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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Skonto have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Skonto they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Moustapha Diaw 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.
“I watch every Skonto game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Daugavpils runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Skonto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pavels 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.
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.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Ionuţ Gurău is in the works
Skonto and Spartaks have settled on $330.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Skonto they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The deal with Liepaja 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.
Skonto asked and Daugavpils said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Linas Jankauskas 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 offer from Ventspils for Davis Bulvitis 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.
The phone has started ringing about Linas Jankauskas again, and this time the name on the line is Spartaks. Skonto are listening politely and promising nothing.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Skonto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Metta/LU have kept their man, and Skonto go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is 19 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Skonto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pavels 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.