Marked for Raffaele Stroe
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 Dec 2029
Klaidi Tershalla damages knee ligaments — 37 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 37 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.
Player ratings31 Dec 2029
Successful dribbles: 34. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match29 Dec 2029
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad31 Dec 2029
“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; Pogradeci are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad31 Dec 2029
A row about effort at Pogradeci
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Weslley was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad31 Dec 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pogradeci this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom31 Dec 2029
Wages swallow 161% of the Pogradeci income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Player ratings31 Dec 2029
Marked 7.27 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Pogradeci had the best player on the pitch.
Market31 Dec 2029
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Dmitriy Lukovskiy has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Pogradeci.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Dec 2029
44 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pogradeci lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match22 Dec 2029
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 19 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Match22 Dec 2029
Nowhere to hide for Pogradeci
1‑4 against Dinamo City, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Match24 Dec 2029
Pogradeci refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 30 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.
Squad24 Dec 2029
Words at Pogradeci training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Weslley 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.
Squad24 Dec 2029
Michał Bierzało and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings24 Dec 2029
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Looking ahead24 Dec 2029
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Boardroom24 Dec 2029
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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Market
A stepping stone, not a home, for Junior Ake
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The dugout
A promise honoured for Raffaele Stroe
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Oct 2029
100 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pogradeci lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market29 Oct 2029
Weslley puts it in writing
“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 Pogradeci, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match27 Oct 2029
Still nobody has beaten Pogradeci
The unbeaten run reaches 12. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Player ratings29 Oct 2029
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad29 Oct 2029
A row about effort at Pogradeci
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Weslley was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Words exchanged at Pogradeci
Jorgo Qeleshi 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.
Market29 Oct 2029
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Raffaele Stroe has his answer from Pogradeci; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Match27 Oct 2029
Level with 94 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Pogradeci had all but put away. Iliria Fushë-Krujë will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
The dugout29 Oct 2029
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad13 Aug 2029
A fracture rules Kacper Żakowski out for 78 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pogradeci will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market13 Aug 2029
“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.
Market13 Aug 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pogradeci is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Transfer targets13 Aug 2029
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Partizani Tirana keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Boardroom13 Aug 2029
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Lion Cahani has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Market13 Aug 2029
The shirt still fits. Ronard Nana Kumi is back at Pogradeci, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Boardroom13 Aug 2029
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Amarildo Dervishaj has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Pogradeci have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
The dugout13 Aug 2029
Ronard Nana Kumi faces a manager he fell out with
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at Pogradeci expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Ronard Nana Kumi.
Transfer targets13 Aug 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Partizani Tirana have kept their man, and Pogradeci go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Jul 2029
Harallamb Qaqi damages knee ligaments — 48 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 48 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.
Market16 Jul 2029
“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 targets16 Jul 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Apolonia Fier have kept their man, and Pogradeci go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Shammasu Muhammed 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 dugout16 Jul 2029
The manager makes an example of Sokol Uldedaj
“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.
Squad16 Jul 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pogradeci this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2029
Skënderbeu Korçë 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.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2029
Kastrioti Krujë 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 dugout16 Jul 2029
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 Jul 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Arnas Novikovas
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Utenis lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match31 Jul 2028
Utenis are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 21 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market31 Jul 2028
“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 Utenis, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets31 Jul 2028
Utenis asked and Stumbras said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Lukas Dapkus 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.
Squad31 Jul 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Karolis Slavickas commits to Utenis for another 3 years.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Words exchanged at Utenis
Raffaele Stroe 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.
Transfer targets31 Jul 2028
A loan move for Grigore Turda is in the works
Utenis have made the call to Zalgiris. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets31 Jul 2028
A loan enquiry to Suduva: 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
Uneasy
Squad17 Jul 2028
31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Utenis lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market17 Jul 2028
Linas Valskis 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 Utenis can pretend not to have heard.
Squad17 Jul 2028
A falling-out at Utenis
Lukas Dapkus and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
Kauno Zalgiris 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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
A row about effort at Utenis
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raffaele Stroe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout17 Jul 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Jul 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Arnas Novikovas
46 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Utenis lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match3 Jul 2028
Utenis refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 21 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.
Market3 Jul 2028
“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 Utenis, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout3 Jul 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Transfer targets3 Jul 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to Zalgiris; Utenis go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Tempers go at Utenis
Lukas Dapkus 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 targets3 Jul 2028
Utenis 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.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
Intake day at the Utenis academy
4 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
Squad3 Jul 2028
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Karolis Slavickas is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Jun 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Arnas Novikovas
54 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Utenis lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad26 Jun 2028
20 days out for Tomas Barauskas after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Utenis will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market26 Jun 2028
“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 Utenis, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets26 Jun 2028
Everything agreed with Stumbras, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets26 Jun 2028
Utenis asked and Suduva said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad26 Jun 2028
A falling-out at Utenis
Pyotr Pronin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets26 Jun 2028
Zalgiris 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 dugout26 Jun 2028
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.
Squad26 Jun 2028
A row about effort at Utenis
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raffaele Stroe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Jun 2028
Arnas Novikovas damages knee ligaments — 75 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 75 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.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 44 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match5 Jun 2028
Utenis up to position 3
20 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market5 Jun 2028
Chris Aka 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 Utenis can pretend not to have heard.
Squad5 Jun 2028
A falling-out at Utenis
Kristijan Živković and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings5 Jun 2028
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Looking ahead5 Jun 2028
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
The dugout5 Jun 2028
“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 targets5 Jun 2028
Suduva 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 May 2028
Arnas Novikovas damages knee ligaments — 90 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 90 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.
Squad22 May 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 59 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad22 May 2028
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 May 2028
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.68, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match20 May 2028
A bad afternoon for Utenis against Stumbras
2‑3 to Stumbras, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad22 May 2028
Tempers go at Utenis
Kristijan Živković 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 ahead22 May 2028
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
The dugout22 May 2028
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Arvydas Kazlauskas after 2‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout22 May 2028
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Apr 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 88 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match22 Apr 2028
Zalgiris left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings24 Apr 2028
A performance of 8.09 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad24 Apr 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Utenis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match24 Apr 2028
The half-term report on Utenis
Position 3, 13 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.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
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 Arvydas Kazlauskas left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
The manager makes an example of Lukas Dapkus
“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.
Player ratings24 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
Pyotr Pronin has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Utenis 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
Match8 Apr 2028
Nowhere to hide for Utenis
0‑8 against Trakai, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad10 Apr 2028
102 days out for Tomas Barauskas after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Utenis will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match5 Apr 2028
The small margins put Utenis out
Out, 0‑1 to Zalgiris, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Match10 Apr 2028
Utenis are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 10 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Match8 Apr 2028
Nobody could stop scoring
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Utenis and Trakai in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Player ratings10 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad10 Apr 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Raivis Gabovs commits to Utenis for another 4 years.
Squad10 Apr 2028
A falling-out at Utenis
Kristijan Živković and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
In brief
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Boardroom
Inquest at Utenis
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
No hiding place for Raffaele Stroe
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
Two goals and a mark of 8.90 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad13 Mar 2028
A falling-out at Utenis
Kristijan Živković and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
Match11 Mar 2028
A 2‑2 draw with Siauliai leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad13 Mar 2028
A row about effort at Utenis
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raffaele Stroe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
Arnas Sernas gets picked when it counts
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 Arnas Sernas is on it.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 2‑2, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Player of the week, judged against every other man in the division. A small award, and one most careers never collect.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Darius Sernas, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words exchanged at Utenis
Kristijan Živković 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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
“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; Utenis are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
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 Kristijan Živković is on it.