Marked for Marcel Mendes-Dudziński
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Feb 2027
A fracture rules Nikita Stolcers out for 29 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Skonto will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market1 Feb 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Skonto have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market1 Feb 2027
Olegs Gabovs hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Skonto can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Skonto close the window on a squad of their own making
0 in and 3 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Squad1 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Skonto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
Skonto asked and Slovan Bratislava said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market1 Feb 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
A loan enquiry to Qarabag: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
A loan move for Nikola Pavlica is in the works
Skonto have made the call to Suduva. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad25 Jan 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 38 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market25 Jan 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad25 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Skonto
Marcel Mendes-Dudziński and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Aktobe have kept their man, and Skonto go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Nikita Bulvitis 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.
Market25 Jan 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Skonto have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
NK Celje have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
Gatis Cauna has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Skonto will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match9 Jan 2027
9 matches without a win for Piast
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Piast are no longer polite ones.
Market11 Jan 2027
The bid was some way short and Piast did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market11 Jan 2027
“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 Piast, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Everything agreed with Sparta Prague, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Piast
Jorge Félix and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Juande Rivas 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.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Piast asked and Vitoria Guimaraes said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Loan watch11 Jan 2027
“I watch every Piast game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Skonto runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Match9 Jan 2027
Piast and Lech take a point apiece
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Dec 2026
A one-man rearguard from Domen Gril
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match12 Dec 2026
The wait goes on for Piast
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Tempers go at Piast
Endika 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.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Hugo Vallejo beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Piast
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sergio Fernández was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Loan watch14 Dec 2026
“I watch every Piast game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Skonto runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 Kamil Frankowski left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Nikita Stolcers out for 82 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Skonto will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad14 Dec 2026
55 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Tempers go at Skonto
Marcel Mendes-Dudziński 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.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Ekene Olisema
“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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Skonto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikita Bulvitis 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.
Market14 Dec 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Dec 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 89 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market7 Dec 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad7 Dec 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 Skonto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Eduards Oss slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Eduards Oss is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Ekene Olisema knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Skonto, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Ekene Olisema has moved up it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Dominik Holec
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Piast lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match14 Nov 2026
6 unbeaten for Piast
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Piast did not have in the autumn.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Juande Rivas 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.
Match16 Nov 2026
The half-term report on Piast
Position 9, 15 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Piast, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Piast
Szczepan Mucha and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Felipe García commits to Piast for another 4 years.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Chances created: 11. The column nobody reads carried the whole story of the match, and his name was at the top of it.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hugo Vallejo, and the manager let it.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Player ratings
Leandro Sanca could have had three
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The dugout
Somebody else is better right now than Guille Donoso
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match4 Nov 2026
The cup run ends for Skonto
0‑4 against Liepaja, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
The terraces9 Nov 2026
A cup embarrassment at Liepaja follows Skonto home
0-4. Going out of a cup is one afternoon; going out like that is a week of phone-ins, and the manager will hear every one of them.
Market9 Nov 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 Skonto, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Skonto
Igors Bulvitis and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Skonto
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arturs Oss was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Arturs Oss gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Boardroom9 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Skonto dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Loan watch9 Nov 2026
“I did not go to Metta/LU to sit and watch. I want to come back to Skonto and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑4 Davis Cauna left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Skonto
Marcel Mendes-Dudziński and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Nikita Bulvitis 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.
Loan watch26 Oct 2026
“I did not go to Metta/LU to sit and watch. I want to come back to Skonto and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Oct 2026
53 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Piast lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match17 Oct 2026
No mercy from Piast
Podbeskidzie will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Piast were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.16 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.29, and nobody on the pitch better.
Match17 Oct 2026
At last: Piast win one
6 matches without a win, and then this, against Podbeskidzie. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Juande Rivas 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 ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match17 Oct 2026
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Quentin Boisgard in the middle of it, and Podbeskidzie unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Piast
Endika 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market19 Oct 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kaspars Jurkovskis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Skonto the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Skonto
Marcel Mendes-Dudziński 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.
Loan watch19 Oct 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Skonto, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market12 Oct 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Skonto
Igors Bulvitis and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Skonto
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikita Bulvitis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Loan watch12 Oct 2026
“I did not go to Metta/LU to sit and watch. I want to come back to Skonto and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Marius Slavickas is on it.
Market12 Oct 2026
5 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Skonto money.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Sep 2026
82 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Piast lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Piast
Jorge Félix and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets21 Sep 2026
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Piast will try again when the window opens; Slask may not be selling by then.
Match19 Sep 2026
Pogon take the points off Piast
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Piast training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kacper Łopata 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.
Loan watch21 Sep 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Piast, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Kamil Frankowski after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Jason Lokilo beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Sep 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 2 in, 5 out at Skonto
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 2 arrived, 5 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Skonto
Marcel Mendes-Dudziński and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market7 Sep 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alvis Kamess and Skonto agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Skonto will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Gatis Cauna has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Skonto will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alvis Kamess, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market31 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Suduva, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Skonto
Gatis Cauna and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Nikita Bulvitis 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.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
Kristaps Stolcers has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Skonto will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Olegs Rugins, and the manager let it.
Market31 Aug 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Nikita Stolcers may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Squad31 Aug 2026
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Skonto will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Skonto would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 123 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market10 Aug 2026
Skonto say no — this time
The offer from Naftan for Eduards Laizans was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market10 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 Skonto, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market10 Aug 2026
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Daugavpils moved on, Georgy Ignashevich reports back to Skonto, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Igors Bulvitis and Skonto agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 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 Skonto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Suduva have kept their man, and Skonto go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Skonto
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kaspars Jurkovskis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.