Marked for Justas Dapkus
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad13 Sep 2027
Davor Nedeljković damages knee ligaments — 34 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 34 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.
Transfer targets13 Sep 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad13 Sep 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.
Squad13 Sep 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.
Market13 Sep 2027
A stepping stone, not a home, for Justas Dapkus
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Stumbras were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Stumbras are still strangers to each other
5 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad6 Sep 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Davor Nedeljković
41 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.
Market6 Sep 2027
“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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
19 days out for Ilias Melkas after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Stumbras will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market6 Sep 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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 14 signed and 12 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.
Market6 Sep 2027
As if he never left: Alvis Rugins returns
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Alvis Rugins is a Stumbras player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market15 Feb 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Utenis waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Stumbras is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad15 Feb 2027
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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
9 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
Market8 Feb 2027
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Mantas Dapkus reports back to Stumbras with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Market8 Feb 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.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. KAMAZ have kept their man, and Stumbras go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout8 Feb 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.
Squad8 Feb 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A falling-out at Stumbras
Justas Dapkus and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Stumbras would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Alvis Rugins is not saying it is over
“Ask me in the summer. I will know before anybody else does.” He is 34 with 0 appearances behind him, and Stumbras have to plan for both answers.
Market8 Feb 2027
6 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Stumbras could get for him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market25 Jan 2027
Justas Dapkus hands in a written request
“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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
A move Aaron Atkinson would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Aaron Atkinson is living that version at Stumbras, and it tends to show in the first month.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Stumbras asked and Amkar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad25 Jan 2027
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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Aaron Atkinson and Stumbras agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad25 Jan 2027
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market18 Jan 2027
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.
Market18 Jan 2027
Add another name to the list: Siauliai have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Mantas Dapkus. The answer from Stumbras has not changed — yet.
Squad18 Jan 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Simon Dia commits to Stumbras for another 1 years.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
Stumbras asked and SKA Khabarovsk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad18 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Stumbras
Karolis Novikovas and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Stumbras training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sven van Doorm 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
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
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
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 Dapkus 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.
Squad26 Oct 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 Stumbras this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Oct 2026
At 17 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Stumbras training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mantas Dapkus 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Moussa Sao and Stumbras agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market5 Oct 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Market5 Oct 2026
Stumbras bring in an old head
Moussa Sao is 37 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
Market7 Sep 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 Stumbras, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market7 Sep 2026
Utenis come back empty-handed
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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 4 in, 2 out at Stumbras
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 4 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Stumbras
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mantas Dapkus was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Justas Dapkus 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Arvydas Kazlauskas is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.