Marked for Darius Cernych
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market9 Aug 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Stumbras people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
The clubs have shaken hands with Atlantas; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Market9 Aug 2027
“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.
Market9 Aug 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Darius Cernych and Stumbras agree another 3 years.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Siauliai have kept their man, and Stumbras go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad9 Aug 2027
A falling-out at Stumbras
Tadas Valskis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad9 Aug 2027
A row about effort at Stumbras
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Modestas Klimavicius was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout9 Aug 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match7 Jun 2027
Every point is an argument now for Stumbras
Position 8 and 9 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market7 Jun 2027
Stumbras say no — this time
The offer from Suduva for Darius Cernych 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 Jun 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 The request is on a desk at Stumbras, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match5 Jun 2027
5 matches without a win for Stumbras
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Stumbras are no longer polite ones.
Squad7 Jun 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Tomas Dubickas commits to Stumbras for another 2 years.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Siauliai have kept their man, and Stumbras go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words exchanged at Stumbras
Tadas Valskis 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.
Match5 Jun 2027
Siauliai left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad7 Jun 2027
A row about effort at Stumbras
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Modestas Klimavicius was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 May 2027
Words exchanged at Stumbras
Waness El Ghazza 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.
The terraces24 May 2027
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Stumbras training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Modestas Klimavicius 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 dugout24 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Waness El Ghazza, and the manager let it.
Player ratings24 May 2027
Marked 7.33 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Stumbras had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout24 May 2027
The team sheet said everything about Edoardo Cavaliere
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Edoardo Cavaliere.
The dugout24 May 2027
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Match22 May 2027
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Utenis will be the happier side with the point.
Player ratings24 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 11. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market17 May 2027
“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.
Market17 May 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.
Match15 May 2027
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad17 May 2027
A falling-out at Stumbras
Tadas Valskis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 May 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.
Looking ahead17 May 2027
Everything rides on Utenis
Both clubs in the mire, one fixture between them, and a ground that will be louder and more frightened than at any point in the season. Stumbras know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.
The dugout17 May 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.
The dugout17 May 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Linas Paulauskas after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout17 May 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Karolis Valskis
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Apr 2027
Stumbras are in real trouble now
Position 6, 4 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market12 Apr 2027
“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.
Match10 Apr 2027
The wait goes on for Stumbras
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad12 Apr 2027
A falling-out at Stumbras
Jean Koffi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match10 Apr 2027
Kauno Zalgiris left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout12 Apr 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.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Linas Paulauskas after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Stumbras training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Modestas Klimavicius 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.
Market12 Apr 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Stumbras, another week without a signature from Noam Benramdane.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market22 Mar 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.
Market22 Mar 2027
Only the photograph left for Justas Simkus
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Justas Simkus will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Stumbras the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad22 Mar 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.
Match20 Mar 2027
0‑1 to Atlantas, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Waness El Ghazza 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 dugout22 Mar 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.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Linas Paulauskas left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
Squad22 Mar 2027
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Stumbras will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Mar 2027
14 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Stumbras lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.58 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market15 Mar 2027
Tadas Simkus hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Stumbras can pretend not to have heard.
Match13 Mar 2027
Three points for Stumbras, 2‑1 the final word against Trakai in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad15 Mar 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.
The terraces15 Mar 2027
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Noam Benramdane 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Stumbras can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Feb 2027
Oleg Gonsevich damages knee ligaments — 35 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 35 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.
Market22 Feb 2027
Only the photograph left for Justas Simkus
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Justas Simkus will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Stumbras the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad22 Feb 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
A muscle injury and 15 days out for Tadas Simkus
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Stumbras will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Stumbras training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Szymon Mucha 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.
Market22 Feb 2027
Noam Benramdane is 18, 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Feb 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mihkel Ainsalu
87 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A fracture rules Artur Pikk out for 44 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ventspils will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Stumbras keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Osas Okoro wants to finish where he started
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and Ventspils now know that too.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Diogo Belo gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Diogo Belo has just signed for Ventspils, and for once the answer mattered.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rodina have kept their man, and Ventspils go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market8 Feb 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Arturs Dubra is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market8 Feb 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Janis Ciganovs has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
Nobody at Ventspils will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market1 Feb 2027
Kauno Zalgiris arrived with $620.0K and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
Market1 Feb 2027
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Darius Cernych had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The terraces1 Feb 2027
Saulius Vaitkunas has gone, the accounts have $620.0K in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Market1 Feb 2027
Tadas Simkus hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Stumbras can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Window shuts: 5 in, 1 out at Stumbras
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 5 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Market1 Feb 2027
Trakai 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.
Squad1 Feb 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 targets1 Feb 2027
The window shuts on the Ignas Plūkas deal
Stumbras ran out of time with Suduva. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Szymon Mucha and Stumbras agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Feb 2027
Mihkel Ainsalu damages knee ligaments — 94 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 94 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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Ventspils close the window on a squad of their own making
10 in and 1 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Tibeau van Leerdam commits to Ventspils for another 3 years.
Squad1 Feb 2027
A row about effort at Ventspils
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Suleiman Abdullahi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Ventspils are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Transfer targets1 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.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
A loan enquiry to Skonto: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
Stumbras 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.
Market1 Feb 2027
“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.
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
Market11 Jan 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Trakai waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Stumbras is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market11 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 targets11 Jan 2027
$53.0K settles it between the clubs for Ignas Plūkas
Suduva have accepted the money. What Stumbras do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Utenis keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Alexis Alibert gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Alexis Alibert has just signed for Stumbras, and for once the answer mattered.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Stumbras asked and Atlantas said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Stumbras
Edoardo Cavaliere and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market11 Jan 2027
The name of Tomas Lasickas has come up in conversations Stumbras were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
A loan enquiry to Kauno Zalgiris: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Nov 2026
36 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Stumbras lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market30 Nov 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 Stumbras can pretend not to have heard.
Squad30 Nov 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 Stumbras this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
Donatas Paulauskas damages knee ligaments — 86 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 86 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.
Market12 Oct 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 Stumbras can pretend not to have heard.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Darius Cernych and Stumbras agree another 4 years.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Stumbras
Tadas Valskis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Darius Cernych, and the manager let it.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Stumbras
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Deividas Slavickas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Oct 2026
Donatas Paulauskas damages knee ligaments — 93 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 93 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.
Market5 Oct 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 Stumbras, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad5 Oct 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 Stumbras this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Tadas Valskis 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 dugout5 Oct 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Deividas Satkus is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Sep 2026
100 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Stumbras lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Tadas Valskis 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 Sep 2026
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
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
Deadline passes with 25 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Ventspils until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Ventspils had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Skonto, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
$34.0K was the most the club would pay and Liepaja were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Ventspils
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Taijo Teniste was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“100 caps was 100 more than the boy who started ever expected.” At 38 he has stepped away from the national side and has not stepped away from Ventspils.
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
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Darius Cernych has moved up it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A season on the outside for Oko Onyedika
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Ventspils has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $15.0K — a club that wants Davis Laizans enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Utenis, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Jelgava wanted more than $15.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Ventspils training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Taijo Teniste 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Metta/LU have kept their man, and Ventspils go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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 Ventspils this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Aleksandrs Fertovs and Ventspils agree another 3 years.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
Nobody at Ventspils will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Ventspils know which stage they are at.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Darius Cernych had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Market10 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 Stumbras, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market10 Aug 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Stumbras people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Stumbras have done the hard part with Kauno Zalgiris, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Tadas Valskis and Stumbras agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Tadas Valskis 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Stumbras asked and Kauno Zalgiris said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout10 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
Mihkel Ainsalu 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Jelgava have kept their man, and Ventspils go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Arturs Oss is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Igors Gabovs is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Aleksandrs Fertovs is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Roberts Gabovs has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Squad10 Aug 2026
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Ventspils know which stage they are at.
Squad10 Aug 2026
No place for Kelvin Leku in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Ventspils are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
A loan move for Sandali Condé is in the works
Ventspils have made the call to Admira Wacker. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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 Stumbras, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad3 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 Stumbras this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Shinnik have kept their man, and Stumbras go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tadas Valskis 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Stumbras have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Rokas Jankauskas and Stumbras agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Kauno 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.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
Tadas Valskis 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.