Marked for Justas Eliosius
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Aug 2027
62 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
A fracture rules Donatas Dapkus out for 31 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.
Squad16 Aug 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.
Market16 Aug 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Stumbras have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad16 Aug 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 dugout16 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Friday Apollos, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market4 Jan 2027
Stumbras say no — this time
The offer from Trakai for Mantas Dapkus 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.
Market4 Jan 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Stumbras, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Sven van Doorm commits to Stumbras for another 2 years.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atlantas have kept their man, and Stumbras go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad4 Jan 2027
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.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mantas Dapkus, and the manager let it.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
A loan enquiry to Atlantas: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad4 Jan 2027
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Justas Eliosius is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad4 Jan 2027
This league is too small for Sven van Doorm
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Stumbras will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
In brief
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Market
Justas Dapkus told to find a new club
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Market
Experience through the door at Stumbras
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Boardroom
Open for business: Stumbras enter the window