Marked for Arturs Bulvitis
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Arturs Bulvitis
84 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.
Market18 Jan 2027
Ventspils say no — this time
The offer from Metta/LU for Vladimirs Dubra 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Alvis Kamess 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
5 new faces, and Ventspils are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Joey Brandt has outgrown this division
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Ventspils know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Market18 Jan 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Gatis Laizans has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Ventspils.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Arturs Bulvitis
91 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Davis Dubra and Ventspils agree another 3 years.
Squad11 Jan 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 Ventspils this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Jan 2027
Arturs Bulvitis damages knee ligaments — 99 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 99 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Ventspils training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aquiles Ocanto 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.
Market4 Jan 2027
Add another name to the list: Spartaks have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Vladimirs Fertovs. The answer from Ventspils has not changed — yet.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Dec 2026
Arturs Bulvitis damages knee ligaments — 106 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 106 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.
Squad28 Dec 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Aquiles Ocanto 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
Steady
Squad21 Dec 2026
Arturs Bulvitis damages knee ligaments — 113 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 113 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Eduards Dubra out for 14 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Kristaps Kamess has become a man the manager trusts
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
Steady
Squad14 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Arturs Bulvitis
121 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Eduards Dubra breaks a bone — 22 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 22 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Aquiles Ocanto 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
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
Aquiles Ocanto 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
Words at Ventspils training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raivis Fertovs 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Kristaps Kamess has become a man the manager trusts
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
Steady
Squad21 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 Ventspils this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Aquiles Ocanto 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.
Loan watch21 Sep 2026
“I watch every Ventspils game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Liepaja runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Ventspils training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aquiles Ocanto 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.
Loan watch14 Sep 2026
“I did not go to Daugavpils to sit and watch. I want to come back to Ventspils and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Vitalijs Dubra has become a man the manager trusts
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
Steady
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.
Market7 Sep 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
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.