Marked for Ignas Slavickas
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Oct 2035
Ignas Slavickas damages knee ligaments — 37 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 37 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.
Squad1 Oct 2035
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Siauliai may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market1 Oct 2035
“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 The request is on a desk at Siauliai, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad1 Oct 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Siauliai this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Oct 2035
Words at Siauliai training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Muhammed Sevgili 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.
Market1 Oct 2035
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Aleksandre Kashia has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Siauliai.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Sep 2035
Ignas Slavickas damages knee ligaments — 44 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 44 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.
Market24 Sep 2035
Jack Mitchell 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 Siauliai can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom24 Sep 2035
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Siauliai
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces17 Sep 2035
The mood at Siauliai has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad17 Sep 2035
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ignas Slavickas
51 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Siauliai lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match17 Sep 2035
Siauliai sink to position 7
10 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market17 Sep 2035
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Siauliai can pretend not to have heard.
Squad17 Sep 2035
Azriel Gonzalez 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.
Squad17 Sep 2035
Muhammed Sevgili 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.