Marked for Pavels Stolcers
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market20 Nov 2028
“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.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Harald Martin Hauso 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.
Squad20 Nov 2028
The medical room confirms 24 days on the sidelines for Pavels Stolcers, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market23 Oct 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Ventspils, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Harald Martin Hauso 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 Oct 2028
Words at Ventspils training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitalijs Ikaunieks 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
Upbeat
Squad20 Mar 2028
A fracture rules Gatis Tarasovs out for 94 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ventspils will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad20 Mar 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Pavels Stolcers
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ventspils lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Harald Martin Hauso 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.
Match18 Mar 2028
Whatever happens, Ventspils do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Ventspils training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitalijs Ikaunieks 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 ratings20 Mar 2028
The afternoon belonged to Patrik Vydra
A mark of 7.15, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad13 Mar 2028
A fracture rules Gatis Tarasovs out for 101 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ventspils will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad13 Mar 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Pavels Stolcers
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ventspils lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market13 Mar 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ventspils can pretend not to have heard.
Squad13 Mar 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ventspils this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Vitalijs Ikaunieks 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 Mar 2028
A fracture rules Gatis Tarasovs out for 108 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ventspils will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad6 Mar 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Pavels Stolcers
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ventspils lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Igors Bulvitis and Ventspils agree another 3 years.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Harald Martin Hauso 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.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Market6 Mar 2028
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Alvis Ikaunieks is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market6 Mar 2028
One of our own: Gatis Oss joins the Ventspils first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Gatis Oss is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market6 Mar 2028
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Eduards Tarasovs has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market6 Mar 2028
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Alvis Jagodinskis is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
In brief
-
Boardroom
Ventspils turn down the training-ground plan
-
Boardroom
Ventspils keep producing them
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad20 Sep 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 15 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad20 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 Ventspils this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Sep 2027
A move Kakha Kobiashvili 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. Kakha Kobiashvili is living that version at Ventspils, and it tends to show in the first month.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad13 Sep 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 22 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market13 Sep 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ventspils is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad13 Sep 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Ventspils know it.
Loan watch13 Sep 2027
“I watch every Ventspils game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Liepaja runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Kaspars Gabovs has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Ventspils 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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Chovanie Amatkarijo keeps the shirt for now, at Ventspils's convenience rather than his own.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad6 Sep 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 29 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Loan watch6 Sep 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 Ventspils, and 0 appearances in 33 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Pavels Oss in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ventspils this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Sep 2027
5 new faces, and Ventspils are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Squad6 Sep 2027
A season on the outside for Lazar Balević
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Ventspils has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Market6 Sep 2027
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Gatis Gabovs leaves Ventspils the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Aug 2027
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.
Match30 Aug 2027
19 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Axel Aamodt gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Axel Aamodt has just signed for Ventspils, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Igors Bulvitis 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
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Axel Aamodt and Ventspils agree another 3 years.
Loan watch30 Aug 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 Ventspils, and 0 appearances in 33 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Aug 2027
Kristaps Ikaunieks damages knee ligaments — 17 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 17 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 43 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad23 Aug 2027
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Breki Freyr Ágústsson is living that version at Ventspils, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad23 Aug 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 Ventspils this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market23 Aug 2027
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Aug 2027
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ventspils lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 50 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market16 Aug 2027
Metta/LU come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Ventspils did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Harald Martin Hauso 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 watch16 Aug 2027
“I watch every Ventspils game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Liepaja runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Market16 Aug 2027
Metta/LU are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Ventspils will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Aug 2027
Kristaps Ikaunieks 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 57 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad9 Aug 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 Ventspils this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market9 Aug 2027
Add another name to the list: Metta/LU have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Eduards Fertovs. The answer from Ventspils has not changed — yet.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Lachlan Middleton and Ventspils agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Loan watch9 Aug 2027
“I watch every Ventspils 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
Squad2 Aug 2027
Kristaps Ikaunieks damages knee ligaments — 40 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 40 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
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.
Match2 Aug 2027
Ventspils are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 19 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Jul 2027
Vitalijs Rugins damages knee ligaments — 30 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 30 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 Jul 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 71 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad26 Jul 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Ventspils may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Jul 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 78 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad19 Jul 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Ventspils may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market19 Jul 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Dmitriy Tokarev 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 watch19 Jul 2027
“I watch every Ventspils game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Liepaja runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Market19 Jul 2027
Metta/LU are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Ventspils will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Jul 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 85 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Igors Bulvitis 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.
Market12 Jul 2027
Add another name to the list: Metta/LU have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Eduards Fertovs. The answer from Ventspils has not changed — yet.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Jul 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 94 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match5 Jul 2027
Ventspils refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 19 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ventspils have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Jun 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 101 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market28 Jun 2027
“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 Jun 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 Ventspils this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Jun 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 108 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market21 Jun 2027
Metta/LU come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Ventspils did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Ventspils training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Igors Bulvitis 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.
Squad21 Jun 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 Ventspils this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch21 Jun 2027
“I did not go to Liepaja to sit and watch. I want to come back to Ventspils and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 23 matches say the rest.
Squad21 Jun 2027
This league is too small for Patrik Vydra
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Ventspils will not keep him by pretending otherwise.