Marked for Vykintas Novikovas
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match26 Jul 2027
Utenis are in real trouble now
Position 8, 5 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.
Market26 Jul 2027
Utenis say no — this time
The offer from Siauliai for Vikintas Paulauskas 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Tempers go at Utenis
Jhonarby Salazar 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.
Loan watch26 Jul 2027
“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 Utenis, and 5 appearances in 25 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Keito Arita 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Arvydas Eliosius 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market21 Jun 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Utenis, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad21 Jun 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 Utenis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Utenis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rokas Klimavicius 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
Match22 May 2027
The wait goes on for Utenis
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.
Squad24 May 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market24 May 2027
“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 May 2027
Words at Utenis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rokas Dubickas 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.
Squad24 May 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 Utenis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch24 May 2027
“I watch every Utenis game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Zalgiris runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Match22 May 2027
Honours even between Utenis and Trakai
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad24 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vikintas Paulauskas, and the manager let it.
Player ratings24 May 2027
Chances created: 7. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market26 Apr 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Utenis can pretend not to have heard.
Match24 Apr 2027
No end in sight to Utenis's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Utenis has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad26 Apr 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 Utenis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Utenis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rokas Dubickas 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.
Match24 Apr 2027
1‑2 to Kauno Zalgiris, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad26 Apr 2027
14 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 48. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad5 Apr 2027
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Patrik Matyžonok, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.44
A mark of 8.44 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad5 Apr 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Zalgiris may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Bryan Teixeira 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
33 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The terraces5 Apr 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Patrik Matyžonok has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Deividas Šešplaukis was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.25. 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match6 Mar 2027
A hiding for Utenis
Beaten 0‑4 by Kauno Zalgiris, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market8 Mar 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Utenis can pretend not to have heard.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Jhonarby Salazar commits to Utenis for another 2 years.
Squad8 Mar 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 Utenis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom8 Mar 2027
Graduation day at Utenis
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Utenis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rokas Dubickas 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.
Market8 Mar 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Deividas Klimavicius 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.
Market8 Mar 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Karolis Slavickas 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 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Edvinas Jankauskas 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
Market8 Feb 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Utenis can pretend not to have heard.
Squad8 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Utenis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Utenis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rokas Dubickas 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Kaya van Wanrooij and Utenis agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Too much change too quickly at Utenis
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Market8 Feb 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Utenis, another week without a signature from Kaya van Wanrooij.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Feb 2027
Dominik Franke 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Grigore Turda falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad8 Feb 2027
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
Market25 Jan 2027
“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 Utenis, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad25 Jan 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 Utenis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market25 Jan 2027
Lukas Girdvainis has left for Stumbras in a $11.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Market25 Jan 2027
Kauno Zalgiris are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Utenis will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Utenis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Donatas Novikovas 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Somebody else's move, somebody else's headline. What it left at Utenis is an empty peg and a footballer who keeps glancing at it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Justas Satkus
26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Utenis lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Rokas Dubickas 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Utenis
Mantas Vaitkunas 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
Squad2 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Justas Satkus
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Utenis lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Utenis
Vikintas Kuklys 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Vykintas Novikovas trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.