It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jelgava this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Nobody at Jelgava 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Jelgava, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Jelgava will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Jelgava can pretend not to have heard.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Filipe Quintas has just signed for Jelgava, and for once the answer mattered.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Spartaks have kept their man, and Jelgava go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Words at Jelgava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Josh Lewis 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.
Nobody at Jelgava 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.
Nobody sells a season ticket on a signing like this. Every manager who has been through a bad October wants one anyway, and Jelgava have gone and got theirs early.
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Jelgava lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Jelgava will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Transfer targets7 Aug 2028
$2.6M settles it between the clubs for Gatis Kamess
Skonto have accepted the money. What Jelgava do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Jelgava have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 Jelgava, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jelgava this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roberts Zjuzins was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The name of Roberts Gabovs has come up in conversations Jelgava were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
In brief
The dugoutJanis Laizans has become a man the manager trusts
Position 6 and 10 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Jelgava have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Jelgava can pretend not to have heard.
Roberts Zjuzins 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 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.
4 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Jelgava is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout29 May 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Olegs Savalnieks to a room that had heard them before.
Position 6 and 5 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Jelgava is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Roberts Zjuzins 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Davis Vanins’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Jelgava needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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 Janis Laizans is on it.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Jelgava would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Josh Johnson trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jelgava this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Jelgava are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Tiernan Brooks knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Olegs Savalnieks to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Tiernan Brooks'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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at Jelgava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Davis Vanins 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Janis Ciganovs will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Jelgava the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Roberts Zjuzins and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Jelgava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Davis Vanins 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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Raivis Savalnieks trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A brace, and Davis Dubra takes the afternoon — 8.88
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Davis Dubra provided it, and the 8.88 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jelgava this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 2‑2 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Jelgava would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Jelgava they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Roberts Zjuzins 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.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Jelgava
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Igors Oss 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Roberts Dubra is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Vitalijs Vanins is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and William O'Sullivan has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Davis Vanins 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Jelgava is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Davis Vanins trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Somebody to talk to at the next peg, a few words of the language, and a training ground that has stopped being a foreign country. It never appears in a scouting report and it decides most signings.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Daugavpils waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Jelgava is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Jelgava, and it is not being withdrawn.
Kalu Nweke 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ventspils have kept their man, and Jelgava go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Jelgava, another week without a signature from Roberts Zjuzins.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Jelgava people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Spartaks have accepted the money. What Jelgava do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Skonto have kept their man, and Jelgava go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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 Jelgava know it.
Kalu Nweke 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 easiest signature of my career.” Taiwo Olonisakin and Jelgava agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at Jelgava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roberts Zjuzins 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.
Kalu Nweke 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 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 words a physio says slowly. 17 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Jelgava they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Kalu Nweke and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Amadou Traoré 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Jelgava, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Jelgava are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Kalu Nweke 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Amadou Traoré 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.
Kalu Nweke 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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Jelgava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amadou Traoré 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.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Jelgava know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Something was said to Ikenna Motors and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
47 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Jelgava lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jelgava this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Jelgava will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
56 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Jelgava lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Jelgava have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The deal with Skonto 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.
Kalu Nweke 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 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Mory Cissé 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.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
3 appearances and 0 goals is not a season away, it is a year lost. He is back at Jelgava no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their fault.
71 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Jelgava lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Jelgava people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Position 3, 16 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.
Jelgava and Spartaks have settled on $400.0K. 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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jelgava this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I watch every Jelgava 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.
94 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Daugavpils lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The deal with Jelgava 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.
Ziad Ouled-Haj-M'hand 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Jelgava have kept their man, and Daugavpils go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Nobody at Daugavpils 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 words a physio says slowly. 103 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Jelgava have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 Jelgava, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal with Skonto 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Jelgava are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The phone has started ringing about Janis Ciganovs again, and this time the name on the line is Spartaks. Jelgava are listening politely and promising nothing.
“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 Jelgava know it.
Add another name to the list: Liepaja have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Olegs Oss. The answer from Jelgava has not changed — yet.
“I watch every Jelgava 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nikita Bulvitis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Jelgava the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Jelgava are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Ziad Ouled-Haj-M'hand 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.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Joel Yakubu 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Nikita Jurkovskis after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Davis Vanins’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Daugavpils needing him to play as if none of it matters.
In brief
The dugoutDāvis Cucurs asks for a word with the manager
Spartaks go through and Jelgava 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.
5 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Jelgava they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
William O'Sullivan 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mory Cissé was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Skonto next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Marked 8.08 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
In brief
Player ratingsDavis Dubra beats them one at a time
Up for the corner, and Wiktor Gromek delivers — 7.67
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Wiktor Gromek scored, was marked 7.67, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Daugavpils have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
He is 22 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Joel Yakubu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Jelgava will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
At 22 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nikita Bulvitis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Jelgava the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 Jelgava know it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jelgava this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The words a physio says slowly. 38 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nikita Bulvitis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Jelgava the goodbyes have quietly begun.
William O'Sullivan 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Jelgava, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Jelgava would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. William O'Sullivan arrives at Jelgava with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Jelgava, and both men came out saying it was fine.