Marked for Tadas Cernych
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market30 Apr 2029
“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.
Squad30 Apr 2029
A falling-out at Trakai
Rokas Satkus and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Words at Trakai training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lukas Dubickas 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.
Match28 Apr 2029
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Looking ahead30 Apr 2029
A six-pointer for Trakai
Stumbras next, and both sides can do the sum. Win and the table looks different; lose and it looks the way everybody has been fearing.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
“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 dugout30 Apr 2029
Lukas Dubickas 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 Trakai, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market2 Apr 2029
“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.
Boardroom2 Apr 2029
Trakai told to sell
The instruction came from the boardroom and the dugout did not agree with it. Somebody will go, the fee will be called good business, and the manager will spend the season rebuilding around the space.
Squad2 Apr 2029
A falling-out at Trakai
Rokas Satkus and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Apr 2029
A row about effort at Trakai
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rati Grigalava was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad2 Apr 2029
A place in the month's best eleven for Juliusz Rafalski
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Juliusz Rafalski has come out of that comparison in the side, and Trakai have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Market2 Apr 2029
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Tadas Cernych has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Trakai.
Squad2 Apr 2029
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.
Market2 Apr 2029
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Trakai, another week without a signature from Veljko Bogićević.
The dugout2 Apr 2029
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Edgaras Jankauskas is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Aug 2028
A fracture rules Nikola Stojković out for 51 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Trakai will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad14 Aug 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Arvydas Slavickas
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Trakai lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market14 Aug 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.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Tempers go at Trakai
Rokas Satkus 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 targets14 Aug 2028
Trakai offered $180.0K; Siauliai said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Transfer targets14 Aug 2028
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad14 Aug 2028
A row about effort at Trakai
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lukas Dubickas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market14 Aug 2028
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Trakai have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
The dugout14 Aug 2028
Nikola Stojković is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match27 Dec 2027
Every point is an argument now for Trakai
Position 7 and 12 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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
A falling-out at Trakai
Rokas Satkus and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Dec 2027
A row about effort at Trakai
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lukas Dubickas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.