Marked for Bryan Teixeira
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market8 Nov 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nikola Petković will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zalgiris the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad8 Nov 2027
“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 Zalgiris know it.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words exchanged at Zalgiris
Saulius Paulauskas 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.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
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 Dominik Franke is on it.
Market8 Nov 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.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vincentas Šarkauskas, and the manager let it.
Squad8 Nov 2027
A season on the outside for Grigore Turda
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Zalgiris has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Filip Karbowy has written the date down.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Zalgiris, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match1 Nov 2027
Zalgiris are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 26 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market1 Nov 2027
Marko Capan has one foot out of the door
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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Saulius Paulauskas 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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Liviu Antal is no longer first choice
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Liviu Antal has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
The dugout1 Nov 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.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad25 Oct 2027
A falling-out at Zalgiris
Carlos Olses and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
“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.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match4 Oct 2027
Zalgiris refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 26 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Market4 Oct 2027
Marko Capan has one foot out of the door
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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Liviu Antal commits to Zalgiris for another 2 years.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yuriy Kendysh, and the manager let it.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Zalgiris are still strangers to each other
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Zalgiris, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market4 Oct 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Dariuš Stankevičius has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Zalgiris.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Zalgiris than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
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 Giedrius Matulevičius is on it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market13 Sep 2027
The deal that would have taken Nemanja Mihajlović to Utenis 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.
Market13 Sep 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nikola Petković will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zalgiris the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
The manager makes an example of Filip Karbowy
“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.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
Dominik Franke 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.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Squad13 Sep 2027
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Zalgiris will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Squad13 Sep 2027
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Zalgiris would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Market13 Sep 2027
Zalgiris spent the window trying to move Nemanja Mihajlović on and nobody came. He trains with a squad that has already told him he is not part of it, and both sides now wait for the next one.
Squad13 Sep 2027
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Zalgiris will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market6 Sep 2027
“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.
Market6 Sep 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Suduva waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Zalgiris is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Match6 Sep 2027
Zalgiris refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 26 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Zalgiris close the window on a squad of their own making
14 in and 3 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Market6 Sep 2027
Marko Capan has one foot out of the door
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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
“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 Zalgiris know it.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words exchanged at Zalgiris
Carlos Olses 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.
Market6 Sep 2027
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Zalgiris will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Jul 2027
Carlos Olses decides it from twelve yards
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Match21 Jul 2027
Zalgiris through in the cup
A 2‑2 win over Kauno Zalgiris, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings26 Jul 2027
Baylee Dipepa, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.86
A mark of 7.86 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings26 Jul 2027
A defender's goal wins it for Zalgiris — 7.93
1 for Giedrius Matulevičius, marked 7.93, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Market26 Jul 2027
“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.
Market26 Jul 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nikola Petković will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zalgiris the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
The deal with Slavia Prague is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Slavia Prague is saying, and nobody at Zalgiris is enjoying the guessing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market19 Jul 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Trakai waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Zalgiris is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market19 Jul 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Carlos Olses 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 targets19 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Pescara have kept their man, and Zalgiris go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market19 Jul 2027
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Zalgiris has been clear about where Nemanja Mihajlović stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Bryan Teixeira, and the manager let it.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
A loan enquiry to Charlton Athletic: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
A loan enquiry to Slavia Prague: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market12 Jul 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Atlantas waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Zalgiris is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Match12 Jul 2027
Zalgiris up to position 3
26 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words exchanged at Zalgiris
Carlos Olses 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.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Vicenza have kept their man, and Zalgiris go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Filip Karbowy, and the manager let it.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
A loan enquiry to Charlton Athletic: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Ludogorets have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
Dominik Franke 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market5 Jul 2027
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.
Market5 Jul 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 Zalgiris can pretend not to have heard.
Market5 Jul 2027
Skonto come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Zalgiris did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad5 Jul 2027
“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 Zalgiris know it.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Palermo have kept their man, and Zalgiris go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
A loan enquiry to Pescara: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Zalgiris have made the call to Gornik Zabrze. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
Intake day at the Zalgiris academy
5 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
Market5 Jul 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Petar Bosančić has his answer from Zalgiris; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings31 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 33. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market31 May 2027
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.
Squad31 May 2027
Carlos Olses 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.
Match29 May 2027
A bad afternoon for Zalgiris against Suduva
0‑1 to Suduva, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout31 May 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout31 May 2027
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.
Squad31 May 2027
A booking nobody needed, on a night the game was already won. Zalgiris lose a player for the most avoidable reason there is.
Squad31 May 2027
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
Player ratings31 May 2027
7 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match1 May 2027
Zalgiris throw away a 2-goal lead
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Kauno Zalgiris the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Zalgiris will enjoy reviewing.
Market3 May 2027
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.
Squad3 May 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Zalgiris can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Player ratings3 May 2027
A performance of 8.26 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad3 May 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.
Match1 May 2027
A 2‑2 draw with Kauno Zalgiris leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad3 May 2027
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout3 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Giedrius Matulevičius, and the manager let it.
Squad3 May 2027
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout29 Mar 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Zalgiris may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 29. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
“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.
Match27 Mar 2027
Level with 93 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Zalgiris had all but put away. Siauliai will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Squad29 Mar 2027
5 new faces, and Zalgiris are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
The form table has caught Carlos Olses
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Match27 Mar 2027
It needed Bryan Teixeira to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Siauliai, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Klāvs Bethers 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 Klāvs Bethers trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad29 Mar 2027
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Filippo Distefano has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market8 Mar 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 Zalgiris can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Two goals and a mark of 9.18 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Age has not caught Liviu Antal yet — 7.80
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.80 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Filip Malbašić commits to Zalgiris for another 2 years.
Market8 Mar 2027
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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at Zalgiris
Nedeljko Stojišić 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.
Boardroom8 Mar 2027
Graduation day at Zalgiris
3 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Zalgiris can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Match6 Mar 2027
Three points for Zalgiris, 3‑1 the final word against Stumbras in a contest settled by the finer margins.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market25 Jan 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.
Market25 Jan 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Atlantas waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Zalgiris is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
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.
The dugout25 Jan 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.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
A loan enquiry to Olympiacos: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad25 Jan 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Saulius Paulauskas and Zalgiris agree another 3 years.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Zalgiris are still strangers to each other
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Squad25 Jan 2027
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Zalgiris will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
Klaudijus Upstas 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market4 Jan 2027
The bid was some way short and Zalgiris did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Zalgiris can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Zalgiris
Carlos Olses 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.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
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.
Market4 Jan 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Nemanja Mihajlović has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Zalgiris.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
A loan enquiry to Ternana: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
A loan enquiry to Catania: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Zalgiris than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
Nikola Petković 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.
In brief
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Boardroom
Open for business: Zalgiris enter the window
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Squad
Carlos Olses is the talk of the training ground
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout5 Oct 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.
The dugout5 Oct 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Zalgiris. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Squad5 Oct 2026
It is a strip of cloth and it decides nothing on a Saturday. It still tells the dressing room exactly whose opinion the manager values, which is the whole point of it.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Giedrius Matulevičius trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Sep 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zalgiris can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 16 in, 1 out at Zalgiris
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 16 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The captaincy has been taken off Grigore Turda. Zalgiris will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Liviu Antal moves up the pecking order
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Zalgiris than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
The dugout7 Sep 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Ventspils had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Match19 Aug 2026
Zalgiris bow out of the cup
Kauno Zalgiris go through and Zalgiris go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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.
Market24 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Zalgiris have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Belshina have kept their man, and Zalgiris go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
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 Paulius Golubickas is on it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match12 Aug 2026
Zalgiris through in the cup
A 2‑0 win over Utenis, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Market17 Aug 2026
Zalgiris say no — this time
The offer from Skonto for Bryan Teixeira 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Zalgiris — 7.70
1 for Dominik Franke, marked 7.70, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Zalgiris asked and Stumbras said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Nikola Petković at his very best
Marked 8.25. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Zalgiris.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Nedeljko Stojišić
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑0, already talking about the next one.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
Dominik Franke 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Bryan Teixeira commits to Zalgiris for another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Zalgiris
Ivan Lytvynenko 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. NK Celje have kept their man, and Zalgiris go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad3 Aug 2026
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Zalgiris know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Market3 Aug 2026
Still no offer on the table, and Ivan Lytvynenko’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Zalgiris
12 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Nikita Golub is in the works
Zalgiris have made the call to Belshina. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Astra: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Market3 Aug 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Petar Bosančić has his answer from Zalgiris; what he does with it is the next window’s story.