Marked for Arturs Zjuzins
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Aug 2032
Roberts Savalnieks damages knee ligaments — 113 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 113 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 2032
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Spartaks will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom2 Aug 2032
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.
Squad2 Aug 2032
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.
Squad2 Aug 2032
37 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Boardroom2 Aug 2032
Spartaks pull $1.4M back off the table
The money that was there in the summer is not there now. Nobody upstairs calls this a change of ambition, and everybody downstairs reads it as one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Jul 2032
Roberts Savalnieks damages knee ligaments — 120 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 120 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 2032
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Spartaks will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad26 Jul 2032
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Jun 2032
Raivis Fertovs 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.
Squad28 Jun 2032
Đorđe Glišović 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 Jun 2032
Joshua Romero 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
Squad14 Jun 2032
Raivis Jagodinskis 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.
Market14 Jun 2032
Spartaks say no — this time
The offer from Metta/LU for Arturs Zjuzins was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market14 Jun 2032
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings7 Jun 2032
Successful dribbles: 50. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Jun 2032
Raivis Jagodinskis damages knee ligaments — 22 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 22 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.
Player ratings7 Jun 2032
Two goals and a mark of 8.59 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market7 Jun 2032
“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.
Squad7 Jun 2032
Igors Rugins 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.
Market7 Jun 2032
Add another name to the list: Metta/LU have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Arturs Zjuzins. The answer from Spartaks has not changed — yet.
Match5 Jun 2032
Metta/LU made Spartaks work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings7 Jun 2032
Ninety minutes of Igors Rugins at his very best
Marked 8.24. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Spartaks.
Squad7 Jun 2032
Words at Spartaks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joshua Romero 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
Squad17 May 2032
Raivis Jagodinskis 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.
Player ratings17 May 2032
Successful dribbles: 33. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings17 May 2032
No sign of nerves from Danylo Rotan at 20 — 8.08
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Danylo Rotan did not need any: 8.08, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings17 May 2032
Anthony Fontana, 33, rolls back the years — 8.02
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.02 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market17 May 2032
“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.
Market17 May 2032
Arturs Zjuzins has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Spartaks they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad17 May 2032
Đorđe Glišović 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.
Match15 May 2032
Jelgava made Spartaks work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The terraces17 May 2032
At 20 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 May 2032
Raivis Jagodinskis damages knee ligaments — 50 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 50 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.
Match8 May 2032
Nowhere to hide for Spartaks
1‑6 against Liepaja, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Player ratings10 May 2032
Successful dribbles: 34. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad10 May 2032
A fracture rules Raivis Oss out for 17 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Spartaks will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market10 May 2032
“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.
Squad10 May 2032
There were 7 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 May 2032
Raivis Jagodinskis damages knee ligaments — 57 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 57 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.
Squad3 May 2032
A fracture rules Raivis Oss out for 24 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Spartaks will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings3 May 2032
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Apr 2032
Raivis Jagodinskis damages knee ligaments — 64 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 64 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 2032
A fracture rules Raivis Oss out for 31 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Spartaks will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match26 Apr 2032
Spartaks sink to position 5
5 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad26 Apr 2032
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.
Match24 Apr 2032
Three points for Spartaks, 2‑0 the final word against Ventspils in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings26 Apr 2032
Marked 8.14 — 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.
Squad26 Apr 2032
Words at Spartaks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joshua Romero 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 ratings26 Apr 2032
The substitution nobody applauded turned out to be the whole story. Spartaks were going nowhere until he came on.
Player ratings26 Apr 2032
10 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings19 Apr 2032
Successful dribbles: 42. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad19 Apr 2032
Raivis Jagodinskis 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.
Squad19 Apr 2032
A fracture rules Raivis Oss out for 38 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Spartaks will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match17 Apr 2032
8 matches without a win for Spartaks
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Spartaks are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings19 Apr 2032
Danylo Rotan, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.75
A mark of 7.75 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market19 Apr 2032
“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.
Market19 Apr 2032
Arturs Zjuzins has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Spartaks they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad19 Apr 2032
Igors Rugins 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 Spartaks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Apr 2032
Joshua Romero 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
Crisis
Squad22 Mar 2032
Raivis Jagodinskis 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.
Match20 Mar 2032
Beaten 0‑5 by Liepaja, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad22 Mar 2032
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 38 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market22 Mar 2032
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Spartaks is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match20 Mar 2032
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.
Match20 Mar 2032
The goals have deserted Spartaks
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Spartaks can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad22 Mar 2032
Đorđe Glišović 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.
Match20 Mar 2032
Spartaks leaking at the back
4 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.
Squad22 Mar 2032
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Đorđe Glišović, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom23 Feb 2032
The scrutiny sharpens at Spartaks
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Spartaks is running low.
Market23 Feb 2032
Arturs Zjuzins has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Spartaks they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad23 Feb 2032
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
Market16 Feb 2032
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Spartaks can pretend not to have heard.
Squad16 Feb 2032
Đorđe Glišović 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 Feb 2032
Joshua Romero 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
Market9 Feb 2032
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad9 Feb 2032
“The easiest signature of my career.” Vitalijs Jagodinskis and Spartaks agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad9 Feb 2032
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
Squad2 Feb 2032
“The easiest signature of my career.” Vitalijs Jagodinskis and Spartaks agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad2 Feb 2032
Đorđe Glišović 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.
Market2 Feb 2032
Add another name to the list: Ventspils have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Arturs Zjuzins. The answer from Spartaks has not changed — yet.
Squad2 Feb 2032
Joshua Romero 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.
Squad2 Feb 2032
Anthony Fontana 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.
Market2 Feb 2032
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Janis Kamess has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Spartaks.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom26 Jan 2032
The scrutiny sharpens at Spartaks
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Spartaks is running low.
Market26 Jan 2032
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Spartaks is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad26 Jan 2032
Igors Rugins 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
Market12 Jan 2032
Metta/LU come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Spartaks did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad12 Jan 2032
Igors Rugins 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.
Squad12 Jan 2032
Words at Spartaks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joshua Romero 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
Uneasy
Squad5 Jan 2032
Đorđe Glišović 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.
Market5 Jan 2032
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Spartaks have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad5 Jan 2032
Anthony Fontana 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.
Squad5 Jan 2032
The captaincy has been taken off Anthony Fontana. Spartaks will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
Squad5 Jan 2032
Dominique Meyer 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.
Boardroom5 Jan 2032
$1.3M taken back off the Spartaks table
What was available in the summer has quietly gone. Upstairs nobody will call it a change of ambition; downstairs nobody will call it anything else.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market15 Dec 2031
Arturs Zjuzins has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Spartaks they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad15 Dec 2031
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.
Squad15 Dec 2031
Words at Spartaks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joshua Romero 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
Uneasy
Squad17 Nov 2031
A knee injury of the worst kind for Eduards Tarasovs
33 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.
Market17 Nov 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Spartaks is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad17 Nov 2031
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
Market20 Oct 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Spartaks is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad20 Oct 2031
Erik Sappinen: 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.
Squad20 Oct 2031
Igors Rugins 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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Squad
When it matters, Gatis Vanins plays
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market22 Sep 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Spartaks is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad22 Sep 2031
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.
Squad22 Sep 2031
Words at Spartaks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joshua Romero 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
Market25 Aug 2031
Arturs Zjuzins has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Spartaks they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad25 Aug 2031
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.
Squad25 Aug 2031
Olegs Jurkovskis 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
Squad11 Aug 2031
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.
Squad11 Aug 2031
Words at Spartaks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joshua Romero 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.
Squad11 Aug 2031
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Roberts Savalnieks commits to Spartaks for another 2 years.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Aug 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Đorđe Glišović and Spartaks agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad4 Aug 2031
Đorđe Glišović 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.
Market4 Aug 2031
The name of Arturs Zjuzins has come up in conversations Spartaks were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market16 Jun 2031
Ventspils come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Spartaks did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad16 Jun 2031
Đorđe Glišović 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 Jun 2031
Gatis Vanins 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
Player ratings9 Jun 2031
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad9 Jun 2031
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.
Market9 Jun 2031
The phone has started ringing about Arturs Zjuzins again, and this time the name on the line is Ventspils. Spartaks are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad9 Jun 2031
Words at Spartaks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gatis Vanins 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.
Match7 Jun 2031
Metta/LU made Spartaks work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad9 Jun 2031
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Arturs Vanins commits to Spartaks for another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match10 May 2031
1‑4 to Liepaja, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Match10 May 2031
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.
Squad12 May 2031
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Gatis Vanins and Spartaks agree another 4 years.
Squad12 May 2031
Igors Rugins 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.
Squad12 May 2031
Words at Spartaks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gatis Vanins 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.
Squad12 May 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Raivis Ikaunieks, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Apr 2031
A knee injury of the worst kind for Marcis Bulvitis
33 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.
Squad7 Apr 2031
A fracture rules Erik Sappinen out for 31 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Spartaks will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market7 Apr 2031
Arturs Zjuzins has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Spartaks they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings10 Mar 2031
Successful dribbles: 38. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match8 Mar 2031
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Spartaks scored in the 95th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Squad10 Mar 2031
A fracture rules Erik Sappinen out for 59 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Spartaks will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings10 Mar 2031
Igors Vanins, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.77
A mark of 7.77 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings10 Mar 2031
7.57, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Market10 Mar 2031
Arturs Zjuzins has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Spartaks they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad10 Mar 2031
Đorđe Glišović 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.
Boardroom10 Mar 2031
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Spartaks
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Match8 Mar 2031
It finished 2‑1, and it was Olegs Jurkovskis’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Spartaks.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Feb 2031
A fracture rules Erik Sappinen out for 87 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Spartaks will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market10 Feb 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Spartaks is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad10 Feb 2031
Đorđe Glišović 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
Squad3 Feb 2031
A fracture rules Erik Sappinen out for 94 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Spartaks will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad3 Feb 2031
Igors Rugins 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.
Squad3 Feb 2031
Words at Spartaks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joshua Romero 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.
Market3 Feb 2031
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Spartaks will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad3 Feb 2031
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.
Market3 Feb 2031
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad20 Jan 2031
A fracture rules Erik Sappinen out for 108 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Spartaks will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market20 Jan 2031
Spartaks say no — this time
The offer from Metta/LU for Arturs Zjuzins was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad20 Jan 2031
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
Squad13 Jan 2031
A fracture rules Erik Sappinen out for 115 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Spartaks will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad13 Jan 2031
“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.
Squad13 Jan 2031
Đorđe Glišović 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
Market23 Dec 2030
Arturs Zjuzins has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Spartaks they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad23 Dec 2030
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 Dec 2030
Words at Spartaks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joshua Romero 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.