Marked for Ignas Dubickas
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market8 Oct 2029
“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.
Squad8 Oct 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Karolis Dubickas and Utenis agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Oct 2029
Tempers go at Utenis
Richecard Richard 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.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Utenis training over how hard people work
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Squad
Ignas Dubickas out for 18 days
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Boardroom
$925.3K on the table at Utenis
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market2 Jul 2029
“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 The request is on a desk at Utenis, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Bruno Ferreira: 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.” Utenis have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market2 Jul 2029
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.
Market2 Jul 2029
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.
Squad2 Jul 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Vykintas Jankauskas commits to Utenis for another 2 years.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Tempers go at Utenis
Richecard Richard 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 Jul 2029
Words at Utenis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Motiejus Sapola 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.
Boardroom2 Jul 2029
$925.3K on the table at Utenis
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Boardroom2 Jul 2029
Intake day at the Utenis academy
4 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
In brief
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Boardroom
The Utenis production line keeps running
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Boardroom
The Utenis board choose calm
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match25 Jun 2029
Utenis are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 30 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market25 Jun 2029
Arvydas Sernas has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Utenis they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad25 Jun 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 Utenis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Jan 2029
Andrius Kazlauskas damages knee ligaments — 58 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 58 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.
Market15 Jan 2029
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market15 Jan 2029
Ignas Valskis has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Utenis they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market11 Dec 2028
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.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Tempers go at Utenis
Richecard Richard 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.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Vykintas Jankauskas 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
Steady
Market27 Nov 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Utenis they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Tempers go at Utenis
Richecard Richard 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.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Jakub Burkowski 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
Steady
Market23 Oct 2028
“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.
Market23 Oct 2028
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 Oct 2028
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
Upbeat
Squad5 Jun 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 107 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market5 Jun 2028
“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.
Market5 Jun 2028
Only the photograph left for Ignas Valskis
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ignas Valskis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Utenis the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Tempers go at Utenis
Richecard Richard 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.
Market5 Jun 2028
Add another name to the list: Kauno Zalgiris have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Arnas Eliosius. The answer from Utenis has not changed — yet.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Jakub Burkowski 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.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Vykintas Satkus named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Vykintas Satkus is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Match3 Jun 2028
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Zalgiris will be the happier side with the point.
Player ratings5 Jun 2028
Successful dribbles: 10. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings24 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Ignas Dubickas: 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.” Utenis have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Tempers go at Utenis
Marius Barauskas 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.
Match22 Apr 2028
0‑1 to Kauno Zalgiris, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Jakub Burkowski 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 Apr 2028
“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
Upbeat
Market13 Mar 2028
“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.
Match11 Mar 2028
Still nobody has beaten Utenis
The unbeaten run reaches 8. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Market13 Mar 2028
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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Tempers go at Utenis
Richecard Richard was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Jakub Burkowski 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.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad13 Mar 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Vikintas Barauskas commits to Utenis for another 3 years.
Squad13 Mar 2028
The manager makes an example of Ignas Dubickas
“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.
Match11 Mar 2028
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Siauliai 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
Upbeat
Squad28 Feb 2028
Tempers go at Utenis
Richecard Richard 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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Jakub Burkowski 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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
34 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market14 Feb 2028
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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Richecard Richard and Utenis agree another 3 years.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Tempers go at Utenis
Motiejus Sapola 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.