This is part X of The Story Of Polonia Warsaw. In this part, we go through our full season in Polish Division I. This is now our fifth 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
To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering.
- Friedrich Nietzsche
The common phrase about travelling is that it is not about the destination but the journey itself that is the most exciting part. Safe to say our five years with Polonia Warsaw have been interesting, to say the least. Our destination from day one has been the top division, Ekstraklasa. The year is now 2026, and our fifth season is ahead of us. We have suffered two heartbreaking losses in the Promotion Playoff Finals, we threw away a season with mismanagement and poor luck. This felt like we could have a bounce-back year and finally arrive at the destination.
Then you start the season like this. I was surprised that the board set expectations for the season to "fight bravely against relegation" so guess they had something in mind but getting hammered like this was not on my mind.
After a humiliating defeat to our fierce rival Legia Warsaw reserve team at home, we finally managed to win our first game of the season. At this point, I thought that we were already in a relegation battle. We kept conceding stupid goals and our biggest defeat of the season 1-5 against the Lech Poznan reserve team brought a thought to my head: are they going to sack me and this is the end?
Something needed to change. Our first task was to try to solve the problems at the back. We switched our ball-playing defenders to no-nonsense defenders and I had given a task to my director of sport to find players suited to our system. We needed someone physically strong and hard-tackling ball-winning midfielder to support our leaky defence and he brought us a gem.
From the start of this save, one of my goals was to bring Nigerian players to the club and so far our foreign players have only been Nigerian. So when DoF presented us with the possibility to sign Rayan Djedje on a free transfer, I hesitated a bit. He was Ivorian and I thought "am I ready to sell our transfer policy for the sake of the team?"
The answer was: yes. But here comes the twist.
He possesses a double nationality. He is also French as he is a former youngster from FC Metz. He has the attributes that we have missed in the BWM position as he possesses great tackling, strength and bravery.
Another gem our DoF was able to find was a young Armenian full-back which whom I have completely fallen in love with. Meet Andranik Sargsyan, the future captain of this club and an Armenian football legend.
When everything clicks whatever system you play, it´s beautiful. For 9 games, we didn´t concede a single goal. Snatching up crucial 1-0 victories and we kept rising in the standings. In a total of 15 games, we conceded 6 goals.
As the first division has multiple reserve teams, this brings out a fun twist to the promotion positions in the standings. The reserve teams cannot get promoted as the senior teams play in the top division. So after 22 games played, we would have been able to get to the promotion playoffs from the 9th spot in the standings.
It started to look like this would become the most epic promotion journey for the ages as we kept going up on the table. Let me present to you the next twist. Our final two games of the regular season were against Stal Rzesnow and Gornik Leczna, two teams destined to get relegated. We needed a win at least one of them. This being the Football Manager, we drew both games 0-0.
If we had won the last game of the season at home, we would have secured 3rd place which would have meant automatic promotion as the champions of the Polish First Division were Cracovia´s reserve team. We would have had the tie-breaker against Podbeskidzie with more goals scored. Heartbreak again and we now entered our third Promotion Playoff Promotion. The third time is the charm, right?
The semi-final was against Radomiak which was a magnificent display from our side as we stomped them 5-0 and I had never felt more confident going into the Final which was against Korona. Two seasons ago, we came from behind in the final minutes to get past them in the semi-final so they sure had something to get us back.
We started the game quite well creating chances and they didn´t look to cause us any trouble. Our main goal scorer this season, Nigerian-Polish Abba Bichi, banged 22 goals in 36 games this season and he opened the score in this game. Then there was a crucial mistake from our young centre-back Jakub Filipowicz and Korona drew level.
The game was then stabilised and we didn´t manage to get any good chances despite having all the possession in the world. Everyone was gasping for air, including myself and we were already out of subs entering the extra time.
Extra time didn´t produce anything special, mainly because everyone was dead. Korona had a corner in the 122 minutes and I was sure they would score as that would have been the most FM way to lose the game. Luckily, they didn't and we entered the penalty shootout.
I hate penalties. I can´t stand to watch them. So I set up the penalty takers and talked about our grocery list with my wife in the kitchen. Five minutes later I returned to see the score.
We lost on penalties. I am speechless. I have no speech.
This is now our third defeat in the Promotion Playoff Final. Next season will be our fifth in the First Division. To live is to suffer.
This will take some time to process but one thing I know for sure.
- You're not getting a fucking promotion!
- The show goes on!
- This is my home! They're gonna need a f*cking wrecking ball to take me out of here!
- They're gonna need to send in the National Guard or f*cking SWAT team 'cause I ain't going nowhere!
- F*ck them!
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