Marked for Gatis Laizans
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Davis Rugins has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market7 Feb 2028
Gatis Laizans hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Metta/LU can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Emergency meeting at Metta/LU
The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Window shuts: 4 in, 2 out at Metta/LU
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 4 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad7 Feb 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 Metta/LU this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Feb 2028
14 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad7 Feb 2028
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Metta/LU are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad7 Feb 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Marcis Laizans and Metta/LU agree another 3 years.
The dugout7 Feb 2028
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market14 Jun 2027
Metta/LU say no — this time
The offer from Jelgava for Mahamud Abdul Karimu 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 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
A falling-out at Metta/LU
Mahamud Abdul Karimu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market14 Jun 2027
Add another name to the list: Liepaja have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Daniils Ulimbaševs. The answer from Metta/LU has not changed — yet.
Squad14 Jun 2027
A row about effort at Metta/LU
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gianluca Scremin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Abubakar Abubakar, and the manager let it.
Market14 Jun 2027
“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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Metta/LU will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Squad14 Jun 2027
At 15 he was the best of everybody his age in the division for one weekend. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 May 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ivo Minkevičs
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Metta/LU lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match29 May 2027
9 matches without a win for Metta/LU
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Metta/LU are no longer polite ones.
Match29 May 2027
9 matches without a goal for Metta/LU
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 9 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Market31 May 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Metta/LU can pretend not to have heard.
Squad31 May 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad31 May 2027
Mahamud Abdul Karimu 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 terraces31 May 2027
He is 15 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Looking ahead31 May 2027
Metta/LU face Spartaks in the game that matters most
Two sides from the bottom of the table, three points, and an afternoon that will be described afterwards as a relegation decider by whoever loses it.
The dugout31 May 2027
No place for Alvis Gabovs on the big day
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Metta/LU pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match10 May 2027
Metta/LU sink to position 7
4 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
The dugout10 May 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Metta/LU may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad10 May 2027
Words exchanged at Metta/LU
David Habila and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad10 May 2027
Gianluca Scremin 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.
Looking ahead10 May 2027
Both clubs in the mire, one fixture between them, and a ground that will be louder and more frightened than at any point in the season. Metta/LU know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.
The dugout10 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Seun Ogunribide
“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.
Market10 May 2027
“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.
Squad10 May 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Marcis Ciganovs commits to Metta/LU for another 3 years.
Squad10 May 2027
Gatis Laizans, 15, is the weekend’s best young player
Measured against every other kid in the division and first among them. The senior award is where Metta/LU would like this to lead.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match1 May 2027
The wait goes on for Metta/LU
6 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.
Match1 May 2027
The goals have deserted Metta/LU
6 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Metta/LU can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad3 May 2027
Mahamud Abdul Karimu 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 May 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Metta/LU can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Metta/LU training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alvis Gabovs 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 terraces3 May 2027
At 15 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.
The dugout3 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.
Market3 May 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Metta/LU, another week without a signature from David Habila.
Squad3 May 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Kristaps Ikaunieks and Metta/LU agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words exchanged at Metta/LU
Mahamud Abdul Karimu and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Boardroom5 Apr 2027
The numbers do not look good at Metta/LU
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Metta/LU training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gianluca Scremin 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.
Match3 Apr 2027
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kelvin Leku, and the manager let it.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Davis Rugins after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad5 Apr 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Gatis Laizans
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Gatis Laizans has come out of that comparison in the side, and Metta/LU have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.