Marked for Kaspars Laizans
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market23 Aug 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Spartaks can pretend not to have heard.
Squad23 Aug 2027
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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Alvis Oss is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
A row about effort at Spartaks
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dehinde Ibrahim was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
A loan move for Nikola Ralić is in the works
Spartaks have made the call to Zalgiris. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Market23 Aug 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Kaspars Laizans has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Spartaks.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Spartaks are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Aug 2027
33 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Spartaks lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Wasiu Falolu 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 targets2 Aug 2027
Spartaks asked and Kauno Zalgiris said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Spartaks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dehinde Ibrahim 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.
Loan watch2 Aug 2027
“I watch every Spartaks game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Skonto runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad2 Aug 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Spartaks know it.
Market2 Aug 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Spartaks, another week without a signature from Kolawole Oladipo.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
Remo Stars 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Jun 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Vladimirs Laizans
72 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Spartaks lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market28 Jun 2027
“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 Spartaks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad28 Jun 2027
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.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Arda have kept their man, and Spartaks go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Pavels Gabovs 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 targets28 Jun 2027
A loan enquiry to Kauno Zalgiris: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
Wasiu Falolu knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Wasiu Falolu trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
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 Kristaps Zjuzins is on it.
Squad28 Jun 2027
The least glamorous thing a foreign signing ever does and the one that decides most of them. A player who can hear the shout behind him is a different footballer from one who cannot.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Jun 2027
93 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Spartaks lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market7 Jun 2027
“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 Spartaks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market7 Jun 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad7 Jun 2027
A falling-out at Spartaks
Ifeanyi Ihemekwele and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
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.
Loan watch7 Jun 2027
“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 Spartaks, and 4 appearances in 21 say he has earned the hearing.
Match5 Jun 2027
It finished 2‑0, and it was Pavels Gabovs’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Spartaks.
Player ratings7 Jun 2027
Marked 8.14 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad7 Jun 2027
A row about effort at Spartaks
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 May 2027
Vladimirs Laizans damages knee ligaments — 100 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 100 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad31 May 2027
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.
Squad31 May 2027
A row about effort at Spartaks
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dehinde Ibrahim was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Looking ahead31 May 2027
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Squad31 May 2027
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Spartaks are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout31 May 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Skonto close the window on a squad of their own making
6 in and 3 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Liepaja have kept their man, and Skonto go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Skonto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ifeagwu Ojukwu 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
A falling-out at Skonto
Pavels Ikaunieks and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
A loan move for Luka Smyth is in the works
Skonto have made the call to Notts County. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad1 Feb 2027
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Artūrs Karašausks has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Jan 2027
Ikenna Motors arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Ikenna Motors has, at Skonto, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
The deal with Iraklis is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Jelgava keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Market18 Jan 2027
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Liepaja moved on, Pavels Ikaunieks reports back to Skonto, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad18 Jan 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Gbenga Opamoye commits to Skonto for another 3 years.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Ifeagwu Ojukwu 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 targets18 Jan 2027
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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Davis Rugins in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Skonto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Spartaks
Ifeanyi Ihemekwele 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.
Market9 Nov 2026
“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.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Spartaks can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Ifeanyi Ihemekwele 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Spartaks the difference is visible from the back of the stand.