Marked for Lucky Tom
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Jul 2027
Omran Haydary breaks a bone — 58 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 58 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
“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.
Market12 Jul 2027
Suduva say no — this time
The offer from Zalgiris for Faustas Steponavičius 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.
Market12 Jul 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Suduva they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Ignas Plūkas in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Suduva this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Suduva training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amadou Sabo 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.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cracovia have kept their man, and Suduva go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout12 Jul 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 targets12 Jul 2027
Suduva have made the call to Akron. 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
Upbeat
Market5 Jul 2027
$1.2M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
Squad5 Jul 2027
65 days out for Omran Haydary after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Suduva will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market5 Jul 2027
Lucky Tom 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 Suduva can pretend not to have heard.
The terraces5 Jul 2027
Supporters turn on the $1.2M sale of Moutir Chajia
He is going to Zalgiris, the club has $1.2M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Suduva had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Ajax, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad5 Jul 2027
A row about effort at Suduva
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amadou Sabo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Suduva asked and PAOK said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
$650.6K on the table at Suduva
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Levski 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
Upbeat
Squad14 Jun 2027
Omran Haydary breaks a bone — 87 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 87 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market14 Jun 2027
Trakai come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Suduva did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
Suduva had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Anderlecht, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Amadou Sabo 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 targets14 Jun 2027
Suduva asked and Empoli said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words exchanged at Suduva
Steve Lawson 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.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Domantas Antanavičius, and the manager let it.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
A loan move for Jurgen Bardhi is in the works
Suduva have made the call to Slovan Bratislava. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
Petar Bosančić 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 Suduva, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad1 Mar 2027
The words a physio says slowly. 83 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
A fracture rules Ignas Plūkas out for 81 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Suduva will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Tempers go at Suduva
Tomas Kalinauskas 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Amadou Sabo 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 dugout1 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Lucky Tom
“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.
Looking ahead1 Mar 2027
Trakai next, and one man in the Suduva dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad18 Jan 2027
127 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Suduva lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Amadou Sabo 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 targets18 Jan 2027
Suduva asked and AZ said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Miloš Zličić in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Suduva this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
A loan enquiry to Spartak Moscow: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
A loan enquiry to Cádiz: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
Tomas Kalinauskas has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Suduva 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Lucky Tom wants out of the dugout
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Suduva will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
Market18 Jan 2027
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Aleksandar Živanović may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad11 Jan 2027
The words a physio says slowly. 134 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.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Suduva have done the hard part with Lech, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Suduva
Amadou Sabo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sparta Prague have kept their man, and Suduva go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Markas Beneta 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 dugout11 Jan 2027
Lucky Tom 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.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
A loan enquiry to Slovan Liberec: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Luka Mlakar wants out of the dugout
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Suduva will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
Moutir Chajia 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 Suduva, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market23 Nov 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Suduva is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Transfer targets23 Nov 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Suduva
Tomas Kalinauskas and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Amadou Sabo 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 dugout23 Nov 2026
Luka Mlakar 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.
The dugout23 Nov 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 Tomas Kalinauskas is on it.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Moutir Chajia knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Moutir Chajia trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market23 Nov 2026
The clock does Titas Milašius’s negotiating for him
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Suduva could ask drops and the wages Titas Milašius can ask rise.
Squad23 Nov 2026
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Suduva the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager plants his flag on Lucky Tom
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Squad
Rokas Lekiatas is training like a man with a point to make
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market26 Oct 2026
Only the photograph left for Titas Milašius
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Titas Milašius will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Suduva the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Suduva
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amadou Sabo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Suduva
Rokas Lekiatas 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 dugout26 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Moutir Chajia, and the manager let it.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Ignas Plūkas has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Suduva 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 dugout26 Oct 2026
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market28 Sep 2026
Titas Milašius has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Suduva they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Amadou Sabo in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Suduva this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Moutir Chajia, and the manager let it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Suduva training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Markas Beneta 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 dugout28 Sep 2026
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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Giedrius Zenkevičius has written the date down.