There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Eden Creol is living that version at Stumbras, and it tends to show in the first month.
Rokas Lekiatas 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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Stumbras training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Modestas Cernych 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.
Rokas Lekiatas 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
Words at Stumbras training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Modestas Cernych 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.
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. Stumbras will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Arvydas Dapkus 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 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Karolis Slavickas trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Stumbras will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Lukas Simkus 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Stumbras training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Modestas Cernych 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 72 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Arvydas Dapkus 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 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 79 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
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.
Lukas Simkus 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Stumbras training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Modestas Cernych 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Stumbras will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stumbras this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Stumbras will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings3 May 2027
A brace, and Lukas Simkus takes the afternoon — 8.61
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lukas Simkus provided it, and the 8.61 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stumbras this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Stumbras and Trakai, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Marked 8.40 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
A performance of 8.04 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Stumbras training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Modestas Cernych 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 16 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
A brace, and Lukas Simkus takes the afternoon — 8.42
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lukas Simkus provided it, and the 8.42 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stumbras this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Stumbras and Atlantas, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Stumbras will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Lukas Simkus 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Stumbras training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Modestas Cernych 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.
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Stumbras lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Stumbras will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Lukas Simkus 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
SquadWords at Stumbras training over how hard people work
“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 Stumbras, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stumbras this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Stumbras can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stumbras this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Darius Jankauskas and Stumbras agree another 3 years.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Stumbras can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stumbras this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Tomas Kuklys and Stumbras agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Stumbras training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arvydas Dapkus 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.