Marked for Kristaps Kamess
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets1 Jul 2030
The clubs have shaken hands with Metta/LU; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Market1 Jul 2030
“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 The request is on a desk at Daugavpils, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market1 Jul 2030
Kai Rhodes has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Daugavpils they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad1 Jul 2030
Daniel Kivinda and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets1 Jul 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Liepaja have kept their man, and Daugavpils go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad1 Jul 2030
Federico Arena 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.
Transfer targets1 Jul 2030
A loan enquiry to Skonto: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout1 Jul 2030
Nnayerem Kenneth 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.
Squad1 Jul 2030
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Daugavpils would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match20 Apr 2030
0‑4 to Liepaja, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Match22 Apr 2030
Daugavpils are in real trouble now
Position 5, 6 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.
Market22 Apr 2030
“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.
Squad22 Apr 2030
Daniel Kivinda 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.
Squad22 Apr 2030
Words at Daugavpils training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Federico Arena 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 dugout22 Apr 2030
“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.
Squad22 Apr 2030
100 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Boardroom22 Apr 2030
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout22 Apr 2030
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Marcis Gabovs after 0‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match10 Apr 2030
A 4‑1 win over Liepaja, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings15 Apr 2030
A debut Thomas Wilson will not forget — 7.76
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 1 on the scoresheet, 7.76 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Market15 Apr 2030
Only the photograph left for Kai Rhodes
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kai Rhodes will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Daugavpils the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout15 Apr 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Daugavpils may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad15 Apr 2030
Daniel Kivinda 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 Apr 2030
Words at Daugavpils training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Federico Arena 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 terraces15 Apr 2030
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match13 Apr 2030
It finished 1‑0, and it was Daniel Kivinda’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Daugavpils.
Player ratings15 Apr 2030
Federico Arena was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.22. 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Dec 2029
Jack Lee puts it in writing
“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 Daugavpils, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout17 Dec 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad17 Dec 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Daugavpils this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Dec 2029
Elijah Addai 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.
Squad17 Dec 2029
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Daugavpils would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
The dugout17 Dec 2029
Jānis Beks 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.
In brief
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Squad
Questions about Gatis Vanins on the training pitch
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The dugout
The manager plants his flag on Jack Lee
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Dec 2029
“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 Daugavpils, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad10 Dec 2029
The medical room confirms 27 days on the sidelines for Jeremiah Julius, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad10 Dec 2029
Daniel Kivinda and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Dec 2029
Istan Henry 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.
Squad10 Dec 2029
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Daugavpils will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Market10 Dec 2029
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Dec 2029
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Daugavpils will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market3 Dec 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Daugavpils is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market3 Dec 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Daugavpils can pretend not to have heard.
Squad3 Dec 2029
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Daugavpils can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad3 Dec 2029
Ziad Ouled-Haj-M'hand 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.
The dugout3 Dec 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad3 Dec 2029
A row about effort at Daugavpils
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Elijah Addai was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market3 Dec 2029
He is 20, and nobody at Daugavpils signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
The dugout3 Dec 2029
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.