Ifeanyi Ihemekwele and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Alvis Oss 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Marcis Stolcers trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Kaspars Oss 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.
Add another name to the list: Skonto have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Vitalijs Tarasovs. The answer from Spartaks has not changed — yet.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bekescsaba have kept their man, and Spartaks go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Spartaks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wasiu Falolu 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Wasiu Falolu has just signed for Spartaks, and for once the answer mattered.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Spartaks have done the hard part with NK Domzale, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Spartaks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Spartaks asked and AEK said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Wasiu Falolu 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.
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. Spartaks will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Daugavpils will make the call about Eduards Laizans this week. Spartaks have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Jelgava go through and Spartaks go home, 0‑0 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The phone has started ringing about Kaspars Oss again, and this time the name on the line is FC Bihor Oradea. Spartaks are listening politely and promising nothing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Spartaks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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. Spartaks will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad17 Aug 2026
7 new faces, and Spartaks 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.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Kristaps Zjuzins 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pavels Gabovs was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Spartaks know which stage they are at.