From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Spartaks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mehmet Sıddık İstemi 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.
Loan watch14 Sep 2026
“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 Spartaks, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Spartaks would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Sep 2026
The bid was some way short and Spartaks did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market7 Sep 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Spartaks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edgar Mendoza 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
Steady
Market31 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Edgar Mendoza 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Olegs Kamess 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.
Squad31 Aug 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Aug 2026
Spartaks bow out of the cup
Metta/LU go through and Spartaks go home, 1‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 15 of the 29 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Market24 Aug 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 Spartaks can pretend not to have heard.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Spartaks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edgar Mendoza 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Olegs Kamess 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 Spartaks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Edgar Mendoza has outgrown this division
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Spartaks know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Market24 Aug 2026
Everyone has stopped pretending: Metta/LU will make the call about Igors Savalnieks this week. Spartaks have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
5.19 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A first appearance Olegs Zjuzins will want to forget — 5.63
Everybody's debut is one of two stories and this was the other one. 5.63, and the only consolation available is that nobody's career has ever been decided by ninety minutes in a shirt he had just been given.
Market17 Aug 2026
Spartaks say no — this time
The offer from Metta/LU for Pavels Fertovs 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Spartaks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Edgar Mendoza 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Ergys Kace
“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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The medical room confirms 15 days on the sidelines for Pavels Ikaunieks, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.84 on the card, and the Spartaks support went home talking about one name.
Market17 Aug 2026
At 35, he has seen every situation this season can produce, twice. The legs will be managed; the head is the purchase.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Olegs Ikaunieks commits to Spartaks for another 3 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Spartaks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market10 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Jelgava have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Aleksandrs Oss. The answer from Spartaks has not changed — yet.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Spartaks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mehmet Sıddık İstemi 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
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
“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 Spartaks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Alvis Jagodinskis commits to Spartaks for another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Olegs Ikaunieks 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 Spartaks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Davis Jagodinskis 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Spartaks have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Ergys Kace has outgrown this division
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Spartaks know it, and so does everybody who watches him.