Marked for Mantas Barauskas
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Mar 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Siauliai this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Mar 2027
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Mantas 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Siauliai this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Siauliai training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mantas 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.
Loan watch22 Feb 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Siauliai, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Feb 2027
Mantas 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
7 new faces, and Siauliai 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.
Market1 Feb 2027
Ignas Sernas is 18, and Siauliai have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Market1 Feb 2027
Atlantas are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Siauliai will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Market1 Feb 2027
Siauliai bring in an old head
Edvinas Sernas is 35 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Jan 2027
Lucas Vankerkhoven 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Siauliai training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mantas 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Edvinas Kazlauskas and Siauliai agree another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Edvinas Simkus
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Siauliai lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad28 Dec 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 Siauliai this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Siauliai training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mantas 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
Uneasy
Squad21 Dec 2026
Edvinas Simkus damages knee ligaments — 26 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 26 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Mantas 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Donatas Klimavicius has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Nov 2026
Edvinas Simkus damages knee ligaments — 47 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 47 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Vikintas Novikovas 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Siauliai training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mantas 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
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
Edvinas Simkus damages knee ligaments — 61 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 61 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Edvinas 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Siauliai training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mantas 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
Uneasy
Squad26 Oct 2026
Edvinas Simkus damages knee ligaments — 82 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 82 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market26 Oct 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Mantas 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Oct 2026
Edvinas Simkus damages knee ligaments — 89 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 89 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Siauliai training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mantas 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.
Loan watch19 Oct 2026
“I did not go to Suduva to sit and watch. I want to come back to Siauliai and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 10 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Edvinas Simkus
125 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Siauliai lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 45 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market14 Sep 2026
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Gomel moved on, Saulius Slavickas reports back to Siauliai, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Edvinas Simkus
132 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Siauliai lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Siauliai will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market7 Sep 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.
In brief
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Market
Gomel are about to pick up the phone
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Squad
Words at Siauliai training over how hard people work
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Squad
Questions about Vykintas Jankauskas on the training pitch
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Aug 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 68 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market24 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Siauliai training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mantas 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.