From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market14 Sep 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Veres have kept their man, and Lechia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Lechia caught on 92 minutes
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Ruch scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Match12 Sep 2026
It needed Vladislav Blănuţă to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Ruch, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
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
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The dugout
Half-satisfied: Grzegorz Jozwiak on the draw
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Squad
Words at Lechia training over how hard people work
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Looking ahead
A test against the best for Lechia
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Sep 2026
“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.
Market7 Sep 2026
Cracovia come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Lechia did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 6 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Lechia 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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Wisla Krakow wanted more than $91.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rayo Vallecano have kept their man, and Lechia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
200 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
13 new faces, and Lechia 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Newertton: “I am not a substitute”
“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 Lechia will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 Aug 2026
“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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: KAA Gent keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Lechia have gone to Wisla Krakow 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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Lechia asked and Piast 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 terraces31 Aug 2026
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.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Bohdan Viunnyk, and the manager let it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Lechia
Axel Holewiński 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 dugout31 Aug 2026
Bohdan Viunnyk dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Market31 Aug 2026
Lechia have let the market know Bohdan Viunnyk can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Aug 2026
3 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Match19 Aug 2026
Lechia through in the cup
A 1‑1 win over Zaglebie, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match22 Aug 2026
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 33. 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Newertton at 21 — 7.81
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Newertton did not need any: 7.81, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
No thanks: Kauã Elias rejects the move
Lechia had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Shakhtar, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A move Michał Bierzało would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Michał Bierzało is living that version at Lechia, and it tends to show in the first month.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Lechia asked and Gornik Zabrze 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 terraces24 Aug 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Aug 2026
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Lechia will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match15 Aug 2026
Nowhere to hide for Lechia
0‑3 against Gornik Zabrze, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market17 Aug 2026
Lechia say no — this time
The offer from Metalist for Bohdan Viunnyk 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The paperwork begins on Newertton
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Lechia have done the hard part with Shakhtar, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
No thanks: Sergiu Balasa rejects the move
Lechia had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Astra, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Lechia asked and Viktoria Plzen said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“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.
In brief
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Boardroom
Nobody left the Lechia dressing room in a hurry
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The dugout
Grzegorz Jozwiak faces the questions
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Squad
A row about effort at Lechia
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad10 Aug 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 28 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: AZ keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ivan Zhelizko and Lechia agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Lechia asked and Panathinaikos 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 terraces10 Aug 2026
He is 23 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.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ivan Zhelizko, and the manager let it.
Match8 Aug 2026
Three points for Lechia, 1‑0 the final word against Slask in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.21 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 Aug 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 35 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match1 Aug 2026
Nowhere to hide for Lechia
0‑3 against Lech, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Rifet Kapić and Lechia agree another 3 years.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zaglebie have kept their man, and Lechia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Lechia
Matúš Vojtko 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.
Boardroom3 Aug 2026
Nobody left the Lechia dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Market3 Aug 2026
36 months and counting on Rifet Kapić
Still no offer on the table, and Rifet Kapić’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.