Marked for Henrijs Auseklis
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Sep 2031
A knee injury of the worst kind for Adeyemo Bolaji
105 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ventspils lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad22 Sep 2031
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match19 Sep 2031
A European night to forget for Ventspils
0‑11. Hajduk Split play this football every year and it showed in every part of the pitch. The lesson is expensive and, for a club at this stage, probably necessary.
Squad22 Sep 2031
Alvis Laizans breaks a bone — 42 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 42 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad22 Sep 2031
A season average of 7.49 with 17 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
The terraces22 Sep 2031
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 6 of the 30 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Market22 Sep 2031
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Henrijs Auseklis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ventspils the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match19 Sep 2031
Nobody could stop scoring
11 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Ventspils and Hajduk Split in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Match19 Sep 2031
Ventspils make home a hard place to visit
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Sep 2031
Adeyemo Bolaji damages knee ligaments — 119 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 119 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad8 Sep 2031
56 days out for Alvis Laizans after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ventspils will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market8 Sep 2031
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Ventspils have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market8 Sep 2031
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ventspils can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets8 Sep 2031
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Slovan Bratislava is saying, and nobody at Ventspils is enjoying the guessing.
Squad8 Sep 2031
Alvis Jaunzems and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market8 Sep 2031
Add another name to the list: Metta/LU have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Henrijs Auseklis. The answer from Ventspils has not changed — yet.
Squad8 Sep 2031
Dāvis Ikaunieks 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 dugout8 Sep 2031
Alvis Jaunzems has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Ventspils 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
Steady
Squad1 Sep 2031
126 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ventspils lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad1 Sep 2031
Alvis Laizans breaks a bone — 63 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 63 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match1 Sep 2031
Ventspils refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 25 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Market1 Sep 2031
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Daugavpils waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ventspils is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market1 Sep 2031
Ventspils say no — this time
The offer from Liepaja for Andrius Paulauskas 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.
Boardroom1 Sep 2031
Ventspils close the window on a squad of their own making
16 in and 14 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.
Market1 Sep 2031
Only the photograph left for Otutu Young
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Otutu Young will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ventspils the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad1 Sep 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ventspils this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets1 Sep 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Slovan Bratislava have kept their man, and Ventspils go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Aug 2031
A knee injury of the worst kind for Adeyemo Bolaji
140 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ventspils lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad18 Aug 2031
77 days out for Alvis Laizans after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ventspils will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market18 Aug 2031
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Metta/LU waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ventspils is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market18 Aug 2031
Ventspils say no — this time
The offer from Jelgava for Henrijs Auseklis 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.
Squad18 Aug 2031
19 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Transfer targets18 Aug 2031
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Ventspils have done the hard part with Shakhtar, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad18 Aug 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Dāvis Ikaunieks and Ventspils agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets18 Aug 2031
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Transfer targets18 Aug 2031
A loan enquiry to Astra: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Aug 2031
A knee injury of the worst kind for Adeyemo Bolaji
154 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ventspils lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad4 Aug 2031
Alvis Laizans breaks a bone — 91 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 91 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match4 Aug 2031
Ventspils are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 25 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market4 Aug 2031
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Jelgava waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ventspils is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market4 Aug 2031
Only the photograph left for Otutu Young
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Otutu Young will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ventspils the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad4 Aug 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ventspils this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Aug 2031
Dāvis Ikaunieks 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.
Boardroom4 Aug 2031
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Jānis Grīnbergs has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Ventspils have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Transfer targets4 Aug 2031
Ventspils asked and Spartak Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings28 Apr 2031
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Apr 2031
Alvis Jaunzems 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.
Looking ahead28 Apr 2031
Top-of-the-table clash for Ventspils
Liepaja next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Squad28 Apr 2031
A row about effort at Ventspils
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kirils Iļjins was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match28 Apr 2031
Halfway: Ventspils sit in position 2
14 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
The dugout28 Apr 2031
Raphael Ayagwa has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Ventspils 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 dugout28 Apr 2031
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The dugout28 Apr 2031
news_b_reunited_with_his_manager
Market28 Apr 2031
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Alvis Sorokins has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Ventspils.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match12 Apr 2031
The cup run ends for Ventspils
3‑0 against Metta/LU, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Match14 Apr 2031
Ventspils are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 13 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad14 Apr 2031
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Squad14 Apr 2031
1 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
The dugout14 Apr 2031
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Ventspils may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad14 Apr 2031
Alvis Jaunzems and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings14 Apr 2031
Prince Ukachukwu was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.65. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Match12 Apr 2031
Still nobody has beaten Ventspils
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad14 Apr 2031
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Ventspils know it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings13 May 2030
Successful dribbles: 43. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad13 May 2030
93 days out for Prince Ukachukwu after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ventspils will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match13 May 2030
Ventspils refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 15 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Market13 May 2030
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ventspils can pretend not to have heard.
Market13 May 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ventspils is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad13 May 2030
Prince Ukachukwu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 May 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mamadou Kebbeh and Ventspils agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The terraces13 May 2030
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Squad13 May 2030
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Ventspils are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Apr 2030
A fracture rules Prince Ukachukwu out for 114 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ventspils will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match20 Apr 2030
Nowhere to hide for Ventspils
0‑3 against Skonto, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad22 Apr 2030
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings22 Apr 2030
Successful dribbles: 26. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad22 Apr 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ventspils this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout22 Apr 2030
“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.
Boardroom22 Apr 2030
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout22 Apr 2030
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad22 Apr 2030
A row about effort at Ventspils
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iļja Korotkovs was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad18 Feb 2030
29 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ventspils lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market18 Feb 2030
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ventspils can pretend not to have heard.
Market18 Feb 2030
Artem Yanin has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ventspils they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad18 Feb 2030
Prince Ukachukwu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Feb 2030
Iļja Korotkovs 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.
Squad18 Feb 2030
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. Ventspils will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
The dugout18 Feb 2030
Prince Ukachukwu has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Ventspils 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 dugout18 Feb 2030
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Ventspils, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market18 Feb 2030
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Sergey Chkalov’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad11 Feb 2030
Arturs Stolcers damages knee ligaments — 77 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 77 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match11 Feb 2030
31 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Squad11 Feb 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Henrijs Auseklis and Ventspils agree another 4 years.
Squad11 Feb 2030
Prince Ukachukwu 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.
Transfer targets11 Feb 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Liepaja have kept their man, and Ventspils go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad11 Feb 2030
Words at Ventspils training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirils Iļjins 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.
The dugout11 Feb 2030
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The dugout11 Feb 2030
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Market11 Feb 2030
Ventspils shop where it costs nothing
Henrijs Auseklis signs, and the fee column stays empty. Deals like this look small in July and clever by March — or they are never mentioned again.