Marked for Davis Stolcers
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Aug 2028
Igors Laizans breaks a bone — 51 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 51 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market14 Aug 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.
Squad14 Aug 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Jul 2028
The cup run ends for Ventspils
1‑5 against Liepaja, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Squad24 Jul 2028
A fracture rules Igors Laizans out for 73 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.
The terraces24 Jul 2028
A cup hiding at Liepaja leaves Ventspils explaining themselves
1-5, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
Squad24 Jul 2028
“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.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Pavels Ikaunieks 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.
Match19 Jul 2028
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Ventspils and Liepaja, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Denis Baumgartner 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.
Boardroom24 Jul 2028
Nobody left the Ventspils 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.
Market24 Jul 2028
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Olegs Tarasovs has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Ventspils.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 May 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Peter Tschernegg
48 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.
Market1 May 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.
Player ratings1 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad1 May 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.
Squad1 May 2028
Arian Mršulja 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.
Squad1 May 2028
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Apr 2028
Peter Tschernegg damages knee ligaments — 63 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 63 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 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market17 Apr 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.
Squad17 Apr 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.
Match15 Apr 2028
0‑1 to Metta/LU, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Arian Mršulja 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
Squad13 Mar 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Peter Tschernegg
99 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: 34. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
Two goals and a mark of 8.41 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market13 Mar 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.
Match11 Mar 2028
No end in sight to Ventspils's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Ventspils has to find a result from somewhere.
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
Words at Ventspils training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denis Baumgartner 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.
Match11 Mar 2028
Ventspils make home a hard place to visit
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Arturs Dubra gets it from the manager
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Feb 2028
Peter Tschernegg damages knee ligaments — 121 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 121 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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Peter Tschernegg 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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Denis Baumgartner 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
Squad3 Jan 2028
A fracture rules Roberts Vanins out for 27 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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Ventspils will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Peter Tschernegg 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
Steady
Squad15 Nov 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 77 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad15 Nov 2027
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Ventspils have had the benefit of it.
Squad15 Nov 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
Squad27 Sep 2027
Roberts Vanins breaks a bone — 126 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 126 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match27 Sep 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Peter Tschernegg 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
Steady
Squad6 Sep 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Ventspils may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market6 Sep 2027
Only the photograph left for Olegs Tarasovs
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Olegs Tarasovs will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ventspils the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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 Ventspils this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at Ventspils training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arian Mršulja 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
16 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Market6 Sep 2027
Ventspils bring in an old head
Peter Tschernegg is 35 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market30 Aug 2027
$260.0K — a new record at Ventspils
No footballer has ever cost this club more, and the number will be read out every time he misplaces a pass for the next two years.
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
Pavels Ikaunieks 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
A move Ramin Khodadad 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. Ramin Khodadad is living that version at Ventspils, and it tends to show in the first month.
The terraces30 Aug 2027
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Ivans Patrikejevs from Liepaja for $260.0K, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Market30 Aug 2027
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Ventspils will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Steady
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.
Squad2 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.
Market2 Aug 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Ventspils have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
From our football correspondent
Steady
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
Arturs Dubra 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 2027
Gatis Kamess 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
Squad7 Jun 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Gianluca Scremin
19 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.
Match7 Jun 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.
Match5 Jun 2027
Still nobody has beaten Ventspils
The unbeaten run reaches 11. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Pavels Ikaunieks 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Di Stefano Castillo has just signed for Ventspils, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Ventspils training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gatis Kamess 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.
Match5 Jun 2027
It needed Davis Stolcers to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Skonto, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Market7 Jun 2027
Olegs Tarasovs is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Ventspils has been clear about where Olegs Tarasovs stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 May 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Gianluca Scremin
26 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.
Match29 May 2027
Still nobody has beaten Ventspils
The unbeaten run reaches 10. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad31 May 2027
“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.
Player ratings31 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad31 May 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.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Ventspils training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gatis Dubra 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
Squad10 May 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Gianluca Scremin
47 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.
Match10 May 2027
Ventspils are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 14 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Player ratings10 May 2027
A brace, and Kauã Elias takes the afternoon — 8.53
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kauã Elias provided it, and the 8.53 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match8 May 2027
Still nobody has beaten Ventspils
The unbeaten run reaches 8. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad10 May 2027
Kauã Elias 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.
Match8 May 2027
It finished 3‑1, and it was Kauã Elias’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Ventspils.
Player ratings10 May 2027
Ninety minutes of Davis Stolcers at his very best
Marked 8.10. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Ventspils.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Ventspils training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amar Haïdara 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.
Squad10 May 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match13 Mar 2027
Nowhere to hide for Ventspils
1‑4 against Liepaja, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad15 Mar 2027
A fracture rules Roberts Vanins out for 20 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.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
No sign of nerves from Kauã Elias at 20 — 8.19
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Kauã Elias did not need any: 8.19, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Kauã Elias 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.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad15 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Pavels Ikaunieks, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Feb 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 60 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Kauã Elias 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Aleksandrs Stolcers 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 Jan 2027
A fracture rules Roberts Vanins out for 89 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.
Market11 Jan 2027
Ventspils say no — this time
The offer from Skonto for Davis Gabovs 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Pavels Ikaunieks 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
Steady
Squad14 Dec 2026
Kauã Elias 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Raivis Kamess 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Raivis Bulvitis commits to Ventspils for another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market2 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Kauã Elias 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Raivis Kamess 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 watch2 Nov 2026
“I did not go to Metta/LU to sit and watch. I want to come back to Ventspils and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
Squad2 Nov 2026
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.
Market2 Nov 2026
“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.