Marked for Aleksandrs Dubra
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Nov 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 82 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Atlantas
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lazar Sajčić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Atlantas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Atlantas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Lazar Sajčić 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.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
“I watch every Atlantas game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Zalgiris runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Oct 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 80 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Azat Bairyev is not the player he was
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 37 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Squad19 Oct 2026
8 new faces, and Atlantas 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Atlantas will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Atlantas
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lazar Sajčić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Loan watch12 Oct 2026
“I watch every Atlantas game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Stumbras runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Sep 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Atlantas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market7 Sep 2026
“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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 6 signed and 5 gone
That is the business done at Atlantas until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Atlantas have done the hard part with Kauno Zalgiris, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Atlantas asked and Marsaxlokk 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
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Atlantas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aidas Mikoliunas 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Atlantas will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.