Lechia and Cracovia have settled on $2.3M. 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 Lechia people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Miłosz Kozak 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Lechia has been clear about where Szymon Weirauch stands, which is more than many ever get.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Lechia people have started saying his name in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lechia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Miłosz Kozak will call it something else in private.
5 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lechia can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Slask for Axel Holewiński 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Lechia have done the hard part with Wisla Krakow, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Lechia, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
SquadDanylo Malov 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 Lechia can pretend not to have heard.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Lechia have had the benefit of it.
The first defeat in 9 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Legia; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Bohdan Viunnyk 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 interest is real enough to have reached print. Lechia have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Jorge Meré falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Lechia has been clear about where Ivan Zhelizko stands, which is more than many ever get.
Dimitris Rallis, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.68
A mark of 7.68 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.
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jorge Meré was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Kevin Dodaj 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Szymon Frankowski after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Indrit Mavraj was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Lechia 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.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Jorge Meré 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Bartosz Szymanski 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Damian Jozwiak 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Piotr Kaminski 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Damian Jozwiak 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jorge Meré was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Miłosz Kozak 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.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
91 minutes played. Vladislav Blănuţă found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Gornik Zabrze went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Lechia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Two goals and a mark of 9.03 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Michał Głogowski 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.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Something was said to Grzegorz Krychowiak and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout30 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.” Szymon Frankowski, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
A 1‑0 win over Pogon, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Jorge Meré 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.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lechia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 18 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.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jorge Meré was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Position 6, 24 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
The dugout16 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.” Szymon Frankowski, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
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.
Kevin Dodaj 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 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Matej Rodin trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jorge Meré was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Lechia, another week without a signature from Jorge Meré.
Something was said to Jorge Meré and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Danylo Malov 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.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 10 matches without defeat is a foundation Lechia did not have in the autumn.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Jorge Meré 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.
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.
17 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Szymon Frankowski was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Lechia dressing room was either.
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.
“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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Tomasz Wójtowicz 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Lechia. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Lechia told Tomasz Neugebauer something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Szymon Frankowski could afford to be generous.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Indrit Mavraj was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Lechia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jorge Meré 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Szymon Frankowski after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Piast? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
7 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Jorge Meré 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.
Miłosz Kozak 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 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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Rifet Kapić was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.33. 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.
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 dugout5 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.” Szymon Frankowski kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lechia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
17 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Lechia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Indrit Mavraj 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dawid Kurminowski trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Lechia know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Michał Głogowski is on it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Miłosz Kałahur has written the date down.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Lechia would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Lechia did not have in the autumn.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Lechia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jorge Meré 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.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Tomasz Neugebauer may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lechia can pretend not to have heard.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Lechia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jorge Meré 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Szymon Frankowski could afford to be generous.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“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 Lechia, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 9 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Danylo Malov 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.
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Lechia have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Jorge Meré 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. NK Celje have kept their man, and Lechia go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Lechia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A mark of 7.90, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad31 Aug 2026
16 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutMatej Rodin knocks on the manager’s door
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Tomasz Wójtowicz
A 3‑1 win over Zaglebie, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A brace, and Rifet Kapić takes the afternoon — 8.47
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Rifet Kapić provided it, and the 8.47 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Kevin Dodaj, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.47
A mark of 8.47 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jorge Meré was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Michał Głogowski 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Rifet Kapić. 2‑0 against Podbeskidzie, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $40.0K — a club that wants Mateusz Skoczylas enough to be asked twice.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
$38.0K was the most the club would pay and Cracovia 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.
Lechia asked and Sheffield United said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Miłosz Kozak 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 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.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Szymon Frankowski left the room before anybody could ask which.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Jorge Meré is living that version at Lechia, and it tends to show in the first month.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Shakhtar is saying, and nobody at Lechia is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lechia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The offer went to Cracovia 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Lechia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jorge Meré 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.
Lechia 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.
Lechia asked and Lech said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Kevin Dodaj 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.
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 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
8 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Szymon Frankowski after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Oleh Ocheretko is in the works