Gatis Laizans

Central Defender - Jelgava
26 Jun 2027
Saturday
Process

Marked for Gatis Laizans

41 Edition

The Jelgava Sentinel

10 May 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Arturs Ikaunieks keeps Jelgava in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Market

Only the photograph left for Davis Vanins

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Davis Vanins will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Jelgava the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Vladimirs Jagodinskis out for 37 days

The medical room confirms 37 days on the sidelines for Vladimirs Jagodinskis, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.

Squad

Words exchanged at Jelgava

Arturs Ikaunieks 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.

Match

A bad afternoon for Jelgava against Ventspils

1‑3 to Ventspils, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

Squad

Gatis Laizans stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Gatis Laizans and Jelgava agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

The dugout

The view from the dugout

“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Raivis Fertovs to a room that had heard them before.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Davis Vanins

Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

The dugout

Gatis Laizans knocks on the manager's door

“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Jelgava, and both men came out saying it was fine.

In brief

Back issues
36 Edition

The Jelgava Sentinel

5 Apr 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

Jelgava up to position 3

7 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.

Player ratings

Davis Vanins beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 25. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad

Words exchanged at Jelgava

Arturs Ikaunieks 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.

Match

A bad afternoon for Jelgava against Liepaja

1‑3 to Liepaja, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

Squad

Vladimirs Jagodinskis 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.

The dugout

No hiding place for Arturs Ikaunieks

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Arturs Ikaunieks, and the manager let it.

Loan watch

Kaspars Bulvitis counts the days

“I watch every Jelgava game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Metta/LU runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.

The dugout

Raivis Fertovs answers for it

“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.

Player ratings

Gatis Laizans will replay that one

1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.

In brief