Marked for Kaspars Oss
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Sep 2037
Olegs Tarasovs damages knee ligaments — 15 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
Squad7 Sep 2037
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Janis Stolcers commits to Spartaks for another 3 years.
Squad7 Sep 2037
Bartłomiej Krasiewicz 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Aug 2037
Olegs Tarasovs 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.
Squad24 Aug 2037
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad24 Aug 2037
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2037
Olegs Tarasovs damages knee ligaments — 43 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 43 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.
Squad10 Aug 2037
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Spartaks may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad10 Aug 2037
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Fabio Tagliabue commits to Spartaks for another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad13 Jul 2037
Olegs Tarasovs damages knee ligaments — 71 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 71 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.
Squad13 Jul 2037
Olegs Jurkovskis: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Spartaks have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad13 Jul 2037
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad15 Jun 2037
Olegs Tarasovs damages knee ligaments — 99 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 99 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 Jun 2037
Marcis Oss breaks a bone — 36 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 36 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad15 Jun 2037
Bartłomiej Krasiewicz 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad18 May 2037
Olegs Tarasovs damages knee ligaments — 127 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 127 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.
Squad18 May 2037
Marcis Oss breaks a bone — 64 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 64 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings18 May 2037
Defensive actions: 26, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad18 May 2037
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.
Player ratings18 May 2037
A performance of 9.32 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad18 May 2037
Words at Spartaks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Apanasevich 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 terraces18 May 2037
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Fabio Tagliabue has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Match16 May 2037
Three points for Spartaks, 1‑0 the final word against Jelgava in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings18 May 2037
Ninety minutes of Fabio Tagliabue at his very best
Marked 8.06. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Spartaks.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad20 Apr 2037
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match18 Apr 2037
Spartaks cannot stop winning
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad20 Apr 2037
Bartłomiej Krasiewicz 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.
Player ratings20 Apr 2037
Marked 9.19 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Match18 Apr 2037
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Diego Puttolu. 2‑1 against Metta/LU, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces20 Apr 2037
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings20 Apr 2037
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.76, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match18 Apr 2037
Spartaks keep winning on the road
3 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Squad20 Apr 2037
Petar Marković 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
Steady
Squad6 Apr 2037
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.
Squad6 Apr 2037
“The easiest signature of my career.” Kaspars Oss and Spartaks agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad6 Apr 2037
Words at Spartaks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Apanasevich 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
Crisis
Squad23 Mar 2037
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.
Squad23 Mar 2037
Words at Spartaks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Apanasevich 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.
Match21 Mar 2037
Liepaja left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad23 Mar 2037
“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.
Squad23 Mar 2037
33 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Player ratings23 Mar 2037
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Feb 2037
Vitalijs Fertovs damages knee ligaments — 27 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 27 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.
Boardroom23 Feb 2037
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Spartaks
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad23 Feb 2037
Bartłomiej Krasiewicz 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Jan 2037
39 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.
Boardroom26 Jan 2037
Pressure builds in the Spartaks boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad26 Jan 2037
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Spartaks may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Dec 2036
67 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.
Boardroom29 Dec 2036
Pressure builds in the Spartaks boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad29 Dec 2036
Nikolay Alekhin 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Dec 2036
95 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.
Boardroom1 Dec 2036
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Spartaks
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad1 Dec 2036
129 appearances across 10 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Spartaks know what they have.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Nov 2036
123 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.
Squad3 Nov 2036
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Amar Haïdara and Spartaks agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Nov 2036
Nikolay Alekhin 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad6 Oct 2036
“The easiest signature of my career.” Magomed-Deni Tsutsulaev and Spartaks agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad6 Oct 2036
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.
Squad6 Oct 2036
Kirill Apanasevich 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
Squad8 Sep 2036
David Moreno has been here 10 seasons
105 appearances across 10 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Squad8 Sep 2036
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Bartłomiej Krasiewicz and Spartaks agree another 3 years.
Squad8 Sep 2036
Nikolay Alekhin 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Aug 2036
Nikolay Alekhin damages knee ligaments — 33 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 33 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.
Squad11 Aug 2036
Nikita Oss: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Spartaks have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad11 Aug 2036
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Jul 2036
Nikolay Alekhin damages knee ligaments — 61 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 61 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.
Squad14 Jul 2036
Kaspars Oss: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Spartaks have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad14 Jul 2036
Nikolay Alekhin 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Jun 2036
Nikolay Alekhin damages knee ligaments — 89 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 89 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.
Squad16 Jun 2036
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Spartaks have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad16 Jun 2036
Nikolay Alekhin 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 May 2036
A knee injury of the worst kind for Raivis Ciganovs
51 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.
Match17 May 2036
The wait goes on for Spartaks
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad19 May 2036
Bartłomiej Krasiewicz 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.
Squad19 May 2036
Petar Marković 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.
Squad19 May 2036
The manager makes an example of Petar Marković
“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.
Match17 May 2036
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Apr 2036
A knee injury of the worst kind for Raivis Ciganovs
79 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.
Match21 Apr 2036
Spartaks refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 10 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Player ratings21 Apr 2036
Fabio Tagliabue, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.59
A mark of 8.59 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad21 Apr 2036
Olegs Jurkovskis: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Spartaks have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad21 Apr 2036
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.
Squad21 Apr 2036
Words at Spartaks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Apanasevich 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.
Player ratings21 Apr 2036
A performance of 9.07 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match19 Apr 2036
Metta/LU made Spartaks work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The terraces21 Apr 2036
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
In brief
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Market
The Kaspars Oss story refuses to die
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Boardroom
The Spartaks production line keeps running
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The terraces
The press have found their man in Amar Haïdara
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Mar 2036
A knee injury of the worst kind for Raivis Ciganovs
107 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.
Squad24 Mar 2036
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Spartaks may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match22 Mar 2036
The wait goes on for Spartaks
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Match22 Mar 2036
Spartaks leaking at the back
6 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Squad24 Mar 2036
Bartłomiej Krasiewicz 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.
Squad24 Mar 2036
Words at Spartaks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Apanasevich 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
Steady
Squad25 Feb 2036
A knee injury of the worst kind for Raivis Ciganovs
135 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.
Market25 Feb 2036
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad25 Feb 2036
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market28 Jan 2036
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad28 Jan 2036
Bartłomiej Krasiewicz 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.
Squad28 Jan 2036
Words at Spartaks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Apanasevich 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.
Squad28 Jan 2036
The manager has not finished forgetting Magomed-Deni Tsutsulaev's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Squad28 Jan 2036
Amar Haïdara 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 Jan 2036
The Kaspars Oss story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Kaspars Oss signs something — a contract at Spartaks or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 Dec 2035
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.
Squad31 Dec 2035
Words at Spartaks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Apanasevich 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.
Squad31 Dec 2035
Amar Haïdara 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Dec 2035
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.
Squad3 Dec 2035
Petar Marković 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.
Squad3 Dec 2035
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match7 Nov 2035
Liepaja ended it 1‑3. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad12 Nov 2035
A one-man rearguard from Kaspars Oss
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad12 Nov 2035
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Spartaks will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Squad12 Nov 2035
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.
Squad12 Nov 2035
Defences have started doubling up on Diego Puttolu
7 goals and a season average of 7.47 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings12 Nov 2035
Diego Puttolu was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.87. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Market12 Nov 2035
He is 19, and nobody at Spartaks signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Player ratings12 Nov 2035
Marked 5.70. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Player ratings12 Nov 2035
A mark of 5.70 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Nov 2035
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 30 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad5 Nov 2035
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” David Moreno commits to Spartaks for another 2 years.
Squad5 Nov 2035
Bartłomiej Krasiewicz 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.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Spartaks training over how hard people work
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Market
The Kaspars Oss story refuses to die
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Boardroom
The Spartaks production line keeps running