Marked for Frank Baranov
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market8 Feb 2027
So close: Richard Aland’s move dies late
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Tulevik moved on, Richard Aland reports back to Tammeka, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A muscle injury and 14 days out for Muhammed Hydara
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Tammeka will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Pavel Marin, and the manager let it.
Market8 Feb 2027
Tammeka and Alfredo are talking past each other
“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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Mattias Sapp 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 Tammeka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Laurits Õunpuu 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
The clubs have shaken hands with Flora; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Market11 Jan 2027
Georg Lani 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 Tammeka can pretend not to have heard.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Japhet Matondo arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Japhet Matondo has, at Tammeka, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Tammeka asked and Flora said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Tristan Koskor 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 dugout11 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Pavel Marin
“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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Tammeka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrick Genro Veelma 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Japhet Matondo and Tammeka agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market14 Dec 2026
Georg Lani 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 Tammeka can pretend not to have heard.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Tammeka
Pavel Marin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Dec 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Thomas Lisboa commits to Tammeka for another 4 years.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Thomas Lisboa, and the manager let it.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Tammeka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Georg Lani 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 dugout14 Dec 2026
Rasmus Kallas knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rasmus Kallas trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Tammeka
Tanel Lang and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Tammeka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrick Genro Veelma 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Tammeka are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 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 Tammeka, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market31 Aug 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Tammeka is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market31 Aug 2026
Mattis Karis has left for Sillamae Kalev in a $18.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Liliu Ainsalu 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Tammeka have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Georg Lani 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.
The dugout31 Aug 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.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
He goes off to be somebody else’s player for a fortnight. Tammeka lose him for the window and would like him returned in the condition he left.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Aug 2026
Tammeka bow out of the cup
Levadia go through and Tammeka go home, 2‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Frank Baranov, 14, plays like he has been here for years — 8.08
A mark of 8.08 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 14-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Tammeka asked and Sillamae Kalev said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Tristan Koskor 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
29 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Tammeka
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Patrick Genro Veelma was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Mihkel Hein after 2‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
No place for Liliu Ainsalu in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Tammeka are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match12 Aug 2026
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Reio Laabus obliged against Parnu. 3‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Tammeka.
Market17 Aug 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Tammeka people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.14, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A debut Frank Baranov will not forget — 7.45
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 0 on the scoresheet, 7.45 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Chilem Williams Ignatius, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.88
A mark of 7.88 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market17 Aug 2026
FCI Tallinn come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Tammeka did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Sillamae Kalev, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Tammeka asked and Sillamae Kalev said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad17 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 Tammeka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.