Marked for Donatas Simkus
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Aug 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 The request is on a desk at Trakai, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Olympiacos keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Trakai
Besar Halimi 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
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market24 Aug 2026
Utenis pay $5.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Deividas Mikoliunas 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
33 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Darius Kuklys, and the manager let it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Trakai know which stage they are at.
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
Crisis
Squad17 Aug 2026
9 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match12 Aug 2026
The small margins put Trakai out
Out, 0‑2 to Siauliai, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Trakai
Besar Halimi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market17 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Trakai have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Fiodor Mikoliunas 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad17 Aug 2026
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Trakai know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
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.