Andriy Korobenko 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Irad Mshindi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Liepaja 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Liepaja. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Liepaja this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Beknaz Almazbekov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad15 Feb 2027
6 new faces, and Liepaja 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.
Nobody at Liepaja 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 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Afonso Leite will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Liepaja the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Kane Miardjo is living that version at Liepaja, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Liepaja can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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 Djibril Guèye is on it.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
Irad Mshindi is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 3 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mory Cissé will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Liepaja the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. João Ferreira has just signed for Liepaja, and for once the answer mattered.
Bart Straalman 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 medical room confirms 15 days on the sidelines for Kirils Iļjins, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Irad Mshindi 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.
Nobody at Liepaja 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Ventspils waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Liepaja is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Liepaja have done the hard part with Bayelsa United, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Liepaja asked and Jelgava said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Bart Straalman 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 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.
Nobody at Liepaja 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Metta/LU waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Liepaja is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Liepaja had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Skonto, 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 Liepaja this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Liepaja asked and Spartaks said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Add another name to the list: Metta/LU have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Rodolphe Ekou. The answer from Liepaja has not changed — yet.
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.
Bayelsa United 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.
Nobody at Liepaja 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Liepaja asked and Jelgava 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 phone has started ringing about Mory Cissé again, and this time the name on the line is Metta/LU. Liepaja are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Liepaja training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Irad Mshindi 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.
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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Beknaz Almazbekov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Andriy Korobenko 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Skonto have kept their man, and Liepaja go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Beknaz Almazbekov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Marvin Martins is on it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Liepaja, another week without a signature from Israel Oladeji.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 19 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Marvin Martins 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Beknaz Almazbekov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 26 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
David Essien 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Irad Mshindi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
The dugoutTimi Ogunniyi has become a man the manager trusts
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 33 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Liepaja this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Liepaja training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Beknaz Almazbekov 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.
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 Djibril Guèye is on it.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bart Straalman trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Liepaja will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Juan Paulo Figueroa 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Liepaja training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Irad Mshindi 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.
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 Marvin Martins is on it.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Jānis Grīnbergs is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Andriy Korobenko 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Liepaja training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Irad Mshindi 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Liepaja this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Liepaja training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Beknaz Almazbekov 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.
Andriy Korobenko 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 Liepaja training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Irad Mshindi 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.
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 Djibril Guèye is on it.
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.
1‑4 against Skonto, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
The terraces9 Nov 2026
A cup hiding at Skonto leaves Liepaja explaining themselves
1-4, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Marvin Martins 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dodô was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑4 Arturs Ciganovs left the room before anybody could ask which.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Vjačeslavs Isajevs will call it something else in private.
In brief
The dugoutMarvin Martins has become a man the manager trusts
Player ratingsAn afternoon Irad Mshindi will want back
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Bart Straalman is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Amadou Traoré 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.
Juan Paulo Figueroa and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Irad Mshindi 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.
13 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Liepaja, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bart Straalman trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Irad Mshindi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Liepaja are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Bart Straalman 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.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Liepaja will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Beknaz Almazbekov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bart Straalman 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Liepaja are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 38 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Liepaja is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Liepaja this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Liepaja training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Irad Mshindi 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.
13 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 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.
Nobody at Liepaja 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 least glamorous thing a foreign signing ever does and the one that decides most of them. A player who can hear the shout behind him is a different footballer from one who cannot.
Liepaja asked and Kavala said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Liepaja this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Nobody at Liepaja 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Liepaja know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
That is the business done at Liepaja until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Juan Paulo Figueroa 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 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Irad Mshindi 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.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Liepaja know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Ingars Pūlis 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bart Straalman trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Liepaja this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Liepaja will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Jelgava paid $330.0K and Liepaja took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Liepaja asked and Partizan said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Add another name to the list: Metta/LU have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Rodolphe Ekou. The answer from Liepaja has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Beknaz Almazbekov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad31 Aug 2026
13 new faces, and Liepaja 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.
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 Timi Ogunniyi is on it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.30 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Beknaz Almazbekov did not need any: 8.23, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“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 Liepaja, and it is not being withdrawn.
Add another name to the list: Victoria United have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Djibril Guèye. The answer from Liepaja has not changed — yet.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Helmond Sport have kept their man, and Liepaja go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Bart Straalman 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Amar Haïdara 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.
Marked 8.39. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Liepaja.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Irad Mshindi 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.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Trakai keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Liepaja this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Peter Kings has, at Liepaja, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Metta/LU have kept their man, and Liepaja go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Davis Ikaunieks is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Eduards Kamess 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 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.
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.
Marvin Martins 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Navbahor have kept their man, and Liepaja go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The phone has started ringing about Rodolphe Ekou again, and this time the name on the line is Metta/LU. Liepaja are listening politely and promising nothing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Irad Mshindi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
36 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
8 new faces, and Liepaja 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.