Marked for Nikita Jurkovskis
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Eduards Stolcers
100 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.
Market9 Nov 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 The request is on a desk at Spartaks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad9 Nov 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 Spartaks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
Eduards Stolcers damages knee ligaments — 131 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 131 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.
Market12 Oct 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 The request is on a desk at Spartaks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alvis Savalnieks and Spartaks agree another 5 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Sep 2026
Alam Garcete 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.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Liepaja will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Danila Patijčuks has pre-agreed a move to Daugavpils, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Squad14 Sep 2026
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
Market14 Sep 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 The request is on a desk at Spartaks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Loan watch14 Sep 2026
“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 Spartaks, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Alvis Savalnieks 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
Squad10 Aug 2026
Alam Garcete 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 Aug 2026
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Squad10 Aug 2026
This league is too small for Alam Garcete
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. Daugavpils will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Market10 Aug 2026
48 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Squad10 Aug 2026
5 new faces, and Daugavpils 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Daugavpils bring in an old head
Yeferson Paz is 36 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
Market10 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 Spartaks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Eduards Vanins and Spartaks agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 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 Spartaks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
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. Spartaks will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Market10 Aug 2026
Igors Bulvitis is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Spartaks has been clear about where Igors Bulvitis stands, which is more than many ever get.