Marked for Olegs Jurkovskis
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Nov 2026
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 dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Roberts Fertovs
“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.
Loan watch9 Nov 2026
“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 Spartaks, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Marcis Jagodinskis is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Oct 2026
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 dugout12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Raivis Bulvitis, and the manager let it.
Loan watch12 Oct 2026
“I did not go to Skonto to sit and watch. I want to come back to Spartaks and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
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 Raivis Bulvitis is on it.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Viktor Lunyov
27 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
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.
Loan watch28 Sep 2026
“I did not go to Arsenal Dzerzhinsk to sit and watch. I want to come back to Spartaks and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
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.
Market28 Sep 2026
The shop window has Tomas Sernas in it
Spartaks have let the market know Tomas Sernas can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 Aug 2026
$250.0K. No player has ever cost Spartaks more, and expectation arrives with him.
Market31 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 Spartaks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
No thanks: Jovan Zogović rejects the move
Spartaks had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Suduva, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
The town asked, and Spartaks paid $250.0K
Iļja Korotkovs was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $250.0K. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Spartaks asked and Benfica said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Igors Vanins, and the manager let it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Spartaks
Kristaps Gabovs 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 targets31 Aug 2026
A loan move for Divine Teah is in the works
Spartaks have made the call to Slavia Prague. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
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.