Marked for Fedor Černych
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kauno Zalgiris this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Arvydas Dapkus is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Martynas Šetkus has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Kauno Zalgiris have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market14 Sep 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kauno Zalgiris they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad14 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kauno Zalgiris this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Sep 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kauno Zalgiris they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad7 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kauno Zalgiris this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Kauno Zalgiris training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fedor Černych is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match19 Aug 2026
A 2‑1 win over Siauliai, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Fabien Ourega, 33, rolls back the years — 8.01
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.01 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market24 Aug 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Kauno Zalgiris, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market24 Aug 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Kauno Zalgiris is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Eduardas Jurjonas has agreed terms with Zalgiris for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad24 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kauno Zalgiris this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lapidar Lladrovci, and the manager let it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Kauno Zalgiris training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fedor Černych is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Marked 8.17 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Aug 2026
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Tomas Švedkauskas: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Market17 Aug 2026
Suduva come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Kauno Zalgiris did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market17 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tautvydas Burdzilauskas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kauno Zalgiris the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Tautvydas Burdzilauskas has agreed terms with Zalgiris for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Anton Tolordava was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Amine Benchaib
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Fedor Černych falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
It was his to settle and he did not settle it. A long walk back to the halfway line, and a considerably longer week.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad3 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kauno Zalgiris this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A muscle injury sidelines Léo Ribeiro for 17 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Kauno Zalgiris will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Kauno Zalgiris training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fedor Černych is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.