Marked for Aidas Simkus
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match4 Sep 2027
7 matches without a win for Bylis
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Bylis are no longer polite ones.
Market6 Sep 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Tempers go at Bylis
Robert Murić 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Paolo Kampula is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Roberts Ozols 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Match4 Sep 2027
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Market6 Sep 2027
Nobody at Bylis has picked up the phone to Aidas Simkus
12 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Player ratings6 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Aug 2027
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Dime Dimov 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 Bylis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Aug 2027
At 26 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Roberts Ozols 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.
Market23 Aug 2027
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Aidas Simkus arrives at Bylis with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
Market23 Aug 2027
Bylis have let the market know Faisal Charwetey can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Aug 2027
Linas Mikoliunas damages knee ligaments — 71 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 71 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.
Market23 Aug 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Utenis is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad23 Aug 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at Utenis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. João Forelle 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Karol Tokarczyk, and the manager let it.
Loan watch23 Aug 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 9 appearances in 31 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market15 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Utenis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. João Forelle 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Utenis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
Donatas Jankauskas damages knee ligaments — 116 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 116 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Utenis will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Utenis
Edgaras Lasickas 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
Squad26 Oct 2026
138 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 65 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market26 Oct 2026
The clock does Rokas Cernych’s negotiating for him
5 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Utenis could ask drops and the wages Rokas Cernych can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market14 Sep 2026
So close: Arnas Cernych’s move dies late
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Stumbras moved on, Arnas Cernych reports back to Utenis, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Market14 Sep 2026
“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 Rokas Cernych.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Shamil Saaduev 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Sep 2026
“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.
Market7 Sep 2026
Rubin Yalta come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Utenis did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market7 Sep 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Market7 Sep 2026
The Arnas Cernych conversation is coming
Everyone has stopped pretending: Stumbras will make the call about Arnas Cernych this week. Utenis have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I will know when it is time. I am not there yet.” Rokas Vaitkunas is 35, with 0 appearances behind him, and Utenis will have to plan for whichever answer comes.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Arnas Cernych is put on a programme of his own
Individual work, away from the group, aimed at one specific thing the coaches think is holding him back. It rarely makes the news and it is how most improvement actually happens.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Utenis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Edvinas Cernych and Utenis agree another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Aug 2026
Suduva come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Utenis did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market24 Aug 2026
Aidas Simkus 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 Utenis can pretend not to have heard.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Utenis
Edgaras Lasickas 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Rokas Lasickas
“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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
15 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Aidas Barauskas and Utenis agree another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Aug 2026
The cup run ends for Utenis
0‑3 against Zalgiris, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
Utenis are taken apart by Zalgiris — 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
The name of Marius Lasickas has come up in conversations Utenis were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad17 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Utenis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marius Lasickas, and the manager let it.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Nobody left the Utenis dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Donatas Jankauskas and Utenis agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Utenis
Edgaras Lasickas 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The name of Karolis Jankauskas has come up in conversations Utenis were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Utenis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rokas Barauskas 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.