Marked for Davis Bulvitis
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Aleksandrs Vanins
118 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Gor Mahia waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Spartaks is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Spartaks close the window on a squad of their own making
0 in and 1 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Market7 Sep 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Kristaps Fertovs 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 targets7 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. ND Gorica have kept their man, and Spartaks go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Aug 2026
134 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Spartaks lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market24 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Isloch waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Spartaks is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market24 Aug 2026
Spartaks say no — this time
The offer from Ventspils for Olegs Laizans 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
“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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Sportivo Luqueno, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Crvena Zvezda is saying, and nobody at Spartaks is enjoying the guessing.
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 Spartaks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Kristaps Fertovs 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 targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atyrau have kept their man, and Spartaks go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Aug 2026
141 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Spartaks lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match12 Aug 2026
Jelgava ended it 2‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Janis Dubra could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.88
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.88, 1 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
Market17 Aug 2026
Spartaks say no — this time
The offer from Metta/LU for Roberts Jagodinskis 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Isloch have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Davis Bulvitis. The answer from Spartaks has not changed — yet.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Olegs Jurkovskis 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Spartaks
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kristaps Fertovs was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
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.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Raivis Bulvitis
“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.