Marked for Vikintas Simkus
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad29 Jan 2029
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.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Vykintas 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.
Squad29 Jan 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ruben Ferreira commits to Stumbras for another 3 years.
The dugout29 Jan 2029
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 dugout29 Jan 2029
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Stumbras. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The dugout29 Jan 2029
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Vikintas Simkus trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market22 Jan 2029
“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.
Squad22 Jan 2029
A falling-out at Stumbras
Justas Simkus and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Tomas Kuklys 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 dugout22 Jan 2029
Nobody at Stumbras 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 dugout22 Jan 2029
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The dugout22 Jan 2029
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Stumbras, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market23 Oct 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 Stumbras, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Words exchanged at Stumbras
Justas Simkus 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.
Squad23 Oct 2028
A row about effort at Stumbras
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vykintas Barauskas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Stumbras will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
Rokas Simkus has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Stumbras 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 dugout23 Oct 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vikintas Klimavicius, and the manager let it.