Marked for Vitalijs Tarasovs
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces24 Jan 2028
The mood at Jelgava has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad24 Jan 2028
39 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Jelgava lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 114 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market24 Jan 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market24 Jan 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Jelgava can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
The deal with Metta/LU is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Market24 Jan 2028
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Metta/LU moved on, Yakov Zarutskiy reports back to Jelgava, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
Jelgava asked and Skonto said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Nikita Ciganovs 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces27 Dec 2027
The mood at Jelgava has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad27 Dec 2027
A fracture rules Davis Jurkovskis out for 142 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Jelgava will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words exchanged at Jelgava
Vitalijs Fertovs 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces29 Nov 2027
The mood at Jelgava has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad29 Nov 2027
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Jelgava will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Vladimirs Jurkovskis 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.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Vitalijs Tarasovs is on it.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Vladimirs Jurkovskis trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad29 Nov 2027
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Jelgava would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces1 Nov 2027
The mood at Jelgava has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad1 Nov 2027
24 days out for Kaspars Stolcers after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Jelgava will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words exchanged at Jelgava
Vitalijs Fertovs 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.
Market1 Nov 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Jelgava, another week without a signature from Suleiman Nasiru.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Jelgava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikita 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.
The dugout1 Nov 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 Jelgava, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces4 Oct 2027
Anger at Jelgava spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Vladimirs Jurkovskis 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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Nikita Gabovs 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
Market6 Sep 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 Jelgava can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Jelgava close the window on a squad of their own making
8 in and 12 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Every paper's favourite story and every manager's least. What happened is being dealt with internally, which is the phrase clubs use when they would rather nobody asked again.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words exchanged at Jelgava
Vitalijs Fertovs 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Jelgava know it.
Market6 Sep 2027
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Jelgava will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Transfer targets6 Sep 2027
The window shuts on the Gatis Rugins deal
Jelgava ran out of time with Spartaks. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Tempers went at Jelgava this week. Nothing a hard session and a quiet word cannot repair, though the story got out all the same.
Market6 Sep 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
Squad9 Aug 2027
Vladimirs Jurkovskis 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.
Market9 Aug 2027
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Jelgava will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Eduards Stolcers and Jelgava agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Jelgava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikita 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.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Jelgava will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Jul 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Daugavpils waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Jelgava is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
The clubs have shaken hands with Spartaks; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words exchanged at Jelgava
Vitalijs Fertovs 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 targets12 Jul 2027
Liepaja 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Jelgava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikita 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.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market14 Jun 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Jelgava people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market14 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 Jelgava, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
Spartaks wanted more than $740.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Transfer targets14 Jun 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Vladimirs Bulvitis and Jelgava agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words exchanged at Jelgava
Vitalijs Fertovs 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.
Market14 Jun 2027
Daugavpils are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Jelgava will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Vitalijs Tarasovs is on it.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Jelgava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kaspars Savalnieks 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
Crisis
Match15 May 2027
11 matches without a win for Jelgava
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Jelgava are no longer polite ones.
Squad17 May 2027
Eduards Stolcers damages knee ligaments — 27 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 27 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.
Squad17 May 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad17 May 2027
Vladimirs Jurkovskis 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.
Match15 May 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout17 May 2027
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout17 May 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad17 May 2027
Nikita Gabovs 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.
Player ratings17 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 13. 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
Uneasy
Squad19 Apr 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Eduards Stolcers
56 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Jelgava lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match17 Apr 2027
The wait goes on for Jelgava
8 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.
Match17 Apr 2027
The goals have deserted Jelgava
6 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Jelgava can tell you which week it ends in.
The terraces19 Apr 2027
He is 22 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
A falling-out at Jelgava
Nikita Ciganovs and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Apr 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; Jelgava are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
Marked 7.49. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad19 Apr 2027
A row about effort at Jelgava
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikita Gabovs was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Eduards Rugins
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market11 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 Jelgava, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market11 Jan 2027
The phone has started ringing about Nikita Gabovs again, and this time the name on the line is Spartaks. Jelgava are listening politely and promising nothing.
Market11 Jan 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Jelgava, another week without a signature from Suleiman Nasiru.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Nikita Ciganovs 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A row about effort at Jelgava
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikita Gabovs was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Suleiman Nasiru trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market11 Jan 2027
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Jelgava has been clear about where Davis Jurkovskis stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Oct 2026
56 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Jelgava lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A muscle injury sidelines Vitalijs Tarasovs for 17 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Jelgava will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Jelgava
Alvis Vanins and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
Metta/LU come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Jelgava did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Raivis Ciganovs and Jelgava agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 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 Jelgava this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
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.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vitalijs Fertovs, and the manager let it.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Liepaja: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.