The pod is back for a special retro series of pods during the corona virus pandemic. First up Maciej and I take on the dark but colourful period of match-fixing in Polish football when anything was possible if you knew how to go about it. We talk about the title decider of the 1981-1982 season, the famous 1992-1993 denouement of the Polish league, the hair-dresser who built a match-fixing empire from the mid-1990s and how Poland cleaned up its act. The smell of vodka, kiełbasa and oorruption is all around us as we enter the Polish football house of ill-repute...

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Podcast 41: Retro pod (1) - Match-fixing in Polish football

The pod is back after a month's break as Maciej, Tomek and I cover all the latest news in the Polish Ekstraklasa, Poland's European failures (yet again) and make a half-hearted attempt to talk about the national team. Along the way we find out that Tomek watched Śląsk Wrocław's pre-season friendlies, how Legia Warsaw were big meanies in not letting Piast Gliwice sign Tomasz Jodłowiec earlier and how John Paul II bears a canny resemblance to Phil Collins. We also discussed the timeless genius of Paweł Brożek, the wonderful Marko Vejinović and the less wonderful Sandro Kulenović. Enjoy!

Podcast 40 - You will win something with one kid

The 2019-2020 season in Poland is already two weeks in and Thomas Pitura and I cover the first couple of weeks of the Ekstraklasa season, the transfer moves of Ekstraklasa clubs, how Polish teams have been doing in European competition qualifiers and discuss some of the new rules introduced this season - i.e. 3 teams going down instead of 2 and the obligatory youth player rule. Along the way we discovered that I'd never travelled by car between Częstochowa and Bełchatów (imagine that!), Joel Valencia's move to Brentford from Piast and the chaos of watching the Ekstraklasa overseas. Enjoy!

Podcast 39: Season 2019-2020 is all go baby!

In the second part of our Ekstraklasa season review pod, Tomek, Maciej and I talked about our experiences of the Polish Cup final (including being covered by too many tifos), and put together our best XI and silly (WWOPF) XI of the season. Enjoy!

Podcast 38: Season review pod - part 2

In the first part of our Ekstraklasa season review pod, Maciej, Tomek and I look at our funny moments of the last gameweek and the season as a whole, and round-up the top and bottom halves of the table, including Piast Gliwice's unexpected title success, why Legia Warsaw failed and whether the right teams were relegated or not. Part two soon...

Podcast 37: Season review pod - part 1

In a special edition of the pod, I talked to Piast Gliwice's Tom Hateley about his career including: what it's like to have a famous football dad, his time at Reading FC (with some Gylfi Sigurdsson love), playing for Śląsk Wrocław and Piast's unexpected title challenge this season. We also talked about Piast's positive and charismatic Spanish player Gerard Badia and Tom gave his opinion about the standard of the Polish league. Enjoy!

Podcast 36: Tom Hateley interview

The pod returns after a month's hiatus to look at the Polish Ekstraklasa as it divides into championship and relegation parts of the table for the remaining 7 gameweeks of the season. There weren't any real shocks in terms of who made the top 8 but we looked at a very good gameweek which had lots of goals, look forward to the rest of the season and discuss the Polish cup semis and the final which takes place at the beginning of May. Along the way we discussed whether we love or hate marmite, criticise the negative attitude prevailing in the coverage of the league and Maciej regails of us his fun-time at Raków Częstochowa's old-school stadium. Enjoy!

Podcast 35: Negativity, what's that? Table divide special

The pod is back after a one month hiatus to talk about the goings on in the Ekstraklasa, the Polish Cup and look forward to Poland's Euro 2020 qualifiers. Along the way we talk about feisty Romanian women, rotund Finnish maestros and lots of other miscellaneous stuff. Enjoy!

Podcast 34: Predicting the unpredictable

The pod is back with new guest Thomas Pitura to talk about the return of the Ekstraklasa after the over 7 week winter break. We round up the Wisła Kraków story (including the return of Kuba Błaszczykowski), talk about the massive influx of transfers to Ekstraklasa clubs during the break and discuss the first matches of the spring round. Enjoy!

Podcast 33: Too many transfers

The pod is back to look at the incredible goings on at Wisła Kraków and sum up the autumn round of the Ekstraklasa. Wisła Kraków have been 'allegedly' run by gangsters over the last couple of years and is in seriously financial trouble, in the midst of this foreign con artists tried to buy the club, leading to absurd scenes. From the sad to the ridiculous we look at the saga that has gripped Poland. We also look at the situation in the Ekstraklasa before the winter break and do our teams of the season (both serious and wacky). Enjoy!

Podcast 32: Wisła Kraków takeover special and Ekstraklasa autumn round summary

Maciej and I are back to talk about the current goings on in the Polish Ekstraklasa

Podcast 31: Lechia at the top of the pile

The pod returns for our semi-regular dose of Ekstraklasa and Polish football chat. This week Piotr Żelazny (real proper journalist ®) makes his first appearance on the pod. We looked at the situation at Lech Poznań which is beginning to look more and more like a club that’s comfortable with losing, talk about the lack of quality in the table-top clash between Jagiellonia Białystok and Legia Warsaw, heap some praise on Piotr Stokowiec and talk a bit about Poland’s relegation from the top tier of the Nations League. Along the way we talk about super heroes solving Polish football’s hooligan problem and whether Krzysztof Piątek’s fiancée deserves to be interviewed by important Italian sports newspapers. Enjoy!

Podcast 30: Lech Poznań and the habit of losing

Recording a podcast has its ups and downs

Podcast 29 - The pleasures of recording a podcast

The pod returns for another dose of the enjoyable, the absurd and the ridiculous. We look at the Ekstraklasa where literally anyone can beat anyone, discuss the first round of the Polish cup where Zagłębie Lubin slipped on a massive banana skin and preview Poland's October Nations League games. Along the way we talk about Grosicki desperate transfer window risk-taking, drinking wine until 5am in Bologna and the biggest cup shocks in Polish football history. Enjoy!

Podcast 29: A hurricane hits Lubin

The pod returns after a month's absence to round up the state of play in the Ekstraklasa where Legia Warsaw have started the season badly for the 3rd year in succession, Wisła Kraków are out of nowhere playing the best football in the league, Korona Kielce are doing Korona Kielce things and Wisła Płock are taking over the national team one player at a time. Along the way we look at managers losing the plot, teams losing leads and Polish clubs in European competitions losing to pretty much everyone. Enjoy!

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