Marked for Kaspars Vanins
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Oct 2026
“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 Metta/LU know it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Kaspars Vanins and Metta/LU agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Gilles Lentz 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 Metta/LU this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Aug 2026
Kārlis Vilnis damages knee ligaments — 55 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 55 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Gilles Lentz 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 Metta/LU this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Gianluca Scremin 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Aug 2026
Ventspils say no — this time
The offer from Skonto for Marcis Jurkovskis 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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 The request is on a desk at Ventspils, and it is not being withdrawn.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
Supporters turn on the $110.0K sale of Olegs Cauna
He is going to Jelgava, the club has $110.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Squad24 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ventspils this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market24 Aug 2026
Business is business: Olegs Cauna goes
Jelgava paid $110.0K and Ventspils took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Market24 Aug 2026
Kaspars Vanins has left for Metta/LU in a $9.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Raivis Oss runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 61. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match12 Aug 2026
Daugavpils ended it 1‑1. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Eduards Laizans: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad17 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ventspils this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market17 Aug 2026
The name of Igors Stolcers has come up in conversations Ventspils were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Ventspils training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aleksandrs Jurkovskis 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Raivis Cauna, and the manager let it.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
Jelgava come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Ventspils did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Raivis Cauna and Ventspils agree another 2 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Vladimirs Jagodinskis 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Davis Tarasovs 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Eduards Laizans
“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.
Market10 Aug 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Kaspars Vanins has his answer from Ventspils; what he does with it is the next window’s story.