Marked for Arnas Paulauskas
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom5 Jun 2028
It is over: Al-Hazem are relegated
The arithmetic ran out, and everybody could see it coming from a distance. The hard summer starts now, and next season's fixtures will be full of unfamiliar names.
Boardroom5 Jun 2028
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
Boardroom5 Jun 2028
A stranger takes charge at Al-Hazem
The coaching staff has emptied out entirely and there was nobody internal to promote, so the club has appointed a name almost none of its supporters will recognise. Clubs recover from this; none of them enjoy explaining it.
Squad5 Jun 2028
A fracture rules Rivaldo Enero out for 31 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Hazem will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom5 Jun 2028
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
Market5 Jun 2028
“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.
Market5 Jun 2028
The name of Aboubacar Bah has come up in conversations Al-Hazem were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Market5 Jun 2028
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Al-Hazem heard it as anything else.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Bruno Varela 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad13 Sep 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ignas Novikovas
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Siauliai lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Fiodor Dubickas 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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
“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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
When it matters, Marko Capan plays
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.
Market13 Sep 2027
A season-long audition: Atlantas still own him, but the shirt and the minutes are Siauliai's to give. A loan is a bet both clubs believe they are winning.
Market13 Sep 2027
Siauliai spent the window trying to move Saulius Paulauskas on and nobody came. He trains with a squad that has already told him he is not part of it, and both sides now wait for the next one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Arnas Paulauskas out for 19 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Siauliai will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Fiodor Dubickas 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.
Squad16 Nov 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Arnas Paulauskas out for 26 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Siauliai will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad9 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 Siauliai this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch9 Nov 2026
“I did not go to Kauno Zalgiris to sit and watch. I want to come back to Siauliai and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Arnas Paulauskas out for 33 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Siauliai will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Fiodor Dubickas 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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Arnas Paulauskas out for 40 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Siauliai will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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 Siauliai this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Siauliai training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vykintas Kazlauskas 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
Squad19 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Arnas Paulauskas out for 49 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Siauliai will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Fiodor Dubickas 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.
Loan watch19 Oct 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 Siauliai, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Arnas Paulauskas out for 56 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Siauliai will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad12 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 Siauliai this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Arnas Jankauskas commits to Siauliai for another 3 years.