Marked for Spas Dyakov
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad22 Oct 2029
Joseph Nathaniel damages knee ligaments — 57 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 57 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.
Match22 Oct 2029
First, on 31 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.
Market22 Oct 2029
Only the photograph left for Oladeji Joshua
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Oladeji Joshua will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ventspils the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad22 Oct 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ventspils this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Oct 2029
A row about effort at Ventspils
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amar Haïdara was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout22 Oct 2029
Sudais Ali Baba has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Ventspils will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market5 Mar 2029
“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 The request is on a desk at Ventspils, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout5 Mar 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Ventspils may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad5 Mar 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nikolay Zabolotny and Ventspils agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Raphael Ayagwa 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.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Brorie Idiebiru 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.
Squad5 Mar 2029
“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 Ventspils know it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match26 Feb 2029
Every point is an argument now for Ventspils
Position 5 and 12 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad26 Feb 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ventspils this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Words at Ventspils training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iļja Korotkovs 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match29 Jan 2029
Every point is an argument now for Ventspils
Position 5 and 12 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market29 Jan 2029
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Ventspils have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market29 Jan 2029
“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 Ventspils, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets29 Jan 2029
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Ventspils have done the hard part with Slovan Bratislava, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad29 Jan 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ventspils this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets29 Jan 2029
Ventspils asked and Dinamo Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Brorie Idiebiru 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 dugout29 Jan 2029
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Raphael Ayagwa is on it.
Squad29 Jan 2029
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market8 Jan 2029
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Ventspils people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Squad8 Jan 2029
A fracture rules Gatis Ikaunieks out for 14 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ventspils will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market8 Jan 2029
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market8 Jan 2029
“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.
Transfer targets8 Jan 2029
Everything agreed with Skonto, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Raphael Ayagwa 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.
Transfer targets8 Jan 2029
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad8 Jan 2029
A row about effort at Ventspils
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Brorie Idiebiru was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad8 Jan 2029
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Ventspils can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.