Marked for Donatas Simkus
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Aug 2027
104 days out for Vykintas Sernas 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Marius Vaitkunas commits to Stumbras for another 1 years.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Jovan Krneta in a row with a teammate
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.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
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.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
Jovan Krneta 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Stumbras training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fiodor Girdvainis 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 dugout9 Aug 2027
Donatas Simkus 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.
Market9 Aug 2027
“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.
Market9 Aug 2027
Stumbras shop where it costs nothing
Oyinlola Kayode signs, and the fee column stays empty. Deals like this look small in July and clever by March — or they are never mentioned again.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match26 Jul 2027
Every point is an argument now for Stumbras
Position 6 and 9 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.
Market26 Jul 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Fiodor Girdvainis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Stumbras the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
The clubs have shaken hands with Utenis; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Market26 Jul 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words exchanged at Stumbras
Jovan Krneta 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad26 Jul 2027
A row about effort at Stumbras
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fiodor Girdvainis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
Marius Satkus 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.
Market26 Jul 2027
4 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
The dugout12 Jul 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Stumbras may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Stumbras and Zalgiris have settled on $48.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Jovan Krneta in a row with a teammate
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.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Utenis have kept their man, and Stumbras go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad12 Jul 2027
A row about effort at Stumbras
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marius Satkus was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
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
Uneasy
Match28 Jun 2027
Stumbras sink to position 6
9 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market28 Jun 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Fiodor Girdvainis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Stumbras the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
$54.0K on the table at Zalgiris. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words exchanged at Stumbras
Jovan Krneta 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 targets28 Jun 2027
Stumbras have gone to Utenis with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at Stumbras training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marius Satkus 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 dugout28 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vikintas Kazlauskas, and the manager let it.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Fiodor Girdvainis trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market28 Jun 2027
The clock does Donatas Simkus’s negotiating for him
5 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Stumbras could ask drops and the wages Donatas Simkus can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Jun 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.
Market14 Jun 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.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
$48.0K settles it between the clubs for Yuriy Kendysh
Zalgiris have accepted the money. What Stumbras do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Market14 Jun 2027
Stumbras say no — this time
The offer from Suduva for Donatas Simkus 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.
Market14 Jun 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Jovan Krneta in a row with a teammate
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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Stumbras know it.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Stumbras training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fiodor Girdvainis 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.
Market14 Jun 2027
6 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Jun 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Edvinas Slavickas
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.
Match5 Jun 2027
Chastening afternoon for Stumbras
A 1‑5 beating by Suduva was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match7 Jun 2027
Stumbras finish in position 6
9 points, and the season has a number on it. Whatever it felt like from the inside, this is what it will look like in a book.
Squad7 Jun 2027
A fracture rules Linas Kuklys out for 18 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.
Market7 Jun 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Jovan Krneta 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.
Match5 Jun 2027
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Stumbras and Suduva, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Market7 Jun 2027
Add another name to the list: Suduva have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Donatas Simkus. The answer from Stumbras has not changed — yet.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 May 2027
Edvinas Slavickas damages knee ligaments — 35 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 35 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.
Match31 May 2027
Stumbras are in real trouble now
Position 6, 9 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Player ratings31 May 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.98 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad31 May 2027
25 days out for Linas Kuklys 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.
Market31 May 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.
Match29 May 2027
The drought breaks for Stumbras
11 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Siauliai were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Squad31 May 2027
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings31 May 2027
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.17, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad31 May 2027
Words exchanged at Stumbras
Jovan Krneta 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Mar 2027
107 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 Mar 2027
97 days out for Linas Kuklys 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.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.00, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad22 Mar 2027
A falling-out at Stumbras
Jovan Krneta and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Mar 2027
33 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Match20 Mar 2027
Late, late show earns Stumbras a point
Minute 89, against Atlantas, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Match20 Mar 2027
It needed Aidas Valskis to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Atlantas, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 2‑2, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Mar 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Edvinas Slavickas
115 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.
Match13 Mar 2027
5‑0, and Deividas Paulauskas took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Stumbras tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Squad15 Mar 2027
104 days out for Linas Kuklys 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
The match ball belongs to Deividas Paulauskas, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 9.04, and nobody on the pitch better.
Market15 Mar 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at Stumbras
Jovan Krneta 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.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Deividas Paulauskas was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.25. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The terraces15 Mar 2027
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market22 Feb 2027
Stumbras say no — this time
The offer from Inhulets for Donatas Simkus 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
The medical room confirms 51 days on the sidelines for Lukas Klimavicius, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad22 Feb 2027
A falling-out at Stumbras
Jovan Krneta and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words exchanged at Stumbras
Jovan Krneta 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
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.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
Donatas Simkus 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
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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Jovan Krneta 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Stumbras can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Market8 Feb 2027
Add another name to the list: Inhulets have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Donatas Simkus. The answer from Stumbras has not changed — yet.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
Stumbras ran out of time with Utenis. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A muscle injury and 15 days out for Linas Slavickas
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Stumbras will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market18 Jan 2027
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Market18 Jan 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Stumbras
Jovan Krneta 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.
Squad18 Jan 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
No place for Alan Bikoumou in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Stumbras are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Stumbras training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fiodor Girdvainis 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 dugout18 Jan 2027
“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.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
Donatas Simkus 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.
Market18 Jan 2027
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Rokas Lasickas may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Dec 2026
41 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.
Market21 Dec 2026
Linas Valskis 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Stumbras
Jovan Krneta 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Dec 2026
56 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.
Market7 Dec 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Jovan Krneta in a row with a teammate
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 Dec 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Donatas Simkus and Stumbras agree another 1 years.
Squad7 Dec 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 dugout7 Dec 2026
Linas Valskis 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
Squad23 Nov 2026
24 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Stumbras
Jovan Krneta 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Stumbras
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fiodor Girdvainis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad23 Nov 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Daniel Simon commits to Stumbras for another 4 years.
Market23 Nov 2026
He is 20, and nobody at Stumbras signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Market23 Nov 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Stumbras, another week without a signature from Nnayerem Kenneth.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Oct 2026
100 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Stumbras
Jovan Krneta 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
The medical room confirms 35 days on the sidelines for Deividas Satkus, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Stumbras
Jovan Krneta 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Fiodor Girdvainis 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 dugout28 Sep 2026
“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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Donatas Simkus 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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Rokas Valskis 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.
Market28 Sep 2026
Stumbras have made Linas Slavickas available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Stumbras
Jovan Krneta 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Fiodor Girdvainis 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Stumbras have made Fiodor Girdvainis available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
Donatas Simkus 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.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Timothy Doku
“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.