Marked for Tomas Sernas
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings24 Jul 2028
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.02 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market24 Jul 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 The request is on a desk at Kokand 1912, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Muhammadkarim Toirov 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.
Market24 Jul 2028
Azamat Soyibov has left for Lokomotiv in a $170.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Transfer targets24 Jul 2028
Kokand 1912 asked and OFK Beograd said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match22 Jul 2028
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then AGMK scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
The dugout24 Jul 2028
Tomas Sernas 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.
Player ratings24 Jul 2028
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout24 Jul 2028
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Jun 2028
Doniyor Ganiev damages knee ligaments — 38 days out
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.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Avazbek O'lmasaliyev 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 targets12 Jun 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.
Match10 Jun 2028
Mashal left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Time is catching up with Lucas Meurer
Everybody at Kokand 1912 saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 33 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
The dugout12 Jun 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Azamat Soyibov, and the manager let it.
The dugout12 Jun 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.
Transfer targets12 Jun 2028
A loan enquiry to Cukaricki: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Market12 Jun 2028
Kokand 1912 have made Andro Giorgadze available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Jun 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Doniyor Ganiev
45 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kokand 1912 lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match5 Jun 2028
10 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
The dugout5 Jun 2028
This is not rotation. Jasur Yoqubov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Kokand 1912 is pretending otherwise.
Market5 Jun 2028
AGMK come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Kokand 1912 did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets5 Jun 2028
Everything agreed with Nasaf, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Muhammadkarim Toirov 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.
Transfer targets5 Jun 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ermis have kept their man, and Kokand 1912 go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match3 Jun 2028
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Words at Kokand 1912 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roman Paparyga 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 May 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Doniyor Ganiev
52 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kokand 1912 lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match27 May 2028
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Obod, and it could have been more.
Match27 May 2028
The drought breaks for Kokand 1912
10 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Obod were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Market29 May 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mirziyod Mirodilov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kokand 1912 the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad29 May 2028
Andro Giorgadze and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 May 2028
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Kokand 1912 can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Player ratings29 May 2028
A performance of 8.70 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad29 May 2028
Roman Paparyga 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.
Market29 May 2028
He signed expecting a bigger stage than the one he found. It has not taken long, and it has not taken the dressing room long to notice either.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
Everything agreed with Jelgava, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Aleksandrs Cauna 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.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ventspils have kept their man, and Spartaks go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Eduards 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.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
A loan move for Janis Ciganovs is in the works
Spartaks have made the call to Jelgava. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
A loan move for Nikita Bulvitis is in the works
Spartaks have made the call to Jelgava. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
Eduards Vanins 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 dugout19 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Chinaza Joseph, and the manager let it.
Match19 Jul 2027
Spartaks in the hunt for Europe
Position 4, 15 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 May 2027
Pavels Savalnieks damages knee ligaments — 22 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 22 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.
Squad3 May 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.
Match1 May 2027
The goals have deserted Spartaks
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Spartaks can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad3 May 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Spartaks can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Player ratings3 May 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.
Match3 May 2027
Spartaks at the halfway mark
Half the programme played, position 6, 6 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Squad3 May 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Guilherme Venâncio and Spartaks agree another 3 years.
The dugout3 May 2027
Uri Lima 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.
The dugout3 May 2027
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Feb 2027
Pavels Savalnieks damages knee ligaments — 103 days out
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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
A falling-out at Spartaks
Roberts Zjuzins and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets15 Feb 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Vicenza have kept their man, and Spartaks go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Spartaks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eduards 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.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
Nikita Dubra 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.
The dugout15 Feb 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
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.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Vitalijs Rugins trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market15 Feb 2027
Spartaks opened the door and nobody walked through it. So Vitalijs Rugins stays — listed, trained, and available — while both sides mark the days to January on the same calendar.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Jan 2027
Pavels Savalnieks damages knee ligaments — 132 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 132 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.
Market18 Jan 2027
Spartaks say no — this time
The offer from Skonto for Tomas Sernas 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Spartaks
Roberts Zjuzins and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
Spartaks asked and Egnatia Rrogozhinë said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad18 Jan 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Chinaza Joseph and Spartaks agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
“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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
The medical room confirms 26 days on the sidelines for Aleksandrs Dubra, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
A loan move for Leonards Čevers is in the works
Spartaks have made the call to Salernitana. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Market18 Jan 2027
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Pavels Savalnieks
139 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Spartaks lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market11 Jan 2027
The unthinkable, invoiced: Igors Vanins sold
Skonto arrived with $250.0K and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
Market11 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market11 Jan 2027
Tomas Sernas 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.
The terraces11 Jan 2027
Igors Vanins has gone, the accounts have $250.0K in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Skonto keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad11 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 targets11 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.
Market11 Jan 2027
The name of Alvis Ciganovs has come up in conversations Spartaks were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Jan 2027
Pavels Savalnieks damages knee ligaments — 147 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 147 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.
Market4 Jan 2027
“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.
Market4 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad4 Jan 2027
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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
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.
Market4 Jan 2027
The phone has started ringing about Tomas Sernas again, and this time the name on the line is Skonto. Spartaks are listening politely and promising nothing.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vitalijs Rugins, and the manager let it.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
A loan enquiry to Skonto: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
A loan move for Arturs Cauna is in the works
Spartaks 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.