Marked for Davis Bulvitis
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Spartaks
Usman Barau and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Kristaps Vanins is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Spartaks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Papa Omar Gningue 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 dugout28 Sep 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Spartaks has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Market28 Sep 2026
Spartaks have let the market know Vladimirs Tarasovs can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Back issues
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.
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
Spartaks say no — this time
The offer from Isloch for Davis Bulvitis 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
A falling-out at Spartaks
Nikita Fertovs and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo City have kept their man, and Spartaks go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Spartaks
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Janis Ikaunieks was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad3 Aug 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.
Market3 Aug 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Mory Cissé is in the works
Spartaks have made the call to Liepaja. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Rangers International: 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
Gatis Dubra 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.