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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at Jelgava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pavels Fertovs 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Arturs Zjuzins and Jelgava agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad6 Sep 2027
7 new faces, and Jelgava 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.
“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 Jelgava, and 0 appearances in 33 say he has earned the hearing.
The loan was meant to give him football. 0 games and 0 goals later he is back at Jelgava no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their doing.
“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 The request is on a desk at Jelgava, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Miroslav Hamsik is living that version at Jelgava, and it tends to show in the first month.
Cándido Ramírez 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.
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.
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. Jelgava will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
“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.
Cándido Ramírez 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
Words at Jelgava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alvis Savalnieks 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.
“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 Jelgava, and it is not being withdrawn.
Cándido Ramírez 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 Jun 2027
Words at Jelgava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alvis Savalnieks 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.
“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 Jelgava, and 0 appearances in 22 say he has earned the hearing.
Alvis Savalnieks 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.
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.
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Jelgava lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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.
Cándido Ramírez 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.
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Jelgava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alvis Savalnieks 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.
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 49 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Marcis Cauna could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.64
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.64, 1 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Liepaja have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Liepaja this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
Player ratingsTimi Ogunniyi misses from twelve yards
The words a physio says slowly. 47 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.
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.
Vladimirs Jagodinskis 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.
At 23 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.
76 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Jelgava lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 19 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Jelgava know it.
Janis Vanins 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 65 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
In brief
SquadWords at Jelgava training over how hard people work
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 86 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The offer from Jelgava for Rodolphe Ekou 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Liepaja this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.