Marked for Edvinas Girdvainis
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Feb 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Oleg Gonsevich
42 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Stumbras lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad15 Feb 2027
A move Waness El Ghazza would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Waness El Ghazza is living that version at Stumbras, and it tends to show in the first month.
Transfer targets15 Feb 2027
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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stumbras this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Feb 2027
A row about effort at Stumbras
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Szymon Mucha was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market15 Feb 2027
He is 18, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market25 Jan 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Stumbras, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market25 Jan 2027
Skonto come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Stumbras did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market25 Jan 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Stumbras is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Suduva have kept their man, and Stumbras go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Edoardo Cavaliere 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Modestas Klimavicius 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Rory Leech still has not settled
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Stumbras would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
The dugout25 Jan 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 Stumbras, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market18 Jan 2027
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Market18 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 targets18 Jan 2027
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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Stumbras
Dobrin Petrov 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Deividas Slavickas 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 dugout18 Jan 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market4 Jan 2027
Add another name to the list: Spartaks have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Darius Cernych. The answer from Stumbras has not changed — yet.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Stumbras asked and Utenis said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Stumbras
Edoardo Cavaliere 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 targets4 Jan 2027
Utenis 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.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Stumbras have made the call to Utenis. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Market4 Jan 2027
Rory Leech is 19, and Stumbras have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Oleg Gonsevich and Stumbras agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad4 Jan 2027
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Modestas Klimavicius is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Deividas Slavickas 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.