Marked for Kane Miardjo
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad22 Feb 2027
Andriy Korobenko 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
A row about effort at Liepaja
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Irad Mshindi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Loan watch22 Feb 2027
“I did not go to Ventspils to sit and watch. I want to come back to Liepaja and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
Beknaz Almazbekov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Liepaja 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 dugout22 Feb 2027
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Liepaja. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad15 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 Liepaja this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Feb 2027
A row about effort at Liepaja
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Beknaz Almazbekov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad15 Feb 2027
6 new faces, and Liepaja are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
Timi Ogunniyi has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Liepaja 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The dugout15 Feb 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market8 Feb 2027
Only the photograph left for Afonso Leite
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Afonso Leite will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Liepaja the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A falling-out at Liepaja
Andriy Korobenko and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A move Kane Miardjo would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Kane Miardjo is living that version at Liepaja, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Beknaz Almazbekov 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Liepaja can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
Djibril Guèye 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 Djibril Guèye is on it.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
Irad Mshindi is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Market8 Feb 2027
The name of Djibril Guèye keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Liepaja say nothing, which says plenty.
Market8 Feb 2027
No fee and no drama: Kane Miardjo has signed at Liepaja, and the wage bill is the only line that moved.