This is how the 1st League revelation works. Polonia is breaking the financial monopoly. We reveal the behind-the-scenes.

• More information can be found in Przegląd Sportowy Onet

Adrian Heluszka, Przegląd Sportowy Onet: Was this the most intense transfer window since you took over as sporting director of Polonia Bytom?

Tomasz Stefankiewicz, sporting director of Polonia Bytom: Absolutely. The very fact that we survived Deadline Day, the last day of the transfer window, when we were actually finalizing the loan of Theodoros Tsirigotis by evening, was the best proof of that.

So what did it look like?

We were searching intensively for a player to fill the No. 9 position in the final days of the transfer window. We approached the market options, which primarily came from abroad, with a certain degree of uncertainty. We don't like to make moves based solely on video footage without having a prior opinion on the players. Financial considerations also played a role. Dominik Konieczny's fate and his departure hung in the balance until the very end. It wasn't a planned move, and his decision determined the budget we would have for this final transfer. Ultimately, Górnik Zabrze offered to offer Tsirigotis. By around 7:00 or 8:00 PM on Monday evening, we had everything finalized. It was good that he was a local player, and we could handle everything smoothly.

This was a very difficult transfer window for us, considering the players we had to part ways with. These are always difficult decisions, and several players had spent a significant amount of time here and were important figures, not only from a sporting perspective. Learning from experience and observing the sporting performance of the newly promoted teams in recent years, radical decisions were made. I won't use the word "revolution," but simply a more radical approach to the profile, expectations, and league requirements. We had to adapt the team to them. And now we can see that the core of this team hasn't been significantly damaged. The leaders from the second division, around whom we built the team, remained. Our priority was to bring in new center-backs.

Above all, we wanted to optimize our staffing in the current financial climate. The team is prepared so that we don't have to completely overhaul everything this winter and replace half the staff. We anticipate that we'll complete everything we could have done in the summer transfer window, and that winter will only see cosmetic changes and optimization.

You made 14 transfers this transfer window. Someone looking at it dryly, without further analysis, might say that a revolution has occurred at Polonia Bytom.

You could say that, but we simply wanted to supplement the squad. We needed competition in every position. We rebuilt the pivots and the defense. We also wanted to add a second goalkeeper to Axel Holewiński, for whom we'll have a suitable plan. Hence the signing of Klaudiusz Mazur. His profile is an excellent fit for us. He plays brilliantly with his feet, and we're working hard to help him develop. And I believe he'll contribute a lot to this team in the future.

It may seem like there's a lot of transfer activity, but we're confident that the squad is optimally matched in terms of numbers. Furthermore, there's room for players from our academy. Although, honestly, it won't be easy. The disparity between academy players and the demands of the First Division is significant. It will be difficult for players born in 2007-2009 to overcome this gap. However, a few young players are sending out positive signals.

What we've been doing in recent months is a middle ground. The club's strategy and the idea behind the sports division are to promote players to the next level. This applies not only to young domestic players but also to foreign players whom we've been able to scout. Matej Matić is a prime example; we believe he has enormous potential. We have the option to buy him, even if we want to monetize the transfer. A certain amount is included in the contract, and we believe he could be worth more on the Polish or foreign markets. But this requires time. We don't want to pretend that in our first season in the first league, as a newcomer, we want to achieve good results, promote countless players, and also rake in a lot of money through the Pro Junior System program. We simply want to maintain our position and build this team idea over the next few years.

Interestingly, all the moves you've made have been either loans or players acquired without a release clause. You look at your budget very carefully.

There's no way Polonia Bytom is currently investing large sums of money in player acquisitions. If we were to acquire young players with great potential, we might consider it. But only at realistic rates, which we would consider profitable in the market. We also have our eye on a few players from the lower leagues who, in my opinion, are capable of following in Oliwier Kwiatkowski's footsteps. After all, we brought him up from the fourth league, and that's the direction we'll be heading in. These will be moves we can afford to spend small amounts of money on. They won't amount to hundreds of thousands of złoty. If we're talking about investments, we'll focus on the club's academy. I dream of seeing the youth players become the team's strength in the future, and certainly of being visible and able to proudly represent their home club.

I can say that we negotiated one major transfer for our club. I'm referring to Adam Deja. Many factors contributed to the fact that we ultimately didn't make it. One of them was the overall value of the move: the contact and all the extras. We decided we could manage without him. We worked harder on the transfer of Mikulas Bakala from Den Bosch in the Netherlands. He's a younger player, perhaps not as experienced in our environment as Deja, but we also believe he has great potential. Moreover, he possesses the qualities we were looking for in this position. We worked on this transfer for a long time to avoid paying for him. The player came to us essentially solely on the stipulation regarding the percentage of the next transfer to the Dutch club.

In the case of loans, we included them in our transfer forecast, taking into account the dynamics of the entire transfer window. We didn't want to overwhelm the squad with permanent transfers. In the case of loans, we can always shorten them if something doesn't work out. After analyzing the numbers with coach Łukasz Tomczyk, we clearly defined the priorities for where we needed permanent transfers. But we also left room for temporary transfers.

In retrospect, was signing Bakala the hardest move to make in recent weeks?

Foreign moves like the aforementioned Bakala and Matić were certainly not easy. This is due to the fact that Polonia doesn't yet have a well-established market position. In the case of Matić, who played two 45-minute matches for the Croatian U-21 national team in June, Polissia Zhytomyr's personnel policy has changed significantly. The new management wants to prioritize local players and is letting go of foreign players.

The negotiations were difficult. In the initial conversation, the player's agent didn't even know where Bytom was. Fortunately, we managed to find the right player and convince him. Talking with the club itself was made easier by the fact that Bytom and Zhytomyr were twin cities. This made it easier for us to finalize the move. We had information that Polissia was reluctant to consider some market options for the player's loan. Mikulas Bakala also waited several weeks. He already knew he had received the green light in the Netherlands, but he trained individually and waited to see how the talks progressed. All of this took time.

And in the case of local players, we needed a proper plan and a long interview for Jakub Apolinarski. We approach each such case comprehensively. We want to get to know the player personally, his expectations, and determine if he'll be a good fit. After several interviews, some players dropped out. We saw they weren't interested in the open part of the conversation. This was crucial in the case of acquiring Jordi Calavera. In terms of our game, we wanted to enrich the team culturally with a player from the Iberian Peninsula. We wanted him to be a Spaniard, yet communicative, someone who could "sell" his energy and experience. At the beginning of the transfer window, we went through a multitude of interviews with Spanish players from the second and third tier. Jordi performed exceptionally well in every respect.

As of today, he still needs some work to reach the motor level we expect. In terms of experience and understanding of the game, we knew he had the potential to be a key player in our team. All of that has been confirmed. And in terms of personality, he's a phenomenal individual whose professionalism and hard work are infectious. He's played nearly 100 matches in the La Liga, so he has considerable experience. We're confident he'll contribute a lot to our team this season, even if we have to wait until the winter for him to reach the right level.

What does the scouting process for foreigners generally look like in Bytom? What do you base your efforts on?

There are various methods. A network of contacts with management agencies is paying off. In recent months, while preparing for promotion to the First Division, we've established numerous contacts with foreign agents. Additionally, there are specialized platforms like Transfer Room, which significantly open clubs to various markets. You can easily define your needs and then receive feedback from clubs and agencies.

We also benefited greatly from connections within our community. Some players were recommended by others. It's no disrespect to ask for recommendations from Borja Galan or Wisła Kraków. Seeing that a Spanish player played in the same team or league as Angel Rodado, we didn't hesitate to ask for his opinion. It was similar in Den Bosch, where Mikulas Bakala worked with a Polish physical conditioning coach. We knew a lot about each other, and we also closely monitored the Dutch second-division market.

We also received a lot of information about Bakala from Slovakia, as this is a direction we're interested in. We have Jakub Jokl, currently on loan at Resovia from the Slovakian youth national teams. We traveled to watch him and mapped out a specific development path for him.

We gather as much information as possible, learning as much as we can about specific transfer markets, because watching matches isn't enough these days. Whether I, the coach, or the scouting director sit and watch matches for hours won't help much. First, we need to receive the right information, which is crucial. But thanks to our openness, no one is closed off to us and is able to help us. However, the most important thing is always diligent work, hundreds of hours spent analyzing video footage and statistical data. Selecting the right foreign markets that are optimal for our game model is also crucial. All of this has become increasingly complex in our work in recent months, and we hope to achieve tangible results from this work.

You mentioned Adam Deja, but generally speaking, a lot of names were being considered for Polonia this transfer window. Was there any other transfer move you regret not ultimately going through?

We had a player on our radar playing in one of the leagues located more to the east of Europe. We established a very good rapport and, above all, were convinced of his sporting value. And here we saw the "phenomenon" of club owners in such countries changing their minds from one hour to the next. We were ready for the move; we had everything prepared with the agent. The player himself was already packed, but we received information from the club that the coach needed him for the last derby match. It was an extremely important match for them. They conceded a goal in the 90th minute, and after the match, the coach started throwing things and confronted the owner about needing this player. And everything was blocked. Two weeks of work went to waste.

But life doesn't like a vacuum, and Matej Matić has stepped into that role. He may have a slightly different profile, but I think his potential could be higher. There have been many names floating around regarding center-backs in our context. Some of them were ruled out after medicals. We're talking about at least three players here. This includes both center-backs and forwards, who have previously battled various injuries. And we're taking into account that we play on artificial turf and change surfaces frequently.

But we're confident that our training process is structured enough to eliminate any risks. We have a very low level of player unavailability. We build a broad team with the possibility of someone being unavailable, and at the match in Tychy, the coach had all the players available.

What does this mean?

We make every effort to properly prepare our players for the challenge. Preparation is top-notch, as is their recovery process. We strive to provide comprehensive care for our players, of course, within the club's capabilities. We can afford certain things, perhaps we'd like more, but we still appreciate what we currently have. We've moved from shipping containers to palaces, as is the reality of Bytom.

We're looking at other places in the country because we're working similarly to several leading projects, although the players there are at a higher level. These clubs have greater opportunities to care for their players, a broader medical staff, and better tools at their disposal. Yet, we now see that our team has a very low injury rate, which isn't necessarily the case elsewhere.

In a few days, the second part of the interview will be published in Przegląd Sportowy Onet. In it, Tomasz Stefankiewicz talks about the successful start to the season in the first league, why Polonia looks like a poor relation compared to the league competition, the reasons why Milan Rundić ultimately missed out on Bytom and which Górnik Zabrze players he considered for the team.