Niels Frederiksen cannot match Bundesliga wages, so he signs players with European fixtures, UEFA money and the resale value those games build. A squad built on that pitch holds players who took less than their level commands, and Lech’s sales prove it.

Frederiksen, Lech Poznań’s head coach, runs the squad at Poland’s reigning champion, and he is blunt about what Lech can and cannot offer a transfer target. Financially, he says, the club still cannot equal the Bundesliga. Lech can get close on the rest, and Frederiksen sells that rest directly, domestic and European fixtures, the bonuses those games pay, and the exposure a player gains by closing the wage gap on the pitch.