From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Nov 2026
94 days out for Gibson Okocha after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ventspils will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Ebuka Ogbonna and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Ventspils
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Taijo Teniste was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Oct 2026
Gibson Okocha breaks a bone — 103 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 103 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Mihkel Ainsalu 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Ventspils training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Taijo Teniste 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.
In brief
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Squad
Ventspils are still strangers to each other
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Oct 2026
110 days out for Gibson Okocha after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ventspils will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Ventspils
Mihkel Ainsalu 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
At 38, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
“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 Ventspils know it.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Mihkel Ainsalu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Taijo Teniste 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Kasiuss Kosovs
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ventspils lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“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 Ventspils know it.
Squad5 Oct 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 Ventspils this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Sep 2026
Kasiuss Kosovs damages knee ligaments — 27 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 27 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Mihkel Ainsalu 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Ventspils
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdulrafiu Taiwo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Sep 2026
34 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ventspils lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Ventspils
Mihkel Ainsalu 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Ventspils
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Taijo Teniste was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Kasiuss Kosovs
42 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ventspils lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The medical room confirms 22 days on the sidelines for Ebuka Ogbonna, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad14 Sep 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 Ventspils this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
$35.0K was the most the club would pay and Jelgava were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Ventspils training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Taijo Teniste 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Eduards Jurkovskis 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 32 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Ventspils 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.
Squad7 Sep 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 Ventspils this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
$40.0K was the most the club would pay and Jelgava were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Ventspils asked and Dinamo Zagreb said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“100 caps was 100 more than the boy who started ever expected.” At 38 he has stepped away from the national side and has not stepped away from Ventspils.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Ventspils training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdulrafiu Taiwo 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
Uneasy
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $40.0K — a club that wants Marcis Ciganovs enough to be asked twice.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Mihkel Ainsalu 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 targets31 Aug 2026
$40.0K on the table at Jelgava. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
$35.0K on the table at Jelgava. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Ventspils
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Taijo Teniste was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sigma Olomouc have kept their man, and Ventspils go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $25.0K — a club that wants Iļja Korotkovs enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
No thanks: Marko Lekić rejects the move
Ventspils had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Partizan, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Ventspils
Mihkel Ainsalu 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Yusuf Mannase arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Yusuf Mannase has, at Ventspils, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Ventspils training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Taijo Teniste 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Ventspils asked and Dinamo Kirov said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nikita Fertovs and Ventspils agree another 3 years.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
Ékené Awazie gets picked when it counts
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 Ékené Awazie is on it.
Market24 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Ventspils, another week without a signature from Abdulrafiu Taiwo.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Aug 2026
Daugavpils ended it 2‑3. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad17 Aug 2026
52 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Mihkel Ainsalu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Ventspils
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdulrafiu Taiwo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad17 Aug 2026
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Ventspils know which stage they are at.
Market17 Aug 2026
“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 dugout17 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 2‑3 defeat, delivered by Kristaps Cauna to a room that had heard them before.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Partizan: 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
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
A move Timurs Azarovs 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. Timurs Azarovs is living that version at Ventspils, and it tends to show in the first month.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Mihkel Ainsalu 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Ventspils training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Taijo Teniste 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Ventspils asked and Liepaja said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Eduards Gabovs 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
Gibson Okocha gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Gibson Okocha has just signed for Ventspils, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad3 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 Ventspils this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Ventspils know which stage they are at.
Market3 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Ventspils are still strangers to each other
16 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
At 38, he has seen every situation this season can produce, twice. The legs will be managed; the head is the purchase.