Marked for Boubakar So
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Jul 2028
A fracture rules Triston Caruana out for 49 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Siauliai will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market17 Jul 2028
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Siauliai people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market17 Jul 2028
“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.
Market17 Jul 2028
The bid was some way short and Siauliai did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market17 Jul 2028
Enzo Monchatre has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Siauliai they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
The offer went to Kauno Zalgiris this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
Utenis wanted more than $18.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Esin Hakaj 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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
A row about effort at Siauliai
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ange Silue was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad13 Dec 2027
A fracture rules Yanis Méguirèche out for 63 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Siauliai will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Esin Hakaj 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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Marko Tomić is not the player he was
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Squad13 Dec 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Yanis Méguirèche commits to Siauliai for another 1 years.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yanis Méguirèche, and the manager let it.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
Esin Hakaj 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 Esin Hakaj is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Oct 2027
113 days out for Yanis Méguirèche after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Siauliai will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words exchanged at Siauliai
Esin Hakaj 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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Joris Moutachy 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 dugout25 Oct 2027
The manager makes an example of Boubakar So
“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.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
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 dugout25 Oct 2027
Hamidou Ba is still paying for one afternoon at Siauliai
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout19 Jul 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Siauliai have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market19 Jul 2027
Siauliai say no — this time
The offer from Ventspils for Dāvis Ikaunieks 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.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
An offer of $220.0K for Lucky Tom
Siauliai have gone to Suduva with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad19 Jul 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 Siauliai this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
$35.0K was the most the club would pay and Stumbras were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Siauliai training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marko Capan 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 targets19 Jul 2027
A loan enquiry to Kauno Zalgiris: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yanis Méguirèche, and the manager let it.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
Nobody at Siauliai 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.
In brief
-
The dugout
Kévin Diogo knocks on the manager's door
-
Match
Continental football is in reach for Siauliai
-
Squad
The training reports on Boubakar So are not good
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
Siauliai have gone to Kauno Zalgiris with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Esin Hakaj 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 Siauliai this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
$35.0K was the most the club would pay and Stumbras were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Siauliai training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marko Tomić 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 dugout21 Jun 2027
The manager makes an example of Dāvis Ikaunieks
“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.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
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.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
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.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
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 dugout21 Jun 2027
Hamidou Ba 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Nov 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 Siauliai this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Enzo Monchatre arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Enzo Monchatre has, at Siauliai, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Enzo Monchatre and Siauliai agree another 3 years.
Market2 Nov 2026
Enzo Monchatre is 18, and Siauliai have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Squad2 Nov 2026
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 dugout2 Nov 2026
Dāvis Ikaunieks asks for a word with the manager
“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.