“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 The request is on a desk at Lech, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lech this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aitor Córdoba 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Lech has been clear about where Jakub Antczak stands, which is more than many ever get.
Nobody at Lech 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 in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Lech. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane scored, was marked 7.97, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lech 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 Pablo Rodríguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Filip Jagiełło has his answer from Lech; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
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.” Karol Frankowski, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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 Mikael Ishak is on it.
Successful dribbles: 12. 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Lech, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Aitor Córdoba 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 Lech who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lech this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for João Moutinho
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. João Moutinho has come out of that comparison in the side, and Lech have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Karol Frankowski after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Korona defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Nobody at Lech 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.
Aitor Córdoba 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 easiest signature of my career.” Antoni Kozubal and Lech agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
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.” Karol Frankowski, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Joel Pereira
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gustav Berggren signs something — a contract at Lech or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Pogoń Siedlce go through and Lech go home, 2‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Kornel Lisman did not need any: 7.66, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.81 for the rest of it.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Plamen Andreev is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Plamen Andreev 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lech this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Aitor Córdoba 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 injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Nobody at Lech 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 Lech, and both men came out saying it was fine.
7.63, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Lech heard it as anything else.
Aitor Córdoba was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Lechia made Lech work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Plamen Andreev is the division's best young player this month
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Lech will try very hard not to make too much of it.
8 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Lech have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane wants continental football; whether Lech can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pablo Rodríguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Lech know it.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Raków Częstochowa scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Karol Frankowski after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.89 for the rest of it.
Plamen Andreev 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Aitor Córdoba 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.
At 23 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Karol Frankowski could afford to be generous.
Nobody at Lech 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.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Kamil Jakóbczyk had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aitor Córdoba 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.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
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 is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 4 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
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 phone has started ringing about Jakub Antczak again, and this time the name on the line is Pogoń Siedlce. Lech are listening politely and promising nothing.
Legia next, which means a week that starts on Monday. Everything else on this page will be forgotten by Saturday; this fixture will not be forgotten for a year.
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Squad7 Sep 2026
8 new faces, and Lech 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.60 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Antoni Kozubal had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
1 for Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane, marked 7.59, 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.
The fee is $1.2M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Zaglebie drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Plamen Andreev 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 had been thinking. Aitor Córdoba 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.
Al Ahly did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $8.8M for Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
“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 Lech, and it is not being withdrawn.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.83 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The offer from Polonia Bytom for Jakub Antczak 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.
Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $8.8M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Lech 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 phone has started ringing about Antoni Kozubal again, and this time the name on the line is Gornik Leczna. Lech are listening politely and promising nothing.
The clubs have shaken hands with Al Ahly; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Luis Palma was one of the reasons people came, and $4.1M does not replace that by itself.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $153.6K — a club that wants Kajetan Szmyt enough to be asked twice.
Lech had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Mallorca, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Aitor Córdoba 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.
Lech offered $120.0K; Wieczysta Kraków 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Lech have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Motor Lublin for Luis Palma 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.
Lech offered $1.6M; Kocaelispor 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Lech have done the hard part with Mallorca, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Club Brugge keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
$120.0K 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.
Lech have gone to Kocaelispor 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aitor Córdoba 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Barcelona have kept their man, and Lech go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
24 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.