Marked for Jerónimo Arbeláez
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Aug 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Radosław Skała
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Siauliai lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad30 Aug 2038
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.
The terraces30 Aug 2038
Anger at Siauliai spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Aug 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Radosław Skała
46 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Siauliai lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad23 Aug 2038
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.
Match23 Aug 2038
Every point is an argument now for Siauliai
Position 6 and 16 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Aug 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Radosław Skała
60 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Siauliai lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad9 Aug 2038
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.
Squad9 Aug 2038
Words at Siauliai training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jerónimo Arbeláez 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Jun 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Radosław Skała
103 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Siauliai lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match28 Jun 2038
Siauliai are in real trouble now
Position 6, 16 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market28 Jun 2038
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Siauliai can pretend not to have heard.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Jun 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Radosław Skała
124 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Siauliai lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market7 Jun 2038
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Match5 Jun 2038
The wait goes on for Siauliai
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Market7 Jun 2038
The phone has started ringing about Donatas Valskis again, and this time the name on the line is Trakai. Siauliai are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad7 Jun 2038
“The easiest signature of my career.” Cristian Cruz and Siauliai agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings7 Jun 2038
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.
Match5 Jun 2038
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad7 Jun 2038
Nil Camacho 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.
Squad7 Jun 2038
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 May 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Radosław Skała
131 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Siauliai lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match31 May 2038
Siauliai sink to position 6
16 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market31 May 2038
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Siauliai can pretend not to have heard.
Match29 May 2038
The wait goes on for Siauliai
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Player ratings31 May 2038
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match29 May 2038
1‑2 to Stumbras, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings31 May 2038
Nil Camacho was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.94. 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.
Squad31 May 2038
Justas Simkus 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.
Squad31 May 2038
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Donatas Novikovas, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 May 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Radosław Skała
138 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Siauliai lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match22 May 2038
No end in sight to Siauliai's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Siauliai has to find a result from somewhere.
Match22 May 2038
4 matches without a goal for Siauliai
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Match22 May 2038
Suduva left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad24 May 2038
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.
Squad24 May 2038
Nil Camacho 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.
Squad24 May 2038
Cristian Cruz has become a man the manager trusts
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.
The terraces24 May 2038
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Player ratings24 May 2038
10 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 May 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Radosław Skała
152 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Siauliai lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market10 May 2038
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Donatas Valskis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Siauliai the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad10 May 2038
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.
Match8 May 2038
Kauno Zalgiris left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad10 May 2038
“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.
Player ratings10 May 2038
Marked 8.09 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match3 May 2038
Siauliai refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 16 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.
Squad3 May 2038
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Radosław Skała and Siauliai agree another 2 years.
Squad3 May 2038
“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.
Squad3 May 2038
Justas Simkus 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.
Squad3 May 2038
Words at Siauliai training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nil Camacho 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.
Player ratings3 May 2038
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings26 Apr 2038
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.93, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad26 Apr 2038
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.
Squad26 Apr 2038
Nil Camacho 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.
Match24 Apr 2038
It needed Jerónimo Arbeláez to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Atlantas, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad26 Apr 2038
Cristian Cruz has become a man the manager trusts
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.
Squad26 Apr 2038
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vladimir Krasnov, and the manager let it.
Player ratings26 Apr 2038
8 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
Player ratings26 Apr 2038
5.62. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
Player ratings26 Apr 2038
Successful dribbles: 9. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings19 Apr 2038
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.07, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match17 Apr 2038
Trakai made Siauliai work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings19 Apr 2038
Donatas Valskis was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.13. 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.
Player ratings19 Apr 2038
Defensive actions: 18. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad19 Apr 2038
Justas Simkus 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.
Player ratings19 Apr 2038
Defensive actions: 15, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Apr 2038
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 20 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market12 Apr 2038
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Siauliai is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match10 Apr 2038
The wait goes on for Siauliai
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad12 Apr 2038
28 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad12 Apr 2038
“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.
Player ratings12 Apr 2038
Marked 8.21 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Apr 2038
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 27 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match31 Mar 2038
The small margins put Siauliai out
Out, 0‑2 to Kauno Zalgiris, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Match5 Apr 2038
Siauliai are in among the leaders
Position 2 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.
The terraces5 Apr 2038
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 11 of the 31 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Squad5 Apr 2038
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Nikolay Barovskiy commits to Siauliai for another 3 years.
Match3 Apr 2038
A bad afternoon for Siauliai against Suduva
0‑2 to Suduva, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad5 Apr 2038
“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.
Squad5 Apr 2038
Vikintas Klimavicius is the division's best young player this month
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Siauliai will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Player ratings5 Apr 2038
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Mar 2038
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 34 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market29 Mar 2038
“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 Siauliai, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match27 Mar 2038
Still nobody has beaten Siauliai
The unbeaten run reaches 9. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad29 Mar 2038
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.
Squad29 Mar 2038
“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 ratings29 Mar 2038
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match27 Mar 2038
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad29 Mar 2038
Cristian Cruz has become a man the manager trusts
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.
Player ratings29 Mar 2038
Marked 5.80, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
In brief
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Player ratings
Off the bench and decisive: Arvydas Simkus
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Boardroom
The Siauliai production line keeps running
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad22 Mar 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Tadas Barauskas
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Siauliai lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad22 Mar 2038
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 41 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings22 Mar 2038
A brace, and Donatas Novikovas takes the afternoon — 8.46
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Donatas Novikovas provided it, and the 8.46 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match20 Mar 2038
Nobody wants to play Siauliai right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Match20 Mar 2038
A 3‑1 win over Kauno Zalgiris, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings22 Mar 2038
Marked 9.12 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad22 Mar 2038
Justas Simkus 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 Mar 2038
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Nikita Shevchenko commits to Siauliai for another 1 years.
Player ratings22 Mar 2038
Successful dribbles: 5. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Mar 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Tadas Barauskas
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Siauliai lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad15 Mar 2038
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 48 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad15 Mar 2038
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Siauliai may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match13 Mar 2038
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 85th, and Utenis spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Market15 Mar 2038
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Donatas Valskis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Siauliai the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match13 Mar 2038
Whatever happens, Siauliai do not lose
7 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad15 Mar 2038
“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; Siauliai are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Match13 Mar 2038
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Nil Camacho. 1‑0 against Utenis, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings15 Mar 2038
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Mar 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Tadas Barauskas
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Siauliai lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad8 Mar 2038
A fracture rules Vikintas Dapkus out for 56 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.
Squad8 Mar 2038
24 appearances across 11 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Siauliai know what they have.
Squad8 Mar 2038
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jerónimo Arbeláez and Siauliai agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Boardroom8 Mar 2038
6 academy players handed senior numbers at Siauliai
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Match6 Mar 2038
Still nobody has beaten Siauliai
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.
Match6 Mar 2038
A 2‑0 win over Atlantas, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Market8 Mar 2038
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Saulius Jankauskas has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market8 Mar 2038
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Aidas Girdvainis has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Jan 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Radosław Skała
55 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Siauliai lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match11 Jan 2038
Siauliai sink to position 7
14 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market11 Jan 2038
“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.
Market11 Jan 2038
Trakai are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Siauliai will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad11 Jan 2038
Jerónimo Arbeláez 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.
Squad11 Jan 2038
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dmitry Khraptsov and Siauliai agree another 1 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Jan 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Radosław Skała
62 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Siauliai lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom4 Jan 2038
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Siauliai
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad4 Jan 2038
13 appearances across 10 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Siauliai know what they have.
Market4 Jan 2038
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Siauliai have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad4 Jan 2038
Words at Siauliai training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jerónimo Arbeláez 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.
Squad4 Jan 2038
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.
In brief
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Boardroom
$1.5M taken back off the Siauliai table
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Boardroom
$15.4K a year onto the Siauliai books
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Boardroom
The Siauliai production line keeps running
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Dec 2037
Radosław Skała 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.
Squad21 Dec 2037
Words at Siauliai training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jerónimo Arbeláez 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.
Squad21 Dec 2037
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Dec 2037
A knee injury of the worst kind for Radosław Skała
85 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Siauliai lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match14 Dec 2037
Siauliai are in real trouble now
Position 7, 14 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market14 Dec 2037
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Siauliai can pretend not to have heard.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Dec 2037
Radosław Skała damages knee ligaments — 93 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 93 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.
Market7 Dec 2037
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Donatas Valskis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Siauliai the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad7 Dec 2037
Mantas Novikovas 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match21 Sep 2037
Siauliai are in real trouble now
Position 7, 14 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market21 Sep 2037
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Siauliai can pretend not to have heard.
Squad21 Sep 2037
Jesús Rengel 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match24 Aug 2037
Siauliai are in real trouble now
Position 7, 14 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market24 Aug 2037
“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.
Squad24 Aug 2037
Words at Siauliai training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jesús Rengel 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Jul 2037
A knee injury of the worst kind for Justas Barauskas
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Siauliai lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match27 Jul 2037
Siauliai are in real trouble now
Position 7, 14 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Match22 Jul 2037
Trakai ended it 1‑1. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Market27 Jul 2037
“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.
Squad27 Jul 2037
“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.
Match22 Jul 2037
The wait goes on for Siauliai
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad27 Jul 2037
Words at Siauliai training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jesús Rengel 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.
Squad27 Jul 2037
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.
Player ratings27 Jul 2037
It was his to settle and he did not settle it. A long walk back to the halfway line, and a considerably longer week.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Jun 2037
A knee injury of the worst kind for Justas Barauskas
45 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Siauliai lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match29 Jun 2037
Siauliai sink to position 7
14 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market29 Jun 2037
“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 Siauliai, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad29 Jun 2037
A muscle injury sidelines Jerónimo Arbeláez for 14 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Siauliai will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad29 Jun 2037
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.
Squad29 Jun 2037
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
Squad8 Jun 2037
Jesús Rengel 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.
Match6 Jun 2037
3 matches without a goal for Siauliai
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Player ratings8 Jun 2037
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad8 Jun 2037
The young player of the month award goes to a 20-year-old at Siauliai who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
Squad8 Jun 2037
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Vikintas Klimavicius has come out of that comparison in the side, and Siauliai have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Squad8 Jun 2037
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.
Match6 Jun 2037
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Trakai defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Market8 Jun 2037
2 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Siauliai money.
Market8 Jun 2037
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Tomas Novikovas may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match1 Jun 2037
Siauliai sink to position 7
13 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad1 Jun 2037
Darius Barauskas damages knee ligaments — 14 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 14 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.
Market1 Jun 2037
Bas De Ligt 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 Siauliai can pretend not to have heard.
Squad1 Jun 2037
Jesús Rengel 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 Jun 2037
Words at Siauliai training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jerónimo Arbeláez 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.
Squad1 Jun 2037
“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.
Player ratings1 Jun 2037
A mark of 7.60, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Player ratings1 Jun 2037
Successful dribbles: 12. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match30 May 2037
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Stumbras defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 May 2037
Darius Barauskas damages knee ligaments — 28 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 28 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 ratings18 May 2037
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Vikintas Klimavicius did not need any: 8.80, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings18 May 2037
Jesús Rengel, 34, rolls back the years — 8.42
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.42 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad18 May 2037
Jesús Rengel 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 terraces18 May 2037
At 20 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.
Match16 May 2037
Zalgiris made Siauliai work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings18 May 2037
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.33, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings18 May 2037
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad18 May 2037
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
Crisis
Squad11 May 2037
Andrius Dubickas damages knee ligaments — 20 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 20 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.
Market11 May 2037
“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 Siauliai, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings11 May 2037
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad11 May 2037
Jesús Rengel 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.
Match9 May 2037
Siauliai cannot find the net
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad11 May 2037
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Cristian Cruz, and the manager let it.
Match9 May 2037
Kauno Zalgiris left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad11 May 2037
Justas Simkus 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.
Player ratings11 May 2037
5.58 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad4 May 2037
Andrius Dubickas damages knee ligaments — 27 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 27 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.
Match4 May 2037
Every point is an argument now for Siauliai
Position 7 and 8 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market4 May 2037
“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.
Squad4 May 2037
Bas De Ligt: that is not what I was promised
“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.
Squad4 May 2037
Words at Siauliai training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jesús Rengel 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.
Match2 May 2037
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad20 Apr 2037
Andrius Dubickas damages knee ligaments — 41 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 41 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.
Squad20 Apr 2037
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad20 Apr 2037
Words at Siauliai training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jesús Rengel 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.
Match18 Apr 2037
It finished 2‑0, and it was Donatas Valskis’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Siauliai.
Player ratings20 Apr 2037
Ninety minutes of Donatas Novikovas at his very best
Marked 8.14. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Siauliai.
Player ratings20 Apr 2037
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match11 Apr 2037
No end in sight to Siauliai's wait for a win
14 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Siauliai has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad13 Apr 2037
A knee injury of the worst kind for Darius Barauskas
64 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Siauliai lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad13 Apr 2037
Jesús Rengel 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.
Match11 Apr 2037
Siauliai cannot find the net
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad13 Apr 2037
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Vikintas Klimavicius and Siauliai agree another 3 years.
Squad13 Apr 2037
Ignas Paulauskas 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.
Player ratings13 Apr 2037
Marked 7.67 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Siauliai had the best player on the pitch.
Match11 Apr 2037
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Stumbras will be the happier side with the point.
Player ratings13 Apr 2037
Shots: 7, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match28 Mar 2037
11 matches without a win for Siauliai
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Siauliai are no longer polite ones.
Squad30 Mar 2037
A knee injury of the worst kind for Darius Barauskas
78 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Siauliai lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market30 Mar 2037
“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 Siauliai, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings30 Mar 2037
Jesús Rengel, 34, rolls back the years — 8.97
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.97 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad30 Mar 2037
Jesús Rengel 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.
Squad30 Mar 2037
Jerónimo Arbeláez 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.
Squad30 Mar 2037
The manager makes an example of Radosław Skała
“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.
Match28 Mar 2037
A 1‑1 draw with Zalgiris leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Player ratings30 Mar 2037
7 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Mar 2037
Darius Barauskas damages knee ligaments — 86 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 86 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.
Match21 Mar 2037
10 matches without a win for Siauliai
The run now stands at 10, and the questions being asked around Siauliai are no longer polite ones.
Market23 Mar 2037
“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.
Squad23 Mar 2037
Words at Siauliai training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jesús Rengel 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.
Player ratings23 Mar 2037
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad23 Mar 2037
“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.
Match21 Mar 2037
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad23 Mar 2037
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.
Player ratings23 Mar 2037
A mark of 5.61 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Mar 2037
Darius Barauskas damages knee ligaments — 93 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 93 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.
Match14 Mar 2037
The wait goes on for Siauliai
9 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Player ratings16 Mar 2037
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad16 Mar 2037
Jesús Rengel 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.
Squad16 Mar 2037
Justas Simkus 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.
Squad16 Mar 2037
“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
Squad9 Mar 2037
Darius Barauskas damages knee ligaments — 100 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 100 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.
Match7 Mar 2037
Jesús Rengel had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Atlantas were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Match7 Mar 2037
No end in sight to Siauliai's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Siauliai has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings9 Mar 2037
Age has not caught Jesús Rengel yet — 8.95
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.95 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad9 Mar 2037
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Radosław Skała and Siauliai agree another 2 years.
Squad9 Mar 2037
Jesús Rengel 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.
Player ratings9 Mar 2037
Donatas Novikovas was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.09. 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.
Match7 Mar 2037
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad9 Mar 2037
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
Crisis
Squad15 Dec 2036
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 17 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad15 Dec 2036
A fracture rules Cristian Cruz out for 40 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.
Match12 Dec 2036
A chastening European night for Siauliai
1‑6 against KV Oostende. The honest reading is not that the players were poor; it is that the distance between this club and that one is currently measured in things money takes years to buy.
Match12 Dec 2036
The wait goes on for Siauliai
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Match12 Dec 2036
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Siauliai and KV Oostende, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad15 Dec 2036
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Justas Simkus and Siauliai agree another 1 years.
Squad15 Dec 2036
Justas Simkus 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.
Boardroom15 Dec 2036
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.
Player ratings15 Dec 2036
One lapse, one goal, and ninety minutes of honest work counting for nothing. That is the job at Siauliai, and it is a cruel one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad1 Dec 2036
Cristian Cruz breaks a bone — 55 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 55 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad1 Dec 2036
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.
Match28 Nov 2036
A European lesson for Siauliai
0‑1 against Basel. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
The terraces1 Dec 2036
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 7 of the 30 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Match28 Nov 2036
No end in sight to Siauliai's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Siauliai has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings1 Dec 2036
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad1 Dec 2036
Jesús Rengel 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.
Squad1 Dec 2036
“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.
Player ratings1 Dec 2036
Marked 5.53. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 Nov 2036
A fracture rules Santiago Herrera out for 86 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.
Match10 Nov 2036
Siauliai up to position 2
24 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Match7 Nov 2036
Siauliai come up short in Europe
0‑2 away to the standard of Maritimo. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
Squad10 Nov 2036
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match7 Nov 2036
No end in sight to Siauliai's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Siauliai has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad10 Nov 2036
Words at Siauliai training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jesús Rengel 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.
Match7 Nov 2036
Siauliai are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Squad10 Nov 2036
“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.
Player ratings10 Nov 2036
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad27 Oct 2036
A fracture rules Santiago Herrera out for 100 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.
Match24 Oct 2036
A European lesson for Siauliai
3‑4 against Maritimo. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
Player ratings27 Oct 2036
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.03, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
The terraces27 Oct 2036
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 7 of the 31 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Match24 Oct 2036
4 matches without a win for Siauliai
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Siauliai are no longer polite ones.
Squad27 Oct 2036
Words at Siauliai training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jesús Rengel 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.
Player ratings27 Oct 2036
Marked 8.81 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad27 Oct 2036
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.