Marked for Gatis Oss
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Oct 2026
Raphael Hofer 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 Oct 2026
Janis Oss is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Zilkifilu Rabiu 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.
Loan watch12 Oct 2026
“I did not go to Daugavpils to sit and watch. I want to come back to Jelgava and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
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.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market14 Sep 2026
Gatis Gabovs 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 Jelgava can pretend not to have heard.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Raphael Hofer 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Bassey Bassey 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 dugout14 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.
Loan watch14 Sep 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Jelgava, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad14 Sep 2026
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. Jelgava will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Jelgava, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Roberts Zjuzins has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Jelgava 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Jelgava would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
In brief
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Market
The window shut and Olegs Laizans is still in the building
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The dugout
The manager plants his flag on Gatis Oss
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Sep 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 6 in, 2 out at Jelgava
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 6 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Market7 Sep 2026
Spartaks come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Jelgava did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Jelgava
Raphael Hofer 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 targets7 Sep 2026
Spartaks wanted more than $10.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Bassey Bassey 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Jelgava, another week without a signature from Dehinde Ibrahim.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Olegs Gabovs slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Olegs Gabovs is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at Jelgava
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market24 Aug 2026
$410.0K — a new record at Jelgava
No footballer has ever cost this club more, and the number will be read out every time he misplaces a pass for the next two years.
Match19 Aug 2026
Jelgava through in the cup
A 1‑0 win over Skonto, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Market24 Aug 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A move Bassey Bassey 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. Bassey Bassey is living that version at Jelgava, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Roberts Zjuzins 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 targets24 Aug 2026
Jelgava have gone to Spartaks 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Spartaks wanted more than $5.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Rodolphe Ekou from Liepaja for $410.0K, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
Ventspils come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Jelgava did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market10 Aug 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 Jelgava, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Olegs Gabovs and Jelgava agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Olegs Gabovs 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 targets10 Aug 2026
Jelgava asked and Liepaja said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Jelgava
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eduards Jagodinskis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
Olegs Gabovs knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Jelgava, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tomas Slavickas, and the manager let it.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Raphael Hofer 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. Jelgava know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
Olegs Gabovs 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 Jelgava this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Igors Gabovs 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Rapid Bucharest have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Janis Gabovs. The answer from Jelgava has not changed — yet.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Rodolphe Ekou is in the works
Jelgava have made the call to Liepaja. 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
Mura 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 Anthony Cletus is in the works
Jelgava have made the call to Bendel Insurance. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.