Marked for Arnas Cernych
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Nov 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Arvydas Slavickas 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 dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Mantas Dubickas
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Nov 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Moussa Sao 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
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
Triumph
Match12 Aug 2026
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Nemanja Subotić obliged against Trakai. 2‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Siauliai.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.38, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Miloš Gordić 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 Aug 2026
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.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Saulius Eliosius kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Nemanja Milić has outgrown this division
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Siauliai know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
Nemanja Subotić has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Siauliai 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
No place for Arnas Cernych in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Siauliai are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Dāvis Ikaunieks and Siauliai agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Siauliai know which stage they are at.
Market3 Aug 2026
24 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Siauliai are still strangers to each other
15 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
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 targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Rokas Pačėsa is in the works
Siauliai have made the call to Suduva. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Siauliai have made the call to Suduva. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Arnas Cernych is in the works
Siauliai have made the call to Stumbras. 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
Squad3 Aug 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
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.
Squad3 Aug 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Siauliai have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Arnas Cernych. The answer from Stumbras has not changed — yet.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
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.
Market3 Aug 2026
Alvis Rugins is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Stumbras has been clear about where Alvis Rugins stands, which is more than many ever get.