Poland had competitive,
yet, strange season. Something like mild decline was noticeable –
Polish clubs were never very strong, but now they seemed a bit weaker
than usual. Change of generations may have been the reason – the
old heroes stepping down, or rather going abroad, and the new ones
not yet fully blooming. Since they were dispersed in many clubs, the
absence of one or two key players often spelled out disaster. But in
the same time there was international recognition of the quality of
the Polish players, thanks to the great generation of 1972-74. And
the biggest recognition came with the transfer of Kazimierz Deyna –
Manchester City took him and he became one of the first wave of
foreigners going to try their luck in England. Perhaps the biggest
transfer of Polish player in history – so far, Polish stars went
largely to smaller French and Belgian clubs. Now a 31-years old and
no longer a national team player went to mighty England. Not bad?
Depends... struggling with injuries, Deyna never really shined and
played rarely, but still Manchester City kept him for three years. On
the other hand, he was one of the many Polish stars who may have been
more needed at home... hard to tell. Season proceeded anyway.
Deep down in lower levels
it was business as usual – various clubs were either down on their
luck or not.
Huthik (Krakow), for
instance, won promotion to yet again reorganized Second Division.
They were one of somewhat known clubs, who plummeted to the bottom at
one point and eventually were pulling themselves up – a frequent
change of fate.
The Second Division,
divided somewhat geographically into 2 groups, was also divided by
performance. The Eastern group had a club with great past now a
hopeless outsider – Polonia (Warszawa) ended last, with 5 points
less than the nearest and also relegated opponent. Third division was
was their immediate future. The other big name in the league had
entirely different destiny.
Gornik (Zabrze) were
relegated the previous year, and the bad luck obviously spurred them
to action. Not a club to really sink into sedimentary existence, they
were determined to return to top flight. Gornik had no rivals this
season, leaving the second placed Star (Starachowice) 13 points
behind.
The Western group was
another story. Some better known clubs were among the relegated –
Warta (Poznan) and Zaglebie (Lubin) – but more important was the
tight race for the first, promotional, place. Four clubs participated
in that, none famous or really strong, but the battle was fierce
nonetheless. Goal-difference decided the championship - Baltyk
(Gdynia) had the tough luck, they were +11, but the opposition ended
with +16.
Zawisza (Bydgoszcz) won promotion, thus climbing again to first division, where they played now and then without any success. May be this time? Unlikely, but at least they won a dramatic season. The lower divisions may have been fun, but nothing like top flight.