Vladimirs Vanins

Centre Forward - Metta/LU
20 Sep 2026
Sunday
Process

Marked for Vladimirs Vanins

3 Edition

The Jelgava Sentinel

17 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Olegs Cauna damages knee ligaments — 29 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 29 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.

Match

Jelgava out of the cup

Spartaks ended it 0‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.

Squad

Tempers go at Jelgava

Mikel Kaloshi 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.

Squad

Mikel Kaloshi 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.

Squad

Words at Jelgava training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcis Savalnieks 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.

Market

Igors Jagodinskis told to find a new club

“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Igors Jagodinskis has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Jelgava.

In brief

Back issues
3 Edition

The Metta/LU Gazette

17 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

Metta/LU bow out of the cup

Liepaja go through and Metta/LU go home, 0‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.

The terraces

A cup hiding at Liepaja leaves Metta/LU explaining themselves

0-3, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.

Player ratings

Örken Makhan runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

Tempers go at Metta/LU

Slaviša Bogdanović 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.

Squad

Örken Makhan 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.

Squad

Filip Valenčič 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.

Squad

This league is too small for Kevin Díaz

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. Metta/LU will not keep him by pretending otherwise.

Boardroom

Nobody left the Metta/LU dressing room in a hurry

The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.

Market

Metta/LU shop where it costs nothing

Kevin Díaz signs, and the fee column stays empty. Deals like this look small in July and clever by March — or they are never mentioned again.

In brief

2 Edition

The Jelgava Sentinel

10 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Olegs Cauna

36 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.

Market

Marcis Savalnieks puts it in writing

“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.

Squad

Marcis Cauna stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Marcis Cauna and Jelgava agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

Tempers go at Jelgava

Mikel Kaloshi 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.

Market

Metta/LU join the queue for Vladimirs Vanins

Add another name to the list: Metta/LU have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Vladimirs Vanins. The answer from Jelgava has not changed — yet.

Squad

Marcis Dubra 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.

In brief