Marked for Alvis Ikaunieks
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Alvis Ikaunieks
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Skonto lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market7 Sep 2026
Skonto say no — this time
The offer from Daugavpils for Aleksandrs Kamess 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.
Market7 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 Skonto can pretend not to have heard.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Marcis Jagodinskis 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.
Squad7 Sep 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 Skonto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad31 Aug 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Alvis Ikaunieks
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Skonto lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market31 Aug 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Chertanovo come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Skonto did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Skonto
Marcis Jagodinskis 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Daugavpils have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Aleksandrs Kamess. The answer from Skonto has not changed — yet.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Ángel Osorio 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
Triumph
Squad24 Aug 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Alvis Ikaunieks
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Skonto lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match19 Aug 2026
Cup progress for Skonto
A 4‑0 win over Daugavpils, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 33. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Aleksandrs Kamess could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 8.31
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 8.31, 1 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A brace, and Ángel Osorio takes the afternoon — 7.93
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ángel Osorio provided it, and the 7.93 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Raivis Gabovs at 21 — 8.06
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Raivis Gabovs did not need any: 8.06, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market24 Aug 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.
Squad24 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 Skonto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.