Marked for Linas Eliosius
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces6 Aug 2035
The mood at Stumbras has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad6 Aug 2035
A knee injury of the worst kind for Rokas Vaitkunas
64 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.
Squad6 Aug 2035
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 96 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market4 Dec 2034
“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.
Squad4 Dec 2034
Edgaras Eliosius 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.
Squad4 Dec 2034
The medical room confirms 32 days on the sidelines for Fiodor Kazlauskas, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Aug 2034
Linas Eliosius: that is not what I was promised
“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.
Market14 Aug 2034
“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.
Squad14 Aug 2034
Rokas Lekiatas 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces7 Aug 2034
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.
Squad7 Aug 2034
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.
Squad7 Aug 2034
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.
Squad7 Aug 2034
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Linas Eliosius and Stumbras agree another 2 years.
Market7 Aug 2034
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Modestas Barauskas has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Stumbras.
Squad7 Aug 2034
Edgaras Eliosius has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Stumbras 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match24 Jul 2034
Stumbras sink to position 7
12 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad24 Jul 2034
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.
Squad24 Jul 2034
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match1 May 2034
Stumbras sink to position 7
7 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Match29 Apr 2034
The wait goes on for Stumbras
8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad1 May 2034
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.
Squad1 May 2034
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rokas Lekiatas, and the manager let it.
Match29 Apr 2034
A bad afternoon for Stumbras against Trakai
0‑1 to Trakai, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad1 May 2034
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Squad1 May 2034
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.
Player ratings1 May 2034
5.73 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
Player ratings1 May 2034
Marked 5.78. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces23 Jan 2034
The mood at Stumbras has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad23 Jan 2034
A knee injury of the worst kind for Andrius Novikovas
48 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.
Boardroom23 Jan 2034
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Stumbras
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad23 Jan 2034
Edgaras Eliosius 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.
Squad23 Jan 2034
“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.
Squad23 Jan 2034
Linas Eliosius 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
Squad12 Dec 2033
A knee injury of the worst kind for Andrius Novikovas
90 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.
Squad12 Dec 2033
Rokas Lekiatas 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.
Squad12 Dec 2033
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Andrius Novikovas and Stumbras agree another 1 years.