This is part IX of The Story Of Polonia Warsaw. In this part, we go through our full season in Polish Division I. This is now our fourth season and our goal is to gain promotion to the top division in Poland, Ekstraklasa. You can find the previous parts of our story here: https://tomikorkeamaki.wixsite.com/impactsub
Matka Boska!
“I have not failed; I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
— Thomas Edison
I love every magazine that prints out these lists like "5 ways to get healthier" and the first bullet point is "eat healthier food". So instead of blogging about our miserable 2025/2026 season in the Polish First Division, in which we ended up in 8th place far from a promotion playoffs spot and promotion, I try to make a self-critique list of the things that made this season so dreadful. Get ready for some "no shit Sherlock" kind of revelations as we make a list called:
Seven mistakes to make to have a catastrophic season in the Polish First Division
Football Manager is a funny game, ain´t it? When everything is going right, it is the best game ever. You feel like you are the greatest manager in the whole universe. "Honey, I just won the league," you tell your wife and she gives you the look. The look has pride and love in it. You should take a picture of this moment and hang it up on the wall to remind you of the good times you had.
When things go bad though? You want to throw your computer out of the window. Then you go outside and burn the computer in the backyard. After that, you dig a hole and bury the damn thing into the ground for future generations to find. Your wife is mad at you and your kid looks at you in a disappointed way. Well, the latter part was kind of the way I felt about our fourth season in charge of the Polonia Warsaw. Here are the things that made this season a catastrophic one.
1. Don't fix it if it ain't broke
For the previous past two seasons, we were just one win away from getting a promotion. Last year we looked solid and almost gained automatic promotion. How did we manage to do that? We had a solid tactical plan and we stick to that.
Too much thinking got me over my head and we started looking for a new tactical approach. We abandoned the plan that almost got us over the edge. This was a classical case of the grass ain´t always being greener on the other side.
2. Is there a panic button I can hit?
How many different tactical approaches a man can implement with his team in 34 games? Well, in this miserable case, the correct answer is 6.
3. Too many cooks spoil the broth
We did it again. The size of the squad was too big. This was also because of the constant change in our tactical approach. If I calculated correctly, the size of the first team squad at its peak was 30 players.
On the final day of the season, that number was 25 players. Once again we are entering a summer of trying to trim that number down. There is just too much dead wood on board.
4. Overperforming vs underperforming
I love data and I love stats. I just don´t know to put it to use efficiently. Here is a look at our team's attacking and defending stats from the past season.
Trying to put this data into deep thought analysis:
Our defence is shit.
5. "Did you even visit the training facility?"
I have worked on training schedules for different kinds of scenarios. Mainly depending on whether we have a game on Saturday or Sunday etc. I haven´t made any effort to follow the individual training which I have assigned to my assistant manager.
Maybe it is time to visit the training facility from now on.
6. "Go out there and find me a wonderkid!"
My chief scout is former Anderlecht legend Mbo Mpenza. For most of the past four years in charge of the Polonia Warsaw, he has been the person responsible for our scouting. We have mainly signed youngsters which aren´t an instant help to our current situation. I think I need to either get an upgrade for my chief of scout position or at least try to get some help for Mpenza.
FM23 installed the new recruitment focus and to be honest, I have felt a little lost with it and it also might be running our cost as the scouting reports keep on coming about the same players. We need a new focus in this department.
I said in the introduction blog of this save that money burns in my hands and it sure has been burning in Warsaw as well. Our finances are currently looking a bit bad even though our board says that we are okay. I think they are lying to me.
7. Out of shape or lack of concentration?
I noticed a pattern in my games during the season. It was either a game that we draw or lost by one goal, we mainly conceded goals in the final 10 minutes of the game. Looking at the condition heart of our defenders in the final minutes was almost the same as looking at a fish out of the water gasping for air.
Is this failure of getting players in shape and having too big of a workload due to their individual training? Or are they just physically bad with a lack of stamina? This needs to be resolved. Looking at the data, its shows that we lose our concentration at the end of each half.
Finally, here is the league standings before the promotion playoffs. Cracovia II and Lech II are not allowed to get promoted as their first teams play in the Ekstraklasa. Eventually, we were "only" three points behind the last promotion playoff spot but that is thanks to the Cracovia and Lech reserve teams performing so well. We would never have any chance of getting promoted from the 8th position.
We need to put this season behind us as the "lost season" and try to bounce back with new spirits. We need an upgrade in every possible department. Starting from the manager.
We sure did find a lot of ways how things won´t work.
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