Marked for Peter Junuzovic
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad4 Nov 2047
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings4 Nov 2047
Gonzalo Soto could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.96
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.96, 1 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
Player ratings4 Nov 2047
A brace, and Édouard Duval takes the afternoon — 9.22
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Édouard Duval provided it, and the 9.22 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings4 Nov 2047
A brace, and Thomas Braithwaite takes the afternoon — 8.22
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Thomas Braithwaite provided it, and the 8.22 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings4 Nov 2047
Davide Fabbri, 33, rolls back the years — 8.02
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.02 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market4 Nov 2047
“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.
Market4 Nov 2047
Édouard Duval has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fiorentina they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad4 Nov 2047
A move Peter Junuzovic would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Peter Junuzovic is living that version at Fiorentina, and it tends to show in the first month.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Feb 2047
Albert Strelec damages knee ligaments — 142 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 142 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.
Match11 Feb 2047
Zalgiris are in among the leaders
Position 1 and 28 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market11 Feb 2047
“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 Zalgiris, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market11 Feb 2047
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zalgiris they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market11 Feb 2047
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market11 Feb 2047
The deal that would have taken Duarte Marques to Suduva has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Zalgiris with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market21 Jan 2047
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad21 Jan 2047
Tom Smith keeps the receipts
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Zalgiris may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad21 Jan 2047
Alfie White 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 Zalgiris this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market21 Jan 2047
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Zalgiris will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad21 Jan 2047
Words at Zalgiris training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Paul Vincent 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.
Market21 Jan 2047
The phone has started ringing about Peter Junuzovic again, and this time the name on the line is Siauliai. Zalgiris are listening politely and promising nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Dec 2046
Only the photograph left for Franco Amato
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Franco Amato will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zalgiris the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad24 Dec 2046
Alfie White 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 Zalgiris this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Dec 2046
Words at Zalgiris training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Paul Vincent 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
Upbeat
Squad3 Sep 2046
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 104 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad3 Sep 2046
The words a physio says slowly. 22 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.
Market3 Sep 2046
Zalgiris say no — this time
The offer from Kauno Zalgiris for Sebastian Burlacu 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.
Market3 Sep 2046
“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.
Market3 Sep 2046
The name of Nico Rodriguez has come up in conversations Zalgiris were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Market3 Sep 2046
Only the photograph left for Franco Amato
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Franco Amato will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zalgiris the goodbyes have quietly begun.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market26 Mar 2046
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zalgiris is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad26 Mar 2046
Alfie White 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.
Match24 Mar 2046
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market26 Mar 2046
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Boardroom26 Mar 2046
Nobody left the Zalgiris dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Player ratings26 Mar 2046
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Mar 2046
Alfie White 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.
Match10 Mar 2046
Three points for Zalgiris, 1‑0 the final word against Kauno Zalgiris in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings12 Mar 2046
A performance of 8.04 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings12 Mar 2046
Nobody could get near Luke Smith
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad12 Mar 2046
Paul Vincent has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Zalgiris 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.
Squad12 Mar 2046
Words at Zalgiris training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yefim Kuzin 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.