Aidas Cernych 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 Akim Shevtsov 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 Atlantas know which stage they are at.
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.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Atlantas would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alan Bikoumou and Atlantas agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Atlantas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Akim Shevtsov 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Atlantas, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Atlantas will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Atlantas. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
0‑4. There is a level at which football is played every single week by clubs that have been doing it for fifty years, and an evening like this is what it feels like to arrive there without having done it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atlantas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Atlantas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bartosz Talar 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Deividas Girdvainis after 0‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Atlantas is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Akim Shevtsov 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atlantas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
1‑1 against DAC Dunajska Streda, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Aidas Cernych was at the centre of the description.
The shirt still fits. Edgaras Dubickas is back at Atlantas, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atlantas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Akim Shevtsov 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.
Minute 91, against DAC Dunajska Streda, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
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 Aidas Cernych is on it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Atlantas can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Atlantas close the window on a squad of their own making
13 in and 12 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atlantas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Atlantas have gone to Utenis with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Vikintas Valskis is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at Atlantas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Akim Shevtsov 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.
Position 2, 28 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Atlantas they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The deal with Kauno Zalgiris 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.
Aidas Cernych 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.
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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Akim Shevtsov 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 offer from Spartak 1918 for Louis Themis was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Atlantas they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Atlantas have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Atlantas have gone to Utenis with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Akim Shevtsov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Atlantas, another week without a signature from Karolis Dubickas.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Titas Milašius’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Atlantas the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
The offer from Siauliai for Darius Eliosius was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The offer went to Utenis 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.
Atlantas asked and Utenis said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Akim Shevtsov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ivaylo Dinev 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Atlantas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Atlantas have done the hard part with Trakai, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The offer from Kukësi for Louis Themis was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Aidas Cernych and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Akim Shevtsov 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Atlantas people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Karolis Dubickas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Atlantas the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Atlantas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Akim Shevtsov 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.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Karamady Gassama is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Darius Eliosius will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Atlantas the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Atlantas asked and Utenis said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Add another name to the list: Isloch have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Louis Themis. The answer from Atlantas has not changed — yet.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at Atlantas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aidas Simkus 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 last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 28 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Atlantas people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Rokas Paulauskas has gone, the accounts have $240.0K in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Zalgiris paid $240.0K and Atlantas took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Suduva have kept their man, and Atlantas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Akim Shevtsov 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.
Going 2 down does something to a side, and what it usually does is finish them. Not here. Atlantas rebuilt the afternoon goal by goal, and Utenis had no answer to any of it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Karolis Dubickas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Atlantas the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The phone has started ringing about Rokas Paulauskas again, and this time the name on the line is Zalgiris. Atlantas are listening politely and promising nothing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zalgiris have kept their man, and Atlantas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Akim Shevtsov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
11 combined actions and 6.81. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Atlantas will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Squad24 May 2027
Akim Shevtsov 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Vitaly Gorulev scored, was marked 7.64, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
“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.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Atlantas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Akim Shevtsov 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Deividas Girdvainis could afford to be generous.
Successful dribbles: 13. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Atlantas they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Atlantas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aidas Simkus 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Toby Bower has, at Atlantas, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Akim Shevtsov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Toby Bower and Atlantas agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout3 May 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Deividas Girdvainis kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Something was said to Edvinas Slavickas and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
20 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atlantas lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Bartosz Talar 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.
Half the programme played, position 2, 15 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atlantas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Kauno Zalgiris next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bartosz Talar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Karolis Dubickas and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Deividas Girdvainis kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
35 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atlantas lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
1‑4 to Zalgiris, 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Atlantas they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Aidas Cernych 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 door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑4 defeat, delivered by Deividas Girdvainis to a room that had heard them before.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Akim Shevtsov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atlantas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Akim Shevtsov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atlantas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Atlantas scored in the 91th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Two goals and a mark of 8.44 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Atlantas they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Akim Shevtsov 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Deividas Girdvainis on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
46 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atlantas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Vikintas Valskis is 17, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Akim Shevtsov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 53 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Akim Shevtsov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 68 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Atlantas people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Akim Shevtsov 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.
96 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atlantas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The offer from Suduva for Akim Shevtsov was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Atlantas can pretend not to have heard.
The deal with Trakai 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Vikintas Valskis is 17, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The words a physio says slowly. 110 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Atlantas will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 17 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atlantas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Atlantas were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
Aidas Cernych 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Akim Shevtsov 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atlantas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Akim Shevtsov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Atlantas, and both men came out saying it was fine.
David Dunđerski 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 Akim Shevtsov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 17 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atlantas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Atlantas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Akim Shevtsov 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.
Rokas Paulauskas 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Akim Shevtsov 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.
Everybody at Atlantas saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 37 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Aidas Cernych 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Atlantas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Akim Shevtsov 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
5 new faces, and Atlantas 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Akim Shevtsov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atlantas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
He is going to Trakai, the club has $190.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 5 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The offer from Utenis for Edgaras Dubickas was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $16.7K — a club that wants Nedas Klimavičius enough to be asked twice.
Atlantas offered $16.0K; Stumbras 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Atlantas can pretend not to have heard.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $16.7K — a club that wants Nedas Klimavičius enough to be asked twice.
Aidas Cernych 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.
Atlantas have gone to Zalgiris with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Atlantas 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Atlantas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Akim Shevtsov 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.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Atlantas know which stage they are at.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
It finished 0-3. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
Atlantas asked and Trakai said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Ruslan Kalinichev has left for Utenis in a $12.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Atlantas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Akim Shevtsov 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.
Rokas Paulauskas 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.
Add another name to the list: Trakai have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Darius Eliosius. The answer from Atlantas has not changed — yet.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Obren Cvijanović has, at Atlantas, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Akim Shevtsov 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. Atlantas will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Atlantas, another week without a signature from Obren Cvijanović.