Transfer window round-up

As you may already know, Polish league recently lost several stars that moved to Turkey. Adding the great story of Lech Poznan in Europa League and tight contest at the top of the table it must surely be interesting how Polish clubs handle themselves on transfer market and I can assure you, they know a thing or two about wheeling and dealing. Some have it steady, quickly closing their squads, others like to wait for the last moment, check a lot of players and then decide but already we had some signs that even though many left, there will be great competition when the league restarts.

Wisla Krakow, after selling Brożek brothers to Trabzonspor, losing Pawełek when his contract run to the end this year and hearing that Cleber is unable to continue his playing career, had to work hard to bring quality players id defence and attack. They did just that but we will have to wait for the results as newly signed, Cwetan Genkov, Kew Jaliens, Maor Melikson and Michail Sivakov just joined the team and may be just settling in the team when the league restarts. What is a bit depressing, is that they are bringing only foreign players but that trend was spotted and described by me on this blog lately.

The other team from Krakow, also being at the wrong end of the table, Cracovia is also making a lot of movements on the transfer market. Once again, new coach is given money to built new team that somehow will manage to avoid relegation. Clearly they’ve got rid of deadwood and are signing experienced players (Giza, Król, Dokić) but the biggest difference may be in goal where Cabaj will be replaced by one of the new duo, Kaczmarek or Gąsiński. The closest team to them in the table, Arka Gdynia, is strangely quiet so far even though they know that much have to be done with their attack and with losing Budziński for the rest of the season, place in the middle of the park is to take. Will Peruvian Junior Ross take it?

Ruch Chorzow get over bad spell of results in the first round and finally they have some money to strengthen their squad. They signed trio of experienced players (Zieńczuk and Szyndrowski) and backup for the first goalkeeper (Pesković) but the most worrying thing for them is lack of central midfielders, playmakers. Financial problems are getting to Polonia Bytom who already have average squad but there is no money available for new manager and just only one player (Kiełpin) was signed up to this day.

Both clubs from lower Silesia region, Slask Wroclaw and Zaglebie Lubin are taking things slowly but the second team may just have signed a real diamond. Deniss Rakkels is 18-years old striker and already scored for Zaglebie in friendly games, while I heard that manager Marek Bajor quickly became fan of his talent. Also midfielder David Abwo was signed, he won U20 African Championship with Nigeria. Slask swapped goalkeepers, letting Kaczmarek go to Cracovia but signed Rafal Gikiewicz (twin brother of Łukasz, who is their striker) who is prepared to take the place when Kelemen gets too old. Also only Rok Elsner, Serbian defender/midfielder came and when it was close to transfer of another central defender, Armenian Robert Arzumanjan the talks got tough with his agent and eventually he landed in Jagiellonia Bialystok.

So how will the league leaders cope without their main attacking forces, Kamil Grosicki who went to Sivasspor? Apart from getting rid of several players that let manager Michal Probierz down, they also made two wise signings – Arzumanjan and Grzelak who came back after his unsuccessful spell in Russia. They’ve added also two young players (Seratlić and Pejović) from Balkans as Probierz tries to make the competition inside his squad much tougher. But the chase is not finished yet as Legia also wants to mean something in the second round – Maciej Skorża raised the team atmosphere when he decided to sell Maciej Iwański to Manisaspor and now they are looking at several wingers, mainly from Portugal or Brazil.

Polish champions, despite awful league form, want to make the impossible and get back to the top and certainly their winter spree looks interesting. Attack line was strengthen with young Ubaparip who is already impressing during test-games, also Bartosz Ślusarski was strangely signed and is yet to convince everyone that he is still decent player for such club. Midfielder Rafał Murawski from Rubin Kazan was bought for one million Euro and defender Hubert Wołąkiewicz joined them following problems during negotiations with Lechia Gdańsk. Jose Mari Bakero now has very interesting team but how and what will he do without Peszko?

If it’s still not enough for you and all those names are not confusing, let’s take a look how new manager, Dutch Theo Bos is doing at Polonia Warszawa. Sadlok joined as was well known since summer, also they added Dorde Cotra from FK Rad, along with Polish defender loaned out from Empoli, Adam Kokoszka. Still, they are looking at possibility of making their squad bigger with several names, mainly Dutch and German footballers among fairly few candidates for the deal.

Interesting how well Widzew is doing during this transfer window, even though they lost Marcin Robak and also deal for their other striker was close with Lech Poznan. But Sernas stayed and Michniewicz added two internationals to his squad – Finnish Riku Riski and Lithuanian Zigajevs. Defender Bogdan Straton from Romania is also now Widzew player.

Surprisingly quiet winter from Lechia Gdansk, despite they have lost Wołąkiewicz, Buzała and Zieńczuk already. This may be the time of steadiness before the storm comes and it still I think that Lechia will sign some players as they need to add numbers in every department of their squad. Meanwhile Korona Kielce and Marcin Sasal are clearing their squad and just looking at several players with their still limited (but soon to be enlarged) transfer budget. Good deal for them with transfer of goalkeeper Krzysztof Pilarz though.

Down to last two clubs – Górnik Zabrze and GKS Belchatow. Górnik has serious problems with stabilizing their form and now looks for players that may give their manager few more options when things are not going too well for them. They are looking especially at younger players and have also added another Slovakian, Michal Gasparik. And finally, GKS Belchatow – only one signing so far, Pavel Komolov from Zalgiris, while also Pawel Buzała is close to getting a contract there. Despite several offers, they have kept Mateusz Cetnarski in Belchatow, also rest of the squad remains unchanged for that moment.

Before the window shuts with the end of February be sure I will post transfer round-up.