Marked for Vikintas Cernych
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces27 Sep 2027
Anger at Metta/LU 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.
Boardroom27 Sep 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at Metta/LU
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Metta/LU is running low.
Market27 Sep 2027
Chisom Onije 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 Metta/LU can pretend not to have heard.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words exchanged at Metta/LU
Mahamud Abdul Karimu 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Olegs Ciganovs 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 dugout27 Sep 2027
Ahmed Guettaf 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.
Market27 Sep 2027
No place for Paul Petit in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Paul Petit has his answer from Metta/LU; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout27 Sep 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 dugout27 Sep 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 Daniils Ulimbaševs is on it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match9 Aug 2027
Metta/LU are in real trouble now
Position 6, 10 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.
Market9 Aug 2027
Jacey Pansa 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 Metta/LU can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad9 Aug 2027
A falling-out at Metta/LU
Mahamud Abdul Karimu 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
Olegs Ciganovs 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 dugout9 Aug 2027
Noel Reit gets it from the manager
“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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Daniils Ulimbaševs commits to Metta/LU for another 1 years.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
Spartaks 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 dugout9 Aug 2027
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Apr 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 Metta/LU this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match24 Apr 2027
Spartaks left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Metta/LU training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Olegs Ciganovs 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 dugout26 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gianluca Scremin, and the manager let it.
The dugout26 Apr 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 1‑3 Vitalijs Fertovs left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad26 Apr 2027
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Metta/LU will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
Market26 Apr 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Metta/LU, another week without a signature from Ivo Minkevičs.
The dugout26 Apr 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 Metta/LU, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 13. 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
Upbeat
Squad2 Nov 2026
Taofeek Otaniyi gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Taofeek Otaniyi has just signed for Skonto, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Skonto
Linas Jankauskas 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.
Loan watch2 Nov 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Skonto, and 0 appearances in 12 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
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 Skonto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets21 Sep 2026
Skonto asked and Jelgava said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Loan watch21 Sep 2026
“I did not go to Metta/LU to sit and watch. I want to come back to Skonto and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 6 matches say the rest.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Abdullahi Akpan commits to Skonto for another 3 years.
Market21 Sep 2026
Skonto have let the market know Olegs Ciganovs can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Igors Stolcers has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Skonto 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
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Gianluca Scremin and Metta/LU agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“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 Metta/LU know it.
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 Metta/LU this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Metta/LU training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gianluca Scremin 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
Still no offer on the table, and Mahamud Abdul Karimu’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Rodolphe Ekou is in the works
Metta/LU have made the call to Liepaja. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Metta/LU have made the call to Skonto. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Jelgava 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 targets3 Aug 2026
Spartaks 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Skonto
Linas Jankauskas 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 targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Siauliai have kept their man, and Skonto go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Skonto
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Olegs Ciganovs was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market3 Aug 2026
The name of Vikintas Cernych has come up in conversations Skonto were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
Olegs Ciganovs knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Olegs Ciganovs trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A strip of cloth that decides nothing on the pitch and tells the dressing room whose opinion counts. The manager has made a statement without making one.