Marked for Aleksandrs Kamess
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Sep 2026
Usman Barau 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 Spartaks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Spartaks
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ubong Williams was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Spartaks are still strangers to each other
8 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
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Spartaks would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
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 Nikita Fertovs is on it.
Market21 Sep 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Aleksandrs Kamess may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
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
Window shuts: 7 in, 2 out at Spartaks
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 7 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Marcis Cauna is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Spartaks
Kenneth Emeka Okafor 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 targets7 Sep 2026
Spartaks asked and Jelgava said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Sep 2026
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Spartaks know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Market7 Sep 2026
“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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Papa Omar Gningue 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 dugout7 Sep 2026
Ubong Williams knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Spartaks, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Aug 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Spartaks people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market24 Aug 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 Spartaks can pretend not to have heard.
Market24 Aug 2026
Metta/LU come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Spartaks did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Henry Ndedi 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 Spartaks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market24 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Eduards Ciganovs again, and this time the name on the line is Metta/LU. Spartaks are listening politely and promising nothing.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Spartaks asked and Metta/LU 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
Janis Ikaunieks 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 dugout24 Aug 2026
“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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Zalgiris 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.