Marked for Aidas Klimavicius
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad11 Mar 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Paulius Dubickas
70 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atlantas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad11 Mar 2030
A falling-out at Atlantas
Nemanja Mihajlović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match9 Mar 2030
Suduva left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad11 Mar 2030
Paulius Lasickas 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.
Squad11 Mar 2030
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Atlantas are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout11 Mar 2030
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout11 Mar 2030
Fiodor Sernas has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Atlantas 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.
The dugout11 Mar 2030
“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 dugout11 Mar 2030
The plan did not have a place for Deividas Satkus
Nobody at Atlantas is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market5 Nov 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 The request is on a desk at Atlantas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom5 Nov 2029
Pressure builds in the Atlantas boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad5 Nov 2029
A falling-out at Atlantas
Uglješa Radinović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Nov 2029
Words at Atlantas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Paulius Lasickas 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.
The dugout5 Nov 2029
Nobody at Atlantas 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.
The dugout5 Nov 2029
Fiodor Sernas knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Atlantas, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market17 Sep 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 Atlantas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Words exchanged at Atlantas
Uglješa Radinović 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.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Paulius Lasickas 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 dugout17 Sep 2029
Denis Titow gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Denis Titow is on it.
The dugout17 Sep 2029
“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.
Market17 Sep 2029
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Ignas Girdvainis leaves Atlantas the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Aug 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 117 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Nemanja Mihajlović 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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Paulius Lasickas 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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Aidas Klimavicius and Atlantas agree another 3 years.
The dugout21 Aug 2028
Mantas Slavickas has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Atlantas 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.
Market21 Aug 2028
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Atlantas, another week without a signature from Vikintas Eliosius.
The dugout21 Aug 2028
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Market21 Aug 2028
The shop window has Tadas Dapkus in it
Atlantas have let the market know Tadas Dapkus can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
The dugout21 Aug 2028
Denis Titow knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Atlantas, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Jul 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 Atlantas can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets24 Jul 2028
The clubs have shaken hands with Trakai; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Transfer targets24 Jul 2028
The deal with Kauno Zalgiris is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Nemanja Mihajlović 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 Jul 2028
Words at Atlantas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ignas Girdvainis 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.
The dugout24 Jul 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Denis Titow, and the manager let it.
The dugout24 Jul 2028
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.
The dugout24 Jul 2028
Isa Begaliev 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.
The dugout24 Jul 2028
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match27 May 2028
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑1 against Utenis, and it could have been more.
Player ratings29 May 2028
A brace, and Ignas Girdvainis takes the afternoon — 9.94
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ignas Girdvainis provided it, and the 9.94 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings29 May 2028
Two goals and a mark of 8.98 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad29 May 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 26 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market29 May 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 Atlantas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings29 May 2028
Marked 7.72 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad29 May 2028
Nemanja Mihajlović 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.
The terraces29 May 2028
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Mantas Slavickas 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.
Squad29 May 2028
Defences have started doubling up on Ignas Girdvainis
10 goals and a season average of 7.27 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.