Marked for Stepan Yermakov
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Ventspils training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alvis Jaunzems 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Ventspils
Timurs Azarovs 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Ventspils
Reinis Reinholds 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Ventspils
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alvis Jaunzems was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Stepan Yermakov and Ventspils agree another 2 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Sep 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 Ventspils can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 24 signed and 0 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
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Skonto is saying, and nobody at Ventspils is enjoying the guessing.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Ventspils
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alvis Jaunzems was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Ventspils asked and Liepaja said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market7 Sep 2026
12 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Squad7 Sep 2026
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Where he used to play does most of his talking for him at Ventspils. The room defers to it, the kids study it, and the only thing that can puncture it is a bad month.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 Aug 2026
93 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Skonto lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market31 Aug 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Skonto say no — this time
The offer from Liepaja for Marcis Stolcers 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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The deal with Zalgiris 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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Slavia Prague is saying, and nobody at Skonto is enjoying the guessing.
Market31 Aug 2026
Stepan Yermakov has left for Ventspils in a $38.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Transfer targets31 Aug 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Metta/LU pay $6.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Skonto
Igors Laizans 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The clubs have shaken hands with Skonto; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Raphael Ayagwa 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.
Transfer targets31 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Timurs Azarovs 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
The shape has not worked since the summer and the reason was never a mystery. Stepan Yermakov comes in from Skonto to be the missing piece, which is a flattering description and a heavy one.
Squad31 Aug 2026
13 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The clubs have shaken hands with Skonto; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A muscle injury sidelines Oshobe Oladele for 16 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Ventspils will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Ventspils
Kelechi Chimezie 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 targets24 Aug 2026
Ventspils asked and Liepaja 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 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Timurs Azarovs commits to Ventspils for another 3 years.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
A loan move for Pavels Ciganovs is in the works
Ventspils 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.