Marked for Kaspars Oss
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match30 Oct 2028
Every point is an argument now for Spartaks
Position 6 and 7 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad30 Oct 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Eduards Jurkovskis and Spartaks agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad30 Oct 2028
A falling-out at Spartaks
Kaspars Oss and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
The manager makes an example of Blair McKenzie
“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 dugout30 Oct 2028
“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.
Squad30 Oct 2028
The language is arriving, the jokes are landing, and there is somebody at the next peg to talk to. None of it appears in a scouting report and all of it shows up on the pitch.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market11 Sep 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.
Transfer targets11 Sep 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Liepaja have kept their man, and Spartaks go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad11 Sep 2028
A row about effort at Spartaks
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arturs Laizans was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad11 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 Spartaks know which stage they are at.
Squad11 Sep 2028
A falling-out at Spartaks
Kaspars Oss and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
“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 dugout11 Sep 2028
David Habila has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Spartaks 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 dugout11 Sep 2028
Marcis Laizans knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Spartaks, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Pavels Savalnieks joins up with his country. Spartaks lose him for the window and would like him back in one piece.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Jul 2028
Spartaks bow out of the cup
Liepaja go through and Spartaks go home, 0‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Market24 Jul 2028
Add another name to the list: Metta/LU have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Janis Zjuzins. The answer from Spartaks has not changed — yet.
Transfer targets24 Jul 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.
The dugout24 Jul 2028
“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 dugout24 Jul 2028
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Words exchanged at Spartaks
Kaspars Oss 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 Jul 2028
A row about effort at Spartaks
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marcis Laizans was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets24 Jul 2028
A loan move for Marcis Gabovs is in the works
Spartaks 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.
The dugout24 Jul 2028
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 Pavels Savalnieks is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market26 Jun 2028
Janis Zjuzins has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Spartaks they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market26 Jun 2028
Kaspars Oss 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 Spartaks can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets26 Jun 2028
Spartaks offered $460.0K; Jelgava said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad26 Jun 2028
A row about effort at Spartaks
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oskars Vientiess was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Boris Chkalov 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 dugout26 Jun 2028
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 Pavels Savalnieks is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match5 Apr 2028
The wait goes on for Spartaks
21 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.
The terraces10 Apr 2028
Supporters organise against the Spartaks board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Kaspars Oss decides it from twelve yards
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Match5 Apr 2028
Spartaks through in the cup
A 0‑0 win over Jelgava, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match5 Apr 2028
10 matches without a goal for Spartaks
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 10 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad10 Apr 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Spartaks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Apr 2028
A row about effort at Spartaks
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oskars Vientiess was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings10 Apr 2028
Twelve yards, a goalkeeper guessing, and it still did not go in. He will take the next one, and every soul in the ground will hold their breath.
Player ratings10 Apr 2028
Nobody on the pitch touched David Habila
7.47, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Spartaks had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match25 Mar 2028
19 matches without a win for Spartaks
The run now stands at 19, and the questions being asked around Spartaks are no longer polite ones.
Match25 Mar 2028
0‑5 to Liepaja, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Market27 Mar 2028
Janis Zjuzins 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 Spartaks can pretend not to have heard.
Match25 Mar 2028
Spartaks cannot find the net
8 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
“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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
A falling-out at Spartaks
Pavels Ciganovs and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to David Habila, and the manager let it.
Boardroom27 Mar 2028
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
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 0‑5 Vitalijs Dubra left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 Mar 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Arturs Rugins and Spartaks agree another 3 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at Spartaks
Vladimirs Bulvitis 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.
Boardroom8 Mar 2027
5 academy graduates step up at Spartaks
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Pavels 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.
Match6 Mar 2027
Ventspils left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Market8 Mar 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Olegs Ciganovs is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market8 Mar 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Gatis Ikaunieks has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market8 Mar 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Eduards Vanins is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market8 Mar 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Vitalijs Stolcers has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Feb 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
Spartaks had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Dinamo City, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad8 Feb 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 Spartaks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
Spartaks asked and Teuta Durrës said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Spartaks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arturs Rugins 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
68 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Jan 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 Spartaks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets25 Jan 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Pavels 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 dugout25 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Roberts Vanins, and the manager let it.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Vllaznia Shkodër 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 dugout25 Jan 2027
David Habila knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Spartaks, and both men came out saying it was fine.