Marked for Ayodele Akinyemi
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces25 Aug 2031
Anger at Metta/LU 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.
Squad25 Aug 2031
A falling-out at Metta/LU
Olegs Laizans and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets25 Aug 2031
Metta/LU asked and Skonto said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad25 Aug 2031
Ayodele Akinyemi 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 targets25 Aug 2031
A loan move for Alvis Ciganovs is in the works
Metta/LU have made the call to Skonto. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets25 Aug 2031
Liepaja 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market18 Aug 2031
“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 The request is on a desk at Metta/LU, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad18 Aug 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metta/LU this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets18 Aug 2031
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad18 Aug 2031
A row about effort at Metta/LU
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ayodele Akinyemi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Loan watch18 Aug 2031
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Metta/LU, and 7 appearances in 29 say he has earned the hearing.
Transfer targets18 Aug 2031
Ventspils 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 targets18 Aug 2031
Skonto 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 dugout18 Aug 2031
“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.
Squad18 Aug 2031
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Metta/LU would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market11 Aug 2031
“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 Metta/LU, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout11 Aug 2031
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Metta/LU may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Transfer targets11 Aug 2031
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Skonto is saying, and nobody at Metta/LU is enjoying the guessing.
Squad11 Aug 2031
Olegs Laizans 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 targets11 Aug 2031
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad11 Aug 2031
A row about effort at Metta/LU
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Michael Matthews was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets11 Aug 2031
A loan enquiry to Ventspils: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad11 Aug 2031
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Vitalijs Gabovs and Metta/LU agree another 3 years.
The dugout11 Aug 2031
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Michael Matthews trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match4 Aug 2031
Every point is an argument now for Metta/LU
Position 7 and 4 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.
Boardroom4 Aug 2031
Pressure builds in the Metta/LU boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Boardroom4 Aug 2031
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market4 Aug 2031
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Metta/LU can pretend not to have heard.
Market4 Aug 2031
Only the photograph left for Nikita Oss
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nikita Oss will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Metta/LU the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad4 Aug 2031
31 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Transfer targets4 Aug 2031
The deal with Skonto is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad4 Aug 2031
Words exchanged at Metta/LU
Olegs Laizans 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 targets4 Aug 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ventspils have kept their man, and Metta/LU go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces28 Jul 2031
Supporters organise against the Metta/LU board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Match23 Jul 2031
Skonto ended it 0‑3. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad28 Jul 2031
A fracture rules Raivis Ciganovs out for 14 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Metta/LU will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The terraces28 Jul 2031
Metta/LU are taken apart by Skonto — and the town wants answers
It finished 0-3. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
Market28 Jul 2031
“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 Metta/LU, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match23 Jul 2031
5 matches without a win for Metta/LU
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Metta/LU are no longer polite ones.
The dugout28 Jul 2031
“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.
Match23 Jul 2031
5 matches without a goal for Metta/LU
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Transfer targets28 Jul 2031
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Metta/LU training over how hard people work
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The dugout
The manager makes an example of Olegs Laizans
-
Boardroom
Doors closed at Metta/LU
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Jul 2031
A knee injury of the worst kind for Igors Ciganovs
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Metta/LU lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market14 Jul 2031
“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.
Squad14 Jul 2031
A fracture rules Raivis Ciganovs out for 28 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Metta/LU will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout14 Jul 2031
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Metta/LU may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad14 Jul 2031
21 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Transfer targets14 Jul 2031
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Metta/LU have done the hard part with Skonto, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets14 Jul 2031
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Skonto is saying, and nobody at Metta/LU is enjoying the guessing.
Transfer targets14 Jul 2031
Metta/LU asked and Skonto 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 Jul 2031
Ayodele Akinyemi 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces30 Jun 2031
Supporters organise against the Metta/LU board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Squad30 Jun 2031
Igors Ciganovs damages knee ligaments — 34 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 34 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.
Squad30 Jun 2031
42 days out for Raivis Ciganovs after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Metta/LU will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Transfer targets30 Jun 2031
Everything agreed with Liepaja, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets30 Jun 2031
$4.0K on the table at Daugavpils. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad30 Jun 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metta/LU this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets30 Jun 2031
Metta/LU asked and Skonto said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout30 Jun 2031
“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.
Market30 Jun 2031
Metta/LU have made Ayodele Akinyemi available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces7 Apr 2031
The mood at Metta/LU has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Match5 Apr 2031
No end in sight to Metta/LU's wait for a win
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Metta/LU has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad7 Apr 2031
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The dugout7 Apr 2031
Nikita Laizans: 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.” Metta/LU have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market7 Apr 2031
“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.
Match5 Apr 2031
Metta/LU cannot find the net
4 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.
Match5 Apr 2031
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market7 Apr 2031
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Ayodele Akinyemi has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Metta/LU.
The dugout7 Apr 2031
The manager makes an example of Raivis Fertovs
“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.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Squad
Metta/LU are still strangers to each other
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Squad
Gatis Savalnieks is no longer first choice
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market22 Jul 2030
“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 Metta/LU, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market22 Jul 2030
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Metta/LU have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad22 Jul 2030
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Metta/LU will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Transfer targets22 Jul 2030
Metta/LU and Skonto have settled on $690.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Market22 Jul 2030
Spartaks come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Metta/LU did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets22 Jul 2030
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Skonto is saying, and nobody at Metta/LU is enjoying the guessing.
Squad22 Jul 2030
A falling-out at Metta/LU
Nikita Gabovs and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets22 Jul 2030
Metta/LU asked and Skonto said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad22 Jul 2030
A row about effort at Metta/LU
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sabbath Mancha was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Jul 2030
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Metta/LU will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market15 Jul 2030
Nikita Oss has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Metta/LU they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets15 Jul 2030
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Metta/LU have done the hard part with Skonto, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets15 Jul 2030
Metta/LU asked and Skonto said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad15 Jul 2030
Words exchanged at Metta/LU
Nikita Gabovs 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.
Squad15 Jul 2030
Sabbath Mancha 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 targets15 Jul 2030
Metta/LU have made the call to Skonto. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets15 Jul 2030
A loan enquiry to Skonto: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad15 Jul 2030
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Eduards Vanins commits to Metta/LU for another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match6 Apr 2030
No end in sight to Metta/LU's wait for a win
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Metta/LU has to find a result from somewhere.
Match6 Apr 2030
Metta/LU cannot find the net
10 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.
The terraces8 Apr 2030
The mood at Metta/LU has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad8 Apr 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 21 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad8 Apr 2030
Emin Sarıgül 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.
Match6 Apr 2030
Skonto left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout8 Apr 2030
“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 ratings8 Apr 2030
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.
The dugout8 Apr 2030
the manager: “No excuses”
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Dec 2029
45 days out for Janis Savalnieks after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Metta/LU will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match24 Dec 2029
Metta/LU are in real trouble now
Position 5, 10 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 Dec 2029
Nikita Oss has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Metta/LU they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces17 Dec 2029
Supporters organise against the Metta/LU board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Squad17 Dec 2029
52 days out for Janis Savalnieks after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Metta/LU will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom17 Dec 2029
The scrutiny sharpens at Metta/LU
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Metta/LU is running low.
Market17 Dec 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Metta/LU can pretend not to have heard.
Squad17 Dec 2029
Words exchanged at Metta/LU
Emin Sarıgül 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.
Squad17 Dec 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Idriss Ashiru commits to Metta/LU for another 3 years.
Squad17 Dec 2029
A row about effort at Metta/LU
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sabbath Mancha was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout17 Dec 2029
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.
The dugout17 Dec 2029
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Metta/LU, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Nov 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Gianluca Scremin
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Metta/LU lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad5 Nov 2029
94 days out for Janis Savalnieks after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Metta/LU will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom5 Nov 2029
Metta/LU put the manager on notice
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The dugout5 Nov 2029
Marats Galajevs: 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.” Metta/LU have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad5 Nov 2029
Emin Sarıgül 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 Metta/LU this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Nov 2029
A row about effort at Metta/LU
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sabbath Mancha was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market5 Nov 2029
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout5 Nov 2029
Ayodele Akinyemi 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.
Market5 Nov 2029
Davis Oss leaves for nothing
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Davis Oss leaves Metta/LU the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad29 Oct 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Gianluca Scremin
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Metta/LU lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad29 Oct 2029
A fracture rules Janis Savalnieks out for 101 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Metta/LU will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match29 Oct 2029
Every point is an argument now for Metta/LU
Position 5 and 10 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.
Market29 Oct 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Metta/LU is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Words at Metta/LU training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emin Sarıgül 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.
Squad29 Oct 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 Metta/LU this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.