“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Daugavpils can pretend not to have heard.
Daugavpils had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Nomme Kalju, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Daugavpils this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Daugavpils have made the call to Spartaks. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Nobody at Daugavpils 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 Aug 2026
Words at Daugavpils training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Elijah Addai 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 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.
Skonto go through and Daugavpils 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“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 The request is on a desk at Daugavpils, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal with Nomme Kalju 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Isloch have kept their man, and Daugavpils go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Daugavpils training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ceti Junior Tchibinda 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Jānis Beks has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Rostand Njiki
3 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.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Joel Yakubu did not need any: 7.95, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Ziad Ouled-Haj-M'hand 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.
Daugavpils asked and Dnepr Mogilev said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Minute 125, against Ventspils, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Daugavpils this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Daugavpils will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Olegs Stolcers has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Marcis Gabovs has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Roberts Savalnieks has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Gatis Jagodinskis has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Daugavpils have made the call to Dnepr Mogilev. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
5 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ziad Ouled-Haj-M'hand and Daugavpils agree another 4 years.
Ziad Ouled-Haj-M'hand 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Daugavpils training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ceti Junior Tchibinda 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.
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Daugavpils have made the call to Liepaja. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.