A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Pogon will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Attila Szalai 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. Tristan Andrew 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 Lukas Willen is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Pogon know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pogon will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Pogon will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Attila Szalai 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Pogon, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pogon is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Valentin Cojocaru and Pogon agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Attila Szalai 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pogon this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 39 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Shola Ogundana and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I 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 Pogon know it.
7.33, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Pogon had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Grzegorz Szymanski chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pogon will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Attila Szalai 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Pogon will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Pogon can pretend not to have heard.
Linus Wahlqvist 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.
Pogon asked and Jagiellonia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Attila Szalai 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.
7 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.
Nobody at Pogon 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pogon will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Wisla Krakow moved on, Filip Čuić reports back to Pogon, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
This is not rotation. Kajetan Szmyt has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Pogon is pretending otherwise.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Pogon close the window on a squad of their own making
26 in and 15 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Shakhtar have kept their man, and Pogon go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Pogon will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Pogon people have started saying his name in the past tense.
13 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Pogon offered $620.0K; Jagiellonia 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Attila Szalai was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Pogon asked and Arka Gdynia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Pogon will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Pogon can pretend not to have heard.
$620.0K 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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Attila Szalai 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pogon 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. Polonia Warszawa have kept their man, and Pogon go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 88 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Pogon people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Dynamo Kyiv keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Pogon have lost him in all but the paperwork.
11 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 Pogon this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Attila Szalai 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 bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Pogon will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Pogon can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pogon have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Odra Opole had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Attila Szalai was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 29 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Attila Szalai 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Mateusz Ziółkowski has, at Pogon, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Radomiak Radom pay $150.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Pogon will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Pogoń Siedlce waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Pogon is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Pogon have gone to Zaglebie 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.
Linus Wahlqvist was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
This is not rotation. José Pozo has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Pogon is pretending otherwise.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Attila Szalai 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. Gornik Zabrze have kept their man, and Pogon go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Pogon will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The words a physio says slowly. 20 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.
The chase for Fran González ended with $540.0K changing hands and ŁKS Łódź out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Linus Wahlqvist 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 Attila Szalai was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Chrobry Głogów have kept their man, and Pogon go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Nobody at Pogon 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pogon will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
27 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pogon lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The offer from Polonia Warszawa for Kacper Stanowski 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Sparta Prague is saying, and nobody at Pogon is enjoying the guessing.
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pogon will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pogon lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Pogon, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Attila Szalai was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Jagiellonia have kept their man, and Pogon go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Jagiellonia will make the call about Dimitris Keramitsis this week. Pogon have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Pogon will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
43 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pogon lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Wieczysta Kraków waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Pogon is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The fee is $680.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Lech drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Wisła Płock have kept their man, and Pogon go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Raków Częstochowa arrived with $12.3M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Pogon will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Lech have accepted the money. What Pogon do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Paul Mukairu has gone, the accounts have $12.3M 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.
The phone has started ringing about Rajmund Molnár again, and this time the name on the line is Jagiellonia. Pogon are listening politely and promising nothing.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $210.0K has been paid because Konrad Matuszewski is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pogon will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer went to Korona 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.
Attila Szalai and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Pogon has been clear about where Patryk Dziczek stands, which is more than many ever get.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Tristan Andrew
The dugoutPaul Mukairu knocks on the manager’s door
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Pogon will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Mor Ndiaye 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.” Maksymilian Ramutkowski and Pogon agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Nobody at Pogon 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 Paul Mukairu trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pogon will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Something was said to Hussein Ali and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jean-Pierre Nsame signs something — a contract at Pogon or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Position 6, 53 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Pogon the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pogon will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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 Lukas Willen 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 Pogon, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Pogon would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pogon will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Pogon, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Pogon would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pogon will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pogon have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Mor Ndiaye 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.
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 Pogon would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pogon will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pogon have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Joel Roca 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 dugout24 Apr 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Bartosz Mrozek's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Nobody at Pogon 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jean-Pierre Nsame signs something — a contract at Pogon or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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 Pogon know it.
Linus Wahlqvist 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Paul Mukairu trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Pogon 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.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 53 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Mor Ndiaye 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 found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Pogon pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Every touch weighed, every quote parsed, every mistake replayed. Some players grow into that; some are quietly finished by it; nobody knows which until afterwards.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pogon have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Attila Szalai 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 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 midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 10 actions, 6.67, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Pogon has been clear about where Mor Ndiaye stands, which is more than many ever get.
Something was said to Bartosz Mrozek and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Kuba Bochniarz 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 used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Slask in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jean-Pierre Nsame signs something — a contract at Pogon or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Pogon told David Moses something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Pogon, another week without a signature from Mor Ndiaye.
Every touch weighed, every quote parsed, every mistake replayed. Some players grow into that; some are quietly finished by it; nobody knows which until afterwards.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Karol Fila has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Pogon have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Mor Ndiaye 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.
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.
Something was said to Joel Roca and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
Successful dribbles: 13. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The 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.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Grzegorz Szymanski chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Two goals and a mark of 8.71 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Michal Klich is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Michal Buksa is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Maciej Piatek is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Karol Grosicki 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.
Marked 7.48 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutPaul Mukairu 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 Pogon can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pogon this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Pogon, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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.
Zaglebie next, and one man in the Pogon dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“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 Pogon know it.
Attila Szalai 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.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
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 Grzegorz Szymanski left the room before anybody could ask which.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Pogon pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Pogon had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Cracovia, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Pogon close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 3 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pogon 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.
The dugout7 Feb 2028
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.” Grzegorz Szymanski kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Cracovia have accepted the money. What Pogon do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Pogon have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Jean-Pierre Nsame scored in the 86th minute, Wisla Krakow had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Pogon took the lot.
Two goals and a mark of 8.81 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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 Pogon, and it is not being withdrawn.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Pogon will quote 16 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
“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 Pogon, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings24 Jan 2028
Up for the corner, and David Moses delivers — 7.57
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. David Moses scored, was marked 7.57, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Pogon have done the hard part with Atalanta, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Raków Częstochowa paid $240.0K and Pogon took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Pogon asked and Sparta Prague said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pogon this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pogon have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Attila Szalai 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 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.
Something was said to José Pozo and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Musa Juwara has agreed terms with Cracovia for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Spartak Moscow have kept their man, and Pogon go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Hussein Ali 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Pogon told Léo Borges something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Slavia Prague have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pogon can pretend not to have heard.
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 7.98 for the rest of it.
Pogon asked and Wieczysta Kraków said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Mor Ndiaye 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.
Minute 85, against Widzew Łódź, 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.
“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 Pogon, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.83 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Attila Szalai 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 gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
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.” Grzegorz Szymanski kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Pogon, and both men came out saying it was fine.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jean-Pierre Nsame provided it, and the 8.57 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 Pogon, and it is not being withdrawn.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
Kuba Bochniarz 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.
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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Pogon, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Pogon can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rajmund Molnár trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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.
Mor Ndiaye 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.
Position 4, 28 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Grzegorz Szymanski after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Léo Borges is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.26 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Paul Mukairu. 3‑2 against Slask, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Pogon will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Slask held the lead for 4 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Pogon answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
Lukas Willen 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑2, Grzegorz Szymanski could afford to be generous.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Filip Čuić
Position 3, 25 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 Pogon this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sebastian Musiolik. 1‑0 against Gornik Zabrze, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Grzegorz Szymanski could afford to be generous.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is José Pozo’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Pogon needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Something was said to Hussein Ali and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Pogon would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Attila Szalai 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 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.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Legia? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
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 Lukas Willen is on it.
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 Pogon would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Pogon, another week without a signature from Nikodem Niski.
In brief
The dugoutJosé Pozo left out for tactical reasons at Pogon
Player ratingsLukas Willen beats them one at a time
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.80 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
Up for the corner, and Attila Szalai delivers — 7.75
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Attila Szalai scored, was marked 7.75, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Attila Szalai 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Grzegorz Szymanski could afford to be generous.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rajmund Molnár trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Pogon have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
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.
Marked 6.97 on 11 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Marked 8.09 — 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Grzegorz Szymanski on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
“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 Pogon know it.
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 Benjamin Mendy trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Korona next, and one man in the Pogon dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Pogon have no good answer.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 8 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Hussein Ali 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 did not go to Miedź Legnica to sit and watch. I want to come back to Pogon and fight for my place.” 8 appearances in 11 matches say the rest.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Grzegorz Szymanski to a room that had heard them before.
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.
Level with 85 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Pogon had all but put away. Piast will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Kuba Bochniarz 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 are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Sebastian Musiolik has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
The 86th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Sebastian Musiolik decided nobody was going anywhere. Wisla Krakow had no time left to answer.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pogon this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 34 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Pogon is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑2, Grzegorz Szymanski could afford to be generous.
In brief
Player ratingsKajetan Szmyt beats them one at a time
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.81 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Jean-Pierre Nsame and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jean-Pierre Nsame. 1‑0 against Bruk-Bet Termalica, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
15 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rajmund Molnár trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pogon can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Pogon close the window on a squad of their own making
7 in and 17 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.
Attila Szalai and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. GKS Tychy have kept their man, and Pogon go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Something was said to Léo Borges and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
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 Lukas Willen is on it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pogon have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Shakhtar have kept their man, and Pogon 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 Pogon this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“It 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Pogon told Jan Biegański something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Lech defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Rajmund Molnár provided it, and the 8.42 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Torino is saying, and nobody at Pogon is enjoying the guessing.
50 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.
A point taken on 90 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Musa Juwara, and the manager let it.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Grzegorz Szymanski chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Paul Mukairu signs something — a contract at Pogon or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Musa Juwara
Player ratingsThe afternoon ran through Nikodem Niski
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pogon this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Paul Mukairu trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Grzegorz Szymanski was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Pogon dressing room was either.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Widzew Łódź? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Wisła Płock in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Pogon can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
$580.0K was the most the club would pay and Legia 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.
Kuba Bochniarz and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
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.” Grzegorz Szymanski kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
11 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 8 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“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 Pogon, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Pogon can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
10 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“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 Pogon, and it is not being withdrawn.
7 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.
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Karol Zielinski 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. Arkadiusz Linetty 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Bartosz Kaminski is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Attila Szalai 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rajmund Molnár trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Jagiellonia next, and one man in the Pogon dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Pogon. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Benjamin Mendy has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Slavia Prague is saying, and nobody at Pogon is enjoying the guessing.
Add another name to the list: Znicz Pruszków have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Tristan Andrew. The answer from Pogon has not changed — yet.
Pogon asked and RB Leipzig said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Mor Ndiaye 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.
Something was said to Hussein Ali and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Mor Ndiaye's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pogon lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pogon can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Pogoń Grodzisk Mazowiecki waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Pogon is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Slavia Prague have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
5 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.
7 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
The words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pogon can pretend not to have heard.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. New York City have kept their man, and Pogon go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Kuba Bochniarz 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Paul Mukairu trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Pogon told Dimitris Keramitsis something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Pogon know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Pogon would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pogon lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Patryk Dziczek and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. CSKA Moscow have kept their man, and Pogon go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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 Patryk Dziczek 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.
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pogon lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Attila Szalai 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.
Puszcza Niepołomice paid $56.0K and Pogon took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kacper Smoliński, and the manager let it.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
Mor Ndiaye is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Pogon know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Pogon have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Pogon are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pogon 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. GKS Tychy have kept their man, and Pogon go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Pogon have made the call to New York City. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Pogon has been clear about where Musa Juwara stands, which is more than many ever get.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pogon this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Dominik Kun is a Pogon player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Pogon, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The loan was meant to give him football. 0 games and 0 goals later he is back at Pogon no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their doing.
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.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Pogon has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
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 Sebastian Musiolik has written the date down.
“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 Pogon, and it is not being withdrawn.
Lukas Willen 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.
Nobody at Pogon 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.
Benjamin Mendy has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Mor Ndiaye has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pogon can pretend not to have heard.
“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 dugout17 May 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Mor Ndiaye's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
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 Jakub Żewłakow 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 José Pozo has written the date down.
Kuba Bochniarz 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.
Nobody at Pogon 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 Sebastian Musiolik trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Pogon that is a harder question to answer.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pogon have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pogon have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Attila Szalai 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.
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 Patryk Dziczek is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tristan Andrew trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Pogon have no good answer.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Paul Mukairu
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mads Agger, and the manager let it.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
Mor Ndiaye is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
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 Jakub Żewłakow is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Pogon know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Pogon have no good answer.
Sharpest man there all week, by every account. It is the quietest line on this page and it usually runs the week before somebody’s run in the side begins.
Philadelphia Union arrived with $3.9M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
Kellyn Acosta has gone, the accounts have $3.9M 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.
6 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Pogon can tell you which week it ends in.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pogon this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Kamil Grosicki
The dugoutLukas Willen has become a man the manager trusts
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Pogon people have started saying his name in the past tense.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Pogon can tell you which week it ends in.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Pogon are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Dimitris Keramitsis is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The enquiry everybody at Pogon was hoping would not arrive has arrived. He has never pretended he did not want to go back, and now there is somewhere to go back to.
At 38, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
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. Pogon know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Pogon. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
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 Pogon would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
4 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pogon 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; Kamil Grosicki will call it something else in private.
The dugout22 Mar 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 Grzegorz Szymanski left the room before anybody could ask which.
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 dugout22 Mar 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Mor Ndiaye's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Sebastian Musiolik had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Kuba Bochniarz 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 mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Pogon are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Grzegorz Szymanski after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
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 tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Pogon can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Pogon can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Grzegorz Szymanski after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer 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 Pogon this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Attila Szalai 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 goal that put Arka Gdynia ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Pogon equalised, 2 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Pogon, and 6 appearances in 26 say he has earned the hearing.
It needed Jean-Pierre Nsame to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Arka Gdynia, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Grzegorz Szymanski chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pogon lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Sebastian Musiolik had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Grzegorz Szymanski chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
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 words a physio says slowly. 26 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.
“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.
“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 Pogon, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Volos NPS will make the call about Sebastian Musiolik this week. Pogon have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Grzegorz Szymanski to a room that had heard them before.
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.
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pogon lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pogon can pretend not to have heard.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Kacper Smoliński had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 1 arrived, 5 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Wisła Płock moved on, Krzysztof Kamiński reports back to Pogon, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Pogon had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at PSV, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pogon lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pogon can pretend not to have heard.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The fee is $1.1M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Jagiellonia drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $1.1M for Kajetan Szmyt, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
“I watch every Pogon game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Jagiellonia runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pogon lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Patryk Dziczek had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The offer from Pogoń Siedlce for Kacper Smoliński 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 given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Up for the corner, and Kellyn Acosta delivers — 7.23
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Kellyn Acosta scored, was marked 7.23, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
1‑3 to Lech, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Grzegorz Szymanski to a room that had heard them before.
West Ham United have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The words a physio says slowly. 30 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.
“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 Pogon, and it is not being withdrawn.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Dimitris Keramitsis is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Mariusz Kutwa has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Pogon have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Pogon asked and Wisla Krakow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
38 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pogon lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Pogon will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Attila Szalai and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Add another name to the list: Polonia Bytom have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Patryk Dziczek. The answer from Pogon has not changed — yet.
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.
45 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pogon lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Pogon, 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 Pogon this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 21 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lukas Willen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Pogon game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Jagiellonia runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Grzegorz Szymanski after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
52 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pogon lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The 88th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Sebastian Musiolik decided nobody was going anywhere. Cracovia had no time left to answer.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pogon can pretend not to have heard.
At 19 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Jakub Żewłakow 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.
Three points for Pogon, 1‑0 the final word against Cracovia in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Lukas Willen 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Musa Juwara, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Dec 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.” Grzegorz Szymanski, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
There were 85 minutes on the clock and Piast had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Pogon did not stop to explain themselves.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Dimitris Keramitsis is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Paul Mukairu, and the manager let it.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Kellyn Acosta was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.27. 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Grzegorz Szymanski on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
In brief
The dugoutHussein Ali is still being punished for one mistake
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jean-Pierre Nsame provided it, and the 8.93 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pogon have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lukas Willen 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 Musiolik 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pogon this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Grzegorz Szymanski could afford to be generous.
In brief
The dugoutPaul Mukairu asks for a word with the manager
“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 Pogon know it.
0‑1 to Raków Częstochowa, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Lukas Willen 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 watch every Pogon game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Jagiellonia runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Grzegorz Szymanski to a room that had heard them before.
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.
Lechia next, and one man in the Pogon dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Grzegorz Szymanski after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Pogon know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.