Marked for Kaspars Laizans
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad6 Sep 2027
Vitalijs Vanins is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad6 Sep 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Skonto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at Skonto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jhonarby Salazar 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.
Loan watch6 Sep 2027
“I watch every Skonto game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Ventspils runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Market6 Sep 2027
Kaspars Laizans returns from a loan that gave him nothing
0 appearances and 0 goals is not a season, it is a year somebody has lost. Whether that is his fault, the borrowing club's or the people who arranged it is the argument the next few weeks will have.
Squad6 Sep 2027
The captaincy has been taken off Jānis Grīnbergs. Skonto will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Aug 2027
Kirils Bujanovs: 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.” Daugavpils have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Daniel Kivinda 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Brahyan Montenegro 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
Upbeat
Squad16 Aug 2027
Tempers go at Skonto
Paris Elmensdorp 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Jhonarby Salazar 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.
Loan watch16 Aug 2027
“I did not go to Daugavpils to sit and watch. I want to come back to Skonto and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 29 matches say the rest.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Too much change too quickly at Skonto
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Squad16 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Amar Haïdara, and the manager let it.
Market16 Aug 2027
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Aleksandrs Jurkovskis leaves Skonto the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Jul 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Dobrivoj Rusov
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Skonto lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Amar Haïdara: 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.” Skonto have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Tempers go at Skonto
Gatis Laizans 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 Jul 2027
Jhonarby Salazar 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.
Loan watch19 Jul 2027
“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 Skonto, and 0 appearances in 25 say he has earned the hearing.
Market19 Jul 2027
Metta/LU are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Skonto will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Jun 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Dobrivoj Rusov
60 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Skonto lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market21 Jun 2027
Daugavpils come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Skonto did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Tempers go at Skonto
Paris Elmensdorp 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.
Market21 Jun 2027
Add another name to the list: Ventspils have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Vitalijs Gabovs. The answer from Skonto has not changed — yet.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Emil Yanchev 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.
Loan watch21 Jun 2027
“I did not go to Daugavpils to sit and watch. I want to come back to Skonto and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 21 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 May 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Dobrivoj Rusov
88 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Skonto lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match22 May 2027
Skonto are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Squad24 May 2027
Tempers go at Skonto
Gatis Laizans 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.
Match22 May 2027
Stefano Olaya scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Metta/LU, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad24 May 2027
“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.
Squad24 May 2027
Jhonarby Salazar 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.
Player ratings24 May 2027
Stefano Olaya was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.11. 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.
Boardroom24 May 2027
Nobody left the Skonto dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Loan watch24 May 2027
“I watch every Skonto game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Daugavpils runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Apr 2027
Dobrivoj Rusov damages knee ligaments — 117 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 117 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Tempers go at Skonto
Paris Elmensdorp 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Emil Yanchev 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
Squad12 Apr 2027
48 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Daugavpils lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 34 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match7 Apr 2027
Liepaja go through and Daugavpils go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Squad12 Apr 2027
There were 8 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.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Two goals and a mark of 9.03 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match10 Apr 2027
No end in sight to Daugavpils's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Daugavpils has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
No sign of nerves from Joel Yakubu at 21 — 7.81
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Joel Yakubu did not need any: 7.81, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad12 Apr 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Daugavpils this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match10 Apr 2027
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Daugavpils and Spartaks in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad29 Mar 2027
62 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Daugavpils lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 48 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market29 Mar 2027
“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 Daugavpils, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Kaspars Laizans: 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.” Daugavpils have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match27 Mar 2027
The wait goes on for Daugavpils
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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Papa Omar Gningue commits to Daugavpils for another 3 years.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.29, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 14. 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
Squad29 Mar 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Aleksandrs Kamess
117 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Skonto lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad29 Mar 2027
A fracture rules Jhonarby Salazar out for 32 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Skonto will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Emil Yanchev goes up and wins it — 7.71
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.71 for the rest of it.
Match27 Mar 2027
The wait goes on for Skonto
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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Tempers go at Skonto
Jhonarby Salazar 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Stefano Olaya, and the manager let it.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
The one thing Stefano Olaya could not do
Shots: 8, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
Loan watch29 Mar 2027
“I watch every Skonto game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Daugavpils runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Match27 Mar 2027
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Mar 2027
A fracture rules Jhonarby Salazar out for 62 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Skonto will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad1 Mar 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nikita Jurkovskis
81 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Skonto lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad1 Mar 2027
A move Axel Cruz would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Axel Cruz is living that version at Skonto, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Tempers go at Skonto
Jhonarby Salazar 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.
Loan watch1 Mar 2027
“I watch every Skonto game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Daugavpils runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Market1 Mar 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market25 Jan 2027
Dāvis Cucurs hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Daugavpils can pretend not to have heard.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Brahyan Montenegro 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Maksims Bērziņš 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
Squad23 Nov 2026
Marlon Ugarte breaks a bone — 63 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 63 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Skonto
Jhonarby Salazar 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Aleksandrs Cauna and Skonto agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Oct 2026
Marlon Ugarte breaks a bone — 91 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 91 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Skonto
Jhonarby Salazar 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Gatis Laizans 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
Squad28 Sep 2026
Marlon Ugarte breaks a bone — 121 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 121 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Skonto
Marlon Ugarte 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 Sep 2026
Words at Skonto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jhonarby Salazar 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.