Marked for Marcis Stolcers
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market22 Jan 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Skonto can pretend not to have heard.
Market22 Jan 2029
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Skonto people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets22 Jan 2029
Fee done, terms next for Ingars Pūlis
Skonto and Liepaja have settled on $720.0K. 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.
Transfer targets22 Jan 2029
Everything agreed with Banik Ostrava, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Words exchanged at Skonto
Miguel Vieira 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.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Words at Skonto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Florenc Farruku 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.
Transfer targets22 Jan 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Vojvodina have kept their man, and Skonto go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout22 Jan 2029
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 Marius Klimavicius is on it.
Market22 Jan 2029
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market15 Jan 2029
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Skonto people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market15 Jan 2029
“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.
The dugout15 Jan 2029
Radosław Turek: that is not what I was promised
“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.
Transfer targets15 Jan 2029
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Skonto have done the hard part with AEK, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad15 Jan 2029
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 targets15 Jan 2029
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.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Words at Skonto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcis Stolcers 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.
Transfer targets15 Jan 2029
A loan move for Zoran Alilović is in the works
Skonto have made the call to Vojvodina. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets15 Jan 2029
A loan enquiry to Banik Ostrava: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Jan 2029
The knee: João Forelle out for 17 days
17 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Skonto lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad1 Jan 2029
24 days out for Eduards Laizans after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Skonto will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match1 Jan 2029
Skonto are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 20 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market1 Jan 2029
“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.
Squad1 Jan 2029
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Skonto will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
Oliwier Hyla: that is not what I was promised
“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.
Market1 Jan 2029
Only the photograph left for João Fidalgo
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. João Fidalgo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Skonto the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Words exchanged at Skonto
Marius Klimavicius 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 Jan 2029
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Marcis Stolcers has his answer from Skonto; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad13 Nov 2028
The knee: João Forelle out for 69 days
69 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Skonto lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match9 Nov 2028
Skonto do the business in Europe
0‑0. Continental football is where a club finds out what it actually is, and Skonto came through the finding-out well against Pogon.
Squad13 Nov 2028
78 days out for Eduards Laizans after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Skonto will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match6 Nov 2028
The small margins put Skonto out
Out, 1‑2 to Liepaja, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Squad13 Nov 2028
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Skonto have had the benefit of it.
Squad13 Nov 2028
A falling-out at Skonto
Marius Klimavicius and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings13 Nov 2028
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings13 Nov 2028
Marked 7.44 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Skonto had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Marcis Stolcers will call it something else in private.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market4 Sep 2028
“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 Skonto, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets4 Sep 2028
$710.0K settles it between the clubs for Ingars Pūlis
Liepaja have accepted the money. What Skonto do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Deadline passes with 9 signed and 17 gone
That is the business done at Skonto 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.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Words exchanged at Skonto
Fawaz Abdullahi 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.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Armand Rada 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.
Squad4 Sep 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Eduards Laizans commits to Skonto for another 3 years.
Squad4 Sep 2028
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Skonto know which stage they are at.
The dugout4 Sep 2028
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
Steady
Market21 Aug 2028
“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 Skonto, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad21 Aug 2028
The medical room confirms 38 days on the sidelines for Nikita Ikaunieks, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Words exchanged at Skonto
Armand Rada 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.
The dugout21 Aug 2028
This is not rotation. Emmanuel Ini has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Skonto is pretending otherwise.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Florenc Farruku 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 targets21 Aug 2028
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.
Market21 Aug 2028
The phone has started ringing about Gonçalo Dias again, and this time the name on the line is Daugavpils. Skonto are listening politely and promising nothing.
Transfer targets21 Aug 2028
A loan enquiry to Dinamo Minsk: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets21 Aug 2028
A loan enquiry to Sigma Olomouc: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match14 Aug 2028
Skonto are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 20 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market14 Aug 2028
So close: Gatis Kamess’s move dies late
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Jelgava moved on, Gatis Kamess reports back to Skonto, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Market14 Aug 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 Skonto can pretend not to have heard.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Miguel Vieira is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Market14 Aug 2028
Only the photograph left for João Fidalgo
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. João Fidalgo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Skonto the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets14 Aug 2028
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Dinamo Minsk is saying, and nobody at Skonto is enjoying the guessing.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Tempers go at Skonto
Marius Klimavicius 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.
Squad14 Aug 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Marcis Stolcers and Skonto agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad14 Aug 2028
A row about effort at Skonto
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Armand Rada was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Aug 2028
Liepaja come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Skonto did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market7 Aug 2028
“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 Aug 2028
Only the photograph left for Gonçalo Dias
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gonçalo Dias will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Skonto the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Words exchanged at Skonto
Valentine Ozornwafor 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 targets7 Aug 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Liepaja have kept their man, and Skonto go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market7 Aug 2028
The Gatis Kamess conversation is coming
Everyone has stopped pretending: Jelgava will make the call about Gatis Kamess this week. Skonto have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Armand Rada 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 targets7 Aug 2028
A loan enquiry to Slavia Prague: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets7 Aug 2028
Sigma Olomouc 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
Uneasy
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
A brace, and Marius Klimavicius takes the afternoon — 8.89
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marius Klimavicius provided it, and the 8.89 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market20 Mar 2028
Emmanuel Ini 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 Skonto can pretend not to have heard.
Match18 Mar 2028
It had gone 7 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Armand Rada 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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words exchanged at Skonto
Marius Klimavicius 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.
Match18 Mar 2028
Spartaks made Skonto work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad20 Mar 2028
International break empties Skonto
4 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Marcis Savalnieks could afford to be generous.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad13 Mar 2028
A falling-out at Skonto
Valentine Ozornwafor and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 Mar 2028
A row about effort at Skonto
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Florenc Farruku was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad13 Mar 2028
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Skonto can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
Gatis Kamess 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.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
Marcis Stolcers 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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Igors Vanins has had enough of the bench
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Skonto will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 Jan 2028
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Skonto people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Squad31 Jan 2028
A falling-out at Skonto
Armand Rada and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Florenc Farruku 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 Jan 2028
Skonto asked and Olimpija Ljubljana said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout31 Jan 2028
The manager makes an example of Miguel Vieira
“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.
Transfer targets31 Jan 2028
A loan move for Ionuţ Gurău is in the works
Skonto have made the call to Bylis. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets31 Jan 2028
Skonto have made the call to FCSB. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout31 Jan 2028
Marcis Stolcers 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.
The dugout31 Jan 2028
Vitalijs Dubra 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
Uneasy
Squad24 Jan 2028
Kaspars Jurkovskis damages knee ligaments — 18 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 18 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.
Match24 Jan 2028
Skonto are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 17 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Skonto may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market24 Jan 2028
“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.
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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Words exchanged at Skonto
Valentine Ozornwafor 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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Words at Skonto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Florenc Farruku 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 dugout24 Jan 2028
Marcis Stolcers 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.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
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
Crisis
Match9 Dec 2027
Skonto beaten on the continent
0‑1 against Hatayspor, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
Match9 Dec 2027
No end in sight to Skonto's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Skonto has to find a result from somewhere.
Market13 Dec 2027
“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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
A falling-out at Skonto
Armand Rada and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at Skonto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcis Stolcers 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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
38 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout13 Dec 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.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
The team sheet said everything about Tom Flanagan
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Tom Flanagan.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad6 Dec 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Skonto can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad6 Dec 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 Skonto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
Arturs Cauna faces a manager he fell out with
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at Skonto expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Arturs Cauna.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Armand Rada 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
This league is too small for Armand Rada
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Skonto will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Market6 Dec 2027
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match29 Nov 2027
Skonto refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 17 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Match25 Nov 2027
Skonto come up short in Europe
1‑3 away to the standard of Podbeskidzie. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
Match25 Nov 2027
No end in sight to Skonto's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Skonto has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad29 Nov 2027
A falling-out at Skonto
Valentine Ozornwafor and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 Nov 2027
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
Arturs Cauna faces a manager he fell out with
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at Skonto expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Arturs Cauna.
Squad29 Nov 2027
A row about effort at Skonto
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gatis Kamess was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
The manager makes an example of Marcis Stolcers
“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.
Market29 Nov 2027
16 games and 5 goals away from here, and a man the manager did not have last summer. The loan did what loans are supposed to do and almost never do.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Nov 2027
Miguel Vieira is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Gatis 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 Skonto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
Arturs Cauna faces a manager he fell out with
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at Skonto expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Arturs Cauna.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words at Skonto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcis Stolcers 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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Skonto can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
The manager makes an example of Gonçalo Dias
“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
Steady
Market18 Oct 2027
“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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Tempers go at Skonto
Valentine Ozornwafor 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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Skonto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gatis Kamess 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 dugout18 Oct 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Davis Kamess's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
Marcis Stolcers 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.
The dugout18 Oct 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
Steady
Squad2 Aug 2027
75 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Skonto lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market2 Aug 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Skonto people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Tempers go at Skonto
Miguel Vieira 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” João Forelle and Skonto agree another 4 years.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Skonto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gatis Kamess 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.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Slavia Prague have kept their man, and Skonto go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Loan watch2 Aug 2027
“I did not go to Metta/LU to sit and watch. I want to come back to Skonto and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 29 matches say the rest.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
A loan enquiry to Dinamo City: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
A loan enquiry to Jelgava: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market12 Apr 2027
Only the photograph left for Gatis Kamess
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gatis Kamess will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Skonto the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match10 Apr 2027
Three points for Skonto, 1‑0 the final word against Metta/LU in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad12 Apr 2027
A row about effort at Skonto
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jan Dorożko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad12 Apr 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Marcis Stolcers and Skonto agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad12 Apr 2027
A falling-out at Skonto
Gatis Kamess and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.93 on the card, and the Skonto support went home talking about one name.
Loan watch12 Apr 2027
“I watch every Skonto game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Metta/LU runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.