has started ringing about Mateusz Skoczylas again, and this time the name on the line is Gornik Leczna. Cracovia are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Ajdin Hasić 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.
Minute 93, against Pogon, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
In brief
Squad7 new faces, and Cracovia are still learning each other
Dominik Baumgartner 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lechia have kept their man, and Cracovia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Pau Sans 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ajdin Hasić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.19 — 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.
8.09. 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.