Marked for Arnas Mikoliunas
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Edgaras Barauskas
131 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Injury crisis at Utenis
6 senior players on the treatment table at once, and a team sheet that has stopped looking like the team. The physio room has become the busiest part of the building.
Squad23 Nov 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Market23 Nov 2026
It is the least glamorous business a club does and the reason seasons do not collapse in February. Jakub Karyś is here for the weeks when three men are injured and somebody still has to play.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Arnas Mikoliunas has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Utenis 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Utenis
Saulius Kuklys 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Aidas Vaitkunas 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 Oct 2026
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Utenis would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Utenis
Darius Girdvainis 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 Sep 2026
Lukas Cernych is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Utenis will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Utenis
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aidas Vaitkunas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
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.
Market28 Sep 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Arnas Mikoliunas may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Sep 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 3 in, 1 out at Utenis
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 3 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Utenis asked and Stumbras said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Utenis
Saulius Kuklys and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Utenis
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Modestas Novikovas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Karolis Slavickas is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Andrius Novikovas has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Utenis 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.
Market7 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 Edgaras Barauskas.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Fiodor Mikoliunas has moved up it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
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
Tempers go at Utenis
Darius Girdvainis 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 targets31 Aug 2026
Utenis offered $6.0K; Atlantas said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Utenis asked and Zalgiris said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Edgaras Barauskas 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.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The formation has left Donatas Simkus behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Utenis will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Market31 Aug 2026
Utenis have let the market know Aidas Vaitkunas can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Utenis will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match12 Aug 2026
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Donatas Novikovas obliged against Zalgiris. 3‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Utenis.
Match12 Aug 2026
Utenis win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 112th minute. Zalgiris will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Market17 Aug 2026
Utenis say no — this time
The offer from Siauliai for Deividas Slavickas 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 Aug 2026
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.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $6.0K — a club that wants Darius Kuklys enough to be asked twice.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A goal and an assist for Tadas Barauskas — 7.89
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.89 beside his name.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The offer went to Suduva this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$5.0K on the table at Trakai. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.