Marked for Marius Cernych
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Trakai have done the hard part with Spartaks, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Market8 Feb 2027
The Utenis deal is off
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Deividas Vaitkunas reports back to Trakai with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Karolis Lasickas 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
53 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad8 Feb 2027
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 Trakai would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
Marius Cernych has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Trakai will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
“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.
Market8 Feb 2027
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Arnas Sernas leaves Trakai the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
Market8 Feb 2027
Trakai opened the door and nobody walked through it. So Fiodor Lasickas stays — listed, trained, and available — while both sides mark the days to January on the same calendar.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market11 Jan 2027
$1.6M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
The terraces11 Jan 2027
Supporters turn on the $1.6M sale of Linas Simkus
He is going to Zalgiris, the club has $1.6M 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.
Market11 Jan 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 Trakai can pretend not to have heard.
Market11 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Everything agreed with CSKA Sofia, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad11 Jan 2027
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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Trakai
Karolis Lasickas 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.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Trakai asked and NK Celje said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A row about effort at Trakai
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Justas Sernas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Trakai
Karolis Lasickas 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Trakai training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Justas Sernas 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Deividas Simkus
39 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.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
“I did not go to Liepaja to sit and watch. I want to come back to Trakai and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Trakai
Vykintas Girdvainis 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Oct 2026
Deividas Simkus damages knee ligaments — 68 days out
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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
At 17 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.
Loan watch19 Oct 2026
“I did not go to Liepaja to sit and watch. I want to come back to Trakai and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Sep 2026
98 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Trakai lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Loan watch21 Sep 2026
“I watch every Trakai game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Liepaja runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Trakai
Vykintas Girdvainis 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.
Market21 Sep 2026
He is 20, and nobody at Trakai signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Trakai are still strangers to each other
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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Predrag Nastasic and Trakai agree another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Sep 2026
Deividas Simkus damages knee ligaments — 106 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 106 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Trakai can pretend not to have heard.
Market14 Sep 2026
Atlantas come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Trakai did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Trakai asked and NK Maribor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Trakai training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Karolis Jankauskas 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
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 Trakai would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Deividas Simkus
114 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
“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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 4 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at Trakai until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Market7 Sep 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Trakai will try again when the window opens; Atlantas may not be selling by then.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Trakai
Edgaras Novikovas 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Marius Cernych slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Marius Cernych is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Karolis Jankauskas 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Aug 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Deividas Simkus
130 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.
Match19 Aug 2026
The small margins put Trakai out
Out, 0‑3 to Suduva, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
A cup embarrassment at Suduva follows Trakai home
0-3. Going out of a cup is one afternoon; going out like that is a week of phone-ins, and the manager will hear every one of them.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Luton Town keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Trakai have gone to Atlantas 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Trakai
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Karolis Jankauskas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Trakai
Vykintas Girdvainis 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 dugout24 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Karolis Jankauskas, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad17 Aug 2026
137 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Trakai lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match12 Aug 2026
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Arvydas Sernas obliged against Siauliai. 2‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Trakai.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Trakai
Karolis Lasickas and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market17 Aug 2026
Kristaps Kamess has left for Stumbras in a $330.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Petar Bosančić has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Trakai have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
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.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Marius Cernych has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Karolis Lasickas, and the manager let it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Trakai know which stage they are at.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
Trakai say no — this time
The offer from Stal Rzeszów for Justas Sernas 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Karolis Lasickas 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 targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Shinnik have kept their man, and Trakai go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad3 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trakai this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Olimpija Ljubljana: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
Karolis Lasickas 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.