Marked for Vitalijs Kamess
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Jul 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Arturs Savalnieks
93 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ventspils lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market12 Jul 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 Ventspils can pretend not to have heard.
Squad12 Jul 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Jul 2027
Arturs Savalnieks damages knee ligaments — 101 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 101 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Martim Barradas: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ventspils have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market5 Jul 2027
Spartaks come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Ventspils did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Alvis Cauna has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Market5 Jul 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Ventspils have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Ventspils training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Igors Ikaunieks 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
Upbeat
Squad28 Jun 2027
Arturs Savalnieks damages knee ligaments — 108 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 108 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.
Match28 Jun 2027
25 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market28 Jun 2027
Alvis Cauna has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ventspils they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Jesús Lugo 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Igors 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.
Market28 Jun 2027
The phone has started ringing about Davis Stolcers again, and this time the name on the line is Spartaks. Ventspils are listening politely and promising nothing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Jun 2027
Arturs Savalnieks damages knee ligaments — 115 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 115 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.
Market21 Jun 2027
$310.0K. Fees like that buy a footballer and rent a debate: every touch will be measured against the number for a season at least.
Market21 Jun 2027
$380.0K from Skonto for Kristaps Oss. Money is money, but the dressing room has lost the man it looked to.
The terraces21 Jun 2027
Supporters turn on the $380.0K sale of Kristaps Oss
He is going to Skonto, the club has $380.0K 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market21 Jun 2027
Ventspils say no — this time
The offer from Metta/LU for Alvis Cauna 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Mar 2027
Pavels Dubra 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Ventspils training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitalijs Gabovs 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
41 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Ventspils, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market3 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Ventspils did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Artur Pikk 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 Ventspils this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Vitalijs Kamess and Ventspils agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Ventspils training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Igors Ikaunieks 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Ventspils have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.