Derby days make names, and Kahveh Zahiroleslam made his against Wisla Krakow. 3‑0, bragging rights secured, and one half of town will be tired of hearing about him by Tuesday.
The words a physio says slowly. 79 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
There are goals, and then there are goals against that particular opponent. The Cracovia support have their bragging rights for a year and they know exactly whose name is on them.
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 20 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.
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.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
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.” Jakub Moder, on a 3‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The words a physio says slowly. 87 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
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.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kamil Glik was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cracovia, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The words a physio says slowly. 94 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
0‑1 against Sporting CP, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
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.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad4 Oct 2027
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.
“I watch every Cracovia game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Piast runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Adam Deja
The dugoutHenrich Ravas knocks on the manager’s door
The words a physio says slowly. 101 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
2‑3 to Ruch, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Cracovia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sayfallah Ltaief 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 never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Konrad Cymerys commits to Cracovia for another 4 years.
The dugout27 Sep 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 2‑3 Jakub Moder left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
109 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Cracovia lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
1‑6 against Paris Saint-Germain. The honest reading is not that the players were poor; it is that the distance between this club and that one is currently measured in things money takes years to buy.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Two goals and a mark of 8.53 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.
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.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Adam Deja is a Cracovia player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Squad13 Sep 2027
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.
A goalkeeper's career is counted in the games nobody scored in, and Henrich Ravas now has 24 of them across 223 appearances. Nothing about that number was luck.
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.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Mateusz Praszelik reports back to Cracovia with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 15 arrived, 15 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: Zaglebie keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Cracovia offered $890.0K; Legia said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
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.
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad6 Sep 2027
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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Sebastian Mrowca 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.
18 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 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.
“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.
$890.0K on the table at Legia. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. FC Copenhagen have kept their man, and Cracovia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
17 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 Cracovia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: Wellington Phoenix have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Beno Selan. The answer from Cracovia has not changed — yet.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AC Milan have kept their man, and Cracovia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
16 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cracovia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Cracovia have gone to Lillestrom with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
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.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
The name of Otar Kakabadze has come up in conversations Cracovia were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Norwich City have kept their man, and Cracovia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cracovia can pretend not to have heard.
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.
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 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.
15 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.
The offer from Gornik Leczna for Mateusz Praszelik 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cracovia can pretend not to have heard.
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.98, and 2 involvements.
14 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.
Mauro Perković has gone, the accounts have $4.4M 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.
Legia paid $4.4M 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.
Cracovia moved before anybody else could: a new deal for Jakub Moder, agreed quietly and announced loudly. Boards extend managers for many reasons; the good one is the one this looks like.
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.
6 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wojciech Golak was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Piotr Glik has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Rafal Frankowski has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
$20.1M on the table at Colorado Rapids. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
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.
“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 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Cracovia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wojciech Golak 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 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 Mauro Perković is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mauro Perković trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Mateusz Tabisz
Cracovia had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Rosenborg, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
“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.
“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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Cracovia have done the hard part with Crvena Zvezda, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
Jagiellonia paid $330.0K 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Slavia Prague have kept their man, and Cracovia 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 Ajdin Hasić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Cracovia and Rosenborg have settled on $10.2M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
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.
At 22 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cracovia can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Minsk for Samuel Kováčik 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.
At 23 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cracovia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
$580.0K was the most the club would pay and Piast were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
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 27 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Crvena Zvezda have kept their man, and Cracovia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Cracovia will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The offer went to Piast this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
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.
At 18 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.
At 29 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Cracovia asked and Shakhtar 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 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cracovia can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Gornik Zabrze paid $150.0K 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. San Diego Football Club have kept their man, and Cracovia 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 Ajdin Hasić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Otar Kakabadze has his answer from Cracovia; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Qualification is secured, and next season the big floodlit nights are continental ones. For the players it is a stage; for the accounts it is a lifeline; for the supporters it is passports.
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.
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.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Cracovia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Beno Selan 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.
21 games, 4 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Cracovia now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
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 Mateusz Klich is on 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 Cracovia, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market31 May 2027
Mirosław Tabor returns from a loan that gave him nothing
2 appearances and 1 goals is not a season, it is a year somebody has lost. Whether that is his fault, the borrowing club's or the people who arranged it is the argument the next few weeks will have.
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 Ajdin Hasić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Cracovia will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sayfallah Ltaief 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 Sayfallah Ltaief is on 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.
“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 went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 May 2027
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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Cracovia told Joel Roca something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
In brief
The dugoutMartin Minchev has become a man the manager trusts
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 Ajdin Hasić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mauro Perković trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Martin Minchev signs something — a contract at Cracovia or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 17 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
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 Ajdin Hasić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ajdin Hasić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Ajdin Hasić 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 Sayfallah Ltaief is on it.
In brief
The dugoutAjdin Hasić knocks on the manager’s door
“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.
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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
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.
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 and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Apr 2027
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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Joel Roca trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cracovia, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
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.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Cracovia know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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.
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 Ajdin Hasić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Sayfallah Ltaief 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
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.
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 Mateusz Klich is on it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Cracovia, another week without a signature from Sebastian Mrowca.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
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 Lasse Nordås has written the date down.
In brief
The dugoutOliwier Hyla knocks on the manager's door
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cracovia can pretend not to have heard.
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 Ajdin Hasić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Cracovia than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Cracovia has been clear about where Mateusz Praszelik stands, which is more than many ever get.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Cracovia know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The offer from Naftan for Vincent Burlet 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.
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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
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.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout22 Feb 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 0‑1 Jakub Moder left the room before anybody could ask which.
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 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 Ajdin Hasić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jakub Moder after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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 Sebastian Mrowca.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Squad8 Feb 2027
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.
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 Mateusz Klich.
The 86th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Joel Roca decided nobody was going anywhere. Wisla Krakow had no time left to answer.
“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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 3 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at Cracovia until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
The offer from Korona for Mateusz Praszelik 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.
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.
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 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Joel Roca 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
SquadAjdin Hasić falls out with a teammate over standards
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cracovia can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al Ahli keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Ittihad have kept their man, and Cracovia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad25 Jan 2027
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.
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.
Cracovia have made the call to Crvena Zvezda. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Cracovia have done the hard part with Korona, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Crvena Zvezda have kept their man, and Cracovia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.98 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
13 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The deal with Jagiellonia is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kahveh Zahiroleslam provided it, and the 9.21 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
“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.
“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.
Dijon Kameri 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 Zaglebie. Cracovia are listening politely and promising nothing.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cracovia can pretend not to have heard.
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 Ajdin Hasić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
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.
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.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Martin Minchev was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.52. 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.
It finished 1‑0, and it was Sayfallah Ltaief’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Cracovia.
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.
8.05. 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 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.
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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Cracovia and Slask, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 15 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
1 for Gustav Henriksson, marked 7.65, 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.
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.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jakub Moder after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Position 2, 41 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.
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.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
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.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
In brief
SquadAjdin Hasić falls out with a teammate over standards
Player ratingsFilip Marchwiński was on a different afternoon to everybody else
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.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Pau Sans, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.17
A mark of 8.17 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The first defeat in 12 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Zaglebie; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
12 goals and a season average of 7.29 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
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.
8.11. 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.
Minute 86, against Zaglebie, 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.
Successful dribbles: 46. 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.
12 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.
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.
8 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.
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.
11 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.
Jagiellonia will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Cracovia were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
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 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.
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.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Pau Sans did not need any: 8.31, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
A season average of 7.05 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for Cracovia. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
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.
Piast made Cracovia work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
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.
9 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.
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.
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.
“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 dugout19 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.” Jakub Moder kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
“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.
9 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.
8 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.
25 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.
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.
Three points for Cracovia, 1‑0 the final word against Legia in a contest settled by the finer margins.
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.
The young player of the month award goes to a 21-year-old at Cracovia who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
Position 2, 22 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.
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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Pau Sans, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.56
A mark of 8.56 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
He is 21 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Pau Sans. 2‑0 against Ruch, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Legia next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Sayfallah Ltaief at his very best
Two goals and a mark of 8.35 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.26 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
1 for Amir Al-Ammari, marked 7.90, 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.
Marked 9.98 — 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Cracovia and Gornik Leczna, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
In brief
SquadWords at Cracovia training over how hard people work
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.
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.
A 2‑0 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.
Marked 8.11 — 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
9 new faces, and Cracovia 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.
Podbeskidzie will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Cracovia were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Sayfallah Ltaief provided it, and the 8.31 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Pau Sans did not need any: 7.95, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The deal that would have taken Gabriel Charpentier to Slask has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Cracovia with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Cracovia close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 5 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.
Cracovia asked and Korona said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Slask waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Cracovia is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Two goals and a mark of 8.52 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The offer from Legia for Ajdin Hasić 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.
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 21 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Martin Minchev provided it, and the 8.43 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The offer from Gornik Zabrze for Martin Minchev 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Beno Selan, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.92
A mark of 7.92 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cracovia can pretend not to have heard.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Piast have kept their man, and Cracovia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Martin Minchev. 2‑1 against Slask, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
Cracovia and Legia have settled on $480.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The offer from Metalurh Zaporizhzhia for Mirosław Tabor 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 clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Empoli keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The fee is $340.0K, 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.
Cracovia asked and Borussia Dortmund said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Sayfallah Ltaief scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Lech, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad17 Aug 2026
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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Cracovia have done the hard part with Empoli, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Cracovia have gone to Korona with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
“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.
$140.0K on the table at Jagiellonia. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
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.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
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.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 11 combined actions and a mark of 6.96, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
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.
Still no offer on the table, and Sayfallah Ltaief’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.