Marked for Darius Girdvainis
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Dec 2026
117 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Utenis lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Utenis
Ander Marticorena 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Timur Zhirkov and Utenis agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market7 Dec 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 Dec 2026
It is the least glamorous business a club does and the reason seasons do not collapse in February. Vincent Akpikpi is here for the weeks when three men are injured and somebody still has to play.
Market7 Dec 2026
It is the least glamorous business a club does and the reason seasons do not collapse in February. Joey Zwaan is here for the weeks when three men are injured and somebody still has to play.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Edgaras Barauskas
145 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
A falling-out at Utenis
Darius Girdvainis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Utenis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aidas Vaitkunas 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
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Modestas Mikoliunas is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Oct 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Quentin Bena has outgrown this division
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Utenis know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Market12 Oct 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 Quentin Bena.
Squad12 Oct 2026
5 new faces, and Utenis are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“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
Steady
Squad5 Oct 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Timur Zhirkov and Utenis agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Darius Girdvainis has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“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.
The dugout5 Oct 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.
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
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Utenis
Darius Girdvainis 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.
Market21 Sep 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Deividas Slavickas may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Edgaras Barauskas trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Sep 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.
Squad14 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.
The dugout14 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.
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
Steady
Match19 Aug 2026
The small margins put Utenis out
Out, 0‑3 to Suduva, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
A cup embarrassment at Suduva follows Utenis home
0-3. Going out of a cup is one afternoon; going out like that is a week of phone-ins, and the manager will hear every one of them.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The offer went to Atlantas 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
The paperwork is done: Simas Venckevičius joins from Suduva in a deal worth $3.0K. Now comes the harder part.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Utenis
Darius Girdvainis 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 targets24 Aug 2026
Utenis asked and Kauno 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.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Utenis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edgaras 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.
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.