Marked for Vikintas Kazlauskas
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match12 Feb 2029
Every point is an argument now for Stumbras
Position 7 and 12 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market12 Feb 2029
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Vikintas Kazlauskas reports back to Stumbras with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Jonas Schreiber is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Words at Stumbras training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christian Travaglini 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.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Words exchanged at Stumbras
Arvydas Kazlauskas 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.
The dugout12 Feb 2029
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets5 Feb 2029
The deal with Kauno Zalgiris died in the treatment room. Nobody will say what was found and everybody in the game will find out by Friday.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at Stumbras 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.
Squad5 Feb 2029
A row about effort at Stumbras
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Christian Travaglini was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Everybody at Stumbras saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 34 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Karolis 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.
The dugout5 Feb 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.
Market5 Feb 2029
Stumbras opened the door and nobody walked through it. So Mouhamed Souare stays — listed, trained, and available — while both sides mark the days to January on the same calendar.
Market5 Feb 2029
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Vikintas Kazlauskas may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
The dugout5 Feb 2029
Jonas Schreiber asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Jan 2029
Gonçalo Monteiro damages knee ligaments — 16 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 16 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.
The terraces29 Jan 2029
Anger at Stumbras spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Market29 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.
Market29 Jan 2029
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Stumbras people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Boardroom29 Jan 2029
Pressure builds in the Stumbras boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Words exchanged at Stumbras
Mouhamed Souare 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.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Kajus Bička 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
The quietest bad news in football. At 23 nothing has moved for months — not backwards, which would at least be a conversation, simply nowhere. Somebody at the club will have to decide whether that is the club's fault or his.
The dugout29 Jan 2029
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Christian Travaglini is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Jan 2029
Gonçalo Monteiro damages knee ligaments — 23 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
Market22 Jan 2029
“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.
Market22 Jan 2029
The bid was some way short and Stumbras did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Christian Travaglini 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.
Squad22 Jan 2029
A falling-out at Stumbras
Arvydas Kazlauskas and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets22 Jan 2029
A loan enquiry to Zalgiris: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets22 Jan 2029
A loan enquiry to Zalgiris: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets22 Jan 2029
A loan move for Marko Konatar is in the works
Stumbras have made the call to Kauno Zalgiris. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets22 Jan 2029
Atlantas have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Jan 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Gonçalo Monteiro
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Stumbras lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad8 Jan 2029
A fracture rules Petar Bosančić out for 15 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Stumbras will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market8 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.
Transfer targets8 Jan 2029
The deal with Kauno Zalgiris died in the treatment room. Nobody will say what was found and everybody in the game will find out by Friday.
Squad8 Jan 2029
A row about effort at Stumbras
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mouhamed Souare was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets8 Jan 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zalgiris have kept their man, and Stumbras go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Arvydas Kazlauskas 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 targets8 Jan 2029
Kauno Zalgiris have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets8 Jan 2029
Stumbras have made the call to Atlantas. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match25 Sep 2028
Every point is an argument now for Stumbras
Position 7 and 12 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad25 Sep 2028
29 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Stumbras lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market25 Sep 2028
“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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
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.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
Solomon Obed gets it from the manager
“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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
A row about effort at Stumbras
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arvydas Kazlauskas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Sep 2028
Arvydas Jankauskas damages knee ligaments — 36 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 36 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.
Market18 Sep 2028
“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.
Squad18 Sep 2028
A falling-out at Stumbras
Mouhamed Souare and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Sep 2028
A row about effort at Stumbras
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Christian Travaglini was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market18 Sep 2028
Alerio Kola is 20, and Stumbras 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.
Squad18 Sep 2028
6 new faces, and Stumbras 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
Market17 Jul 2028
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Stumbras people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The dugout17 Jul 2028
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Stumbras have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad17 Jul 2028
A row about effort at Stumbras
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Christian Travaglini was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
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 Jul 2028
Mouhamed Souare 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 targets17 Jul 2028
Stumbras have made the call to Zalgiris. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Nov 2027
14 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Stumbras lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mantas Dubickas is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Rokas Klimavicius 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
Steady
Squad22 Nov 2027
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Stumbras lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Mantas Dapkus is the young player of the season
Not a month, not a run of form — a whole season of being the best 21-year-old anybody in this division could put on a pitch. This is the honour that gets mentioned for the rest of his career.
Squad22 Nov 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Simon Dia and Stumbras agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Nov 2027
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Stumbras lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Mouhamed Souare 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Stumbras training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Friday Apollos 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.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
Friday Apollos knocks on the manager's door
“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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Stumbras would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Market15 Nov 2027
The clock does Simon Dia’s negotiating for him
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Stumbras could ask drops and the wages Simon Dia can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Nov 2027
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Stumbras lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad8 Nov 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 Stumbras this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Stumbras training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rokas Klimavicius 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.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
The manager makes an example of Mouhamed Souare
“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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Stumbras are still strangers to each other
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Market8 Nov 2027
The clock does Raymond Thomas’s negotiating for him
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Stumbras could ask drops and the wages Raymond Thomas can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match10 Apr 2027
The goals have deserted Stumbras
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Stumbras can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Mouhamed Souare 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.
Match10 Apr 2027
Kauno Zalgiris left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Sven van Doorm 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 dugout12 Apr 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Adrien Liprandi
“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.
Market12 Apr 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Saulius Klimavicius has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Stumbras.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 12. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Looking ahead12 Apr 2027
Siauliai next, and one man in the Stumbras dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Apr 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match31 Mar 2027
The small margins put Stumbras 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.
The terraces5 Apr 2027
A cup embarrassment at Suduva follows Stumbras 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.
Market5 Apr 2027
“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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad5 Apr 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 Stumbras this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Raymond Thomas
“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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
A row about effort at Stumbras
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sven van Doorm was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.