20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Trakai lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Trakai training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yukiyoshi Karashima 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.
Alexey Tkhagalegov 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.
Marked 8.19 — 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.
Aliou Thiaré 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.
21 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
18 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
A brace, and Moutir Chajia takes the afternoon — 10.00
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Moutir Chajia provided it, and the 10.00 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Suduva have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Amadou Sabo 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.
6 goals in one match, Moutir Chajia on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Suduva and Utenis.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Suduva training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aliou Thiaré 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.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Marked 8.37 — 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.
50 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Trakai lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Marius Satkus 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.
6 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Zalgiris defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Trakai lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Trakai training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edgaras Dubickas 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.
Alexey Tkhagalegov 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Suduva this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Aliou Thiaré 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Ignas Plūkas's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Squad18 Jan 2027
5 new faces, and Suduva 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.
A season-long look at somebody else’s player: Valdas Paulauskas arrives from Kauno Zalgiris with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 30 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The medical room confirms 50 days on the sidelines for Linas Valskis, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Trakai training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miroslav Routek 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. 37 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 44 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Add another name to the list: Suduva have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Donatas Cernych. The answer from Trakai has not changed — yet.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Trakai training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miroslav Routek 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trakai this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Trakai has been clear about where Vitaliy Filatov stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
Nobody at Trakai 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.
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 44 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Trakai training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miroslav Routek 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trakai this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Words at Trakai training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edgaras Dubickas 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trakai this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 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 Trakai 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.