Marked for Kaspars Ciganovs
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 Aug 2026
Igors Zjuzins 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 Jelgava can pretend not to have heard.
Squad31 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 Jelgava this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market31 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Igors Kamess again, and this time the name on the line is Ventspils. Jelgava are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Aleksandrs Stolcers commits to Jelgava for another 3 years.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“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.
Market31 Aug 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Marcis Dubra may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Aleksandrs Stolcers trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Igors Zjuzins plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Davis Bulvitis is not doing himself any favours
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 Aug 2026
Ralfs Pakulis damages knee ligaments — 44 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 44 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.
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 The request is on a desk at Metta/LU, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Kelvin Leku 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.
Transfer targets31 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Ivo Minkevičs 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
4 Metta/LU players away with their countries
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 4 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Aug 2026
Liepaja ended it 0‑1. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $6.7K — a club that wants Alvis Cauna enough to be asked twice.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Metta/LU
Mahamud Abdul Karimu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$6.0K was the most the club would pay and Skonto were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Metta/LU asked and Jelgava said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Metta/LU training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gianluca Scremin 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
A stepping stone, not a home, for Timurs Azarovs
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Metta/LU were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.