Marked for Andrius Paulauskas
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Rokas Paulauskas and Utenis agree another 4 years.
Squad10 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 Utenis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The offer went to Atlantas this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Paulius Dapkus 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 dugout10 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Utenis know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Trakai: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Aidas Vaitkunas trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market10 Aug 2026
The name of Aidas Vaitkunas keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Utenis say nothing, which says plenty.
Back issues
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
A row about effort at Siauliai
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nemanja Milić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Asion Daja 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.
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
17 new faces, and Siauliai 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.
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 enquiry to Utenis: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Stumbras 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
At 35, he has seen every situation this season can produce, twice. The legs will be managed; the head is the purchase.
In brief
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Market
Experience through the door at Siauliai
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Market
Experience through the door at Siauliai
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 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 Utenis can pretend not to have heard.
Squad3 Aug 2026
He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday. The order of those three tells you everything about what a football club actually values.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Utenis
Aidas Vaitkunas 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 targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zalgiris have kept their man, and Utenis go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Rokas Paulauskas 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
The name of Andrius Paulauskas has come up in conversations Utenis were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Voices raised on the Utenis training ground
Two players, one bad tackle and a session that had to be stopped. It was over in a minute; it was outside the gates in an hour.
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.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
Rokas Paulauskas 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.