Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Idowu Martins was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Nobody at Kauno 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Kauno Zalgiris is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Kauno Zalgiris training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Račić 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.
“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 Kauno Zalgiris know it.
He is 14, and nobody at Kauno Zalgiris signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kauno Zalgiris can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Idowu Martins was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Kauno Zalgiris can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Kauno Zalgiris will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
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 Ivan Fiolić is on it.
“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 Kauno Zalgiris, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Kauno Zalgiris people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Kauno Zalgiris close the window on a squad of their own making
0 in and 1 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Kauno Zalgiris can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Idowu Martins 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 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Kauno Zalgiris, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Luka Račić has moved up it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kauno Zalgiris can pretend not to have heard.
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Kauno Zalgiris training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Račić 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.
Two hours a week with a tutor, which is the least glamorous thing at Kauno Zalgiris and the one that decides whether a foreign signing is still here in two years.
SquadChristophe Ackah is training like a man with a point to make
25Edition
The Kauno Zalgiris Sentinel
18 Jan 2027
From our football correspondentSteady
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Kauno Zalgiris training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Idowu Martins 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 Kauno Zalgiris this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Kauno Zalgiris people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer from Spartaks for Luka Račić 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kauno Zalgiris 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 Idowu Martins was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The name of Rokas Lekiatas has come up in conversations Kauno Zalgiris were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Luka Račić 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 Kauno 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.
Franco Baldassarra 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 37 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Kauno Zalgiris is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Ostojić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nosa Iyobosa Edokpolor trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Kauno Zalgiris have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
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 Lirim Kastrati has written the date down.
In brief
SquadAnthony Kalik is training like a man with a point to make
“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; Kauno Zalgiris are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luka Račić 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 Ivan Fiolić is on it.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Kauno Zalgiris can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lirim Kastrati, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Kauno Zalgiris training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Račić 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 club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
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 Tomas Švedkauskas is on it.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Rokas Lekiatas 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.
“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 Kauno Zalgiris know it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kauno Zalgiris this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Kauno Zalgiris training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Idowu Martins 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.
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.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Yann Vyxienh commits to Kauno Zalgiris for another 3 years.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Kauno Zalgiris training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Idowu Martins 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Kauno Zalgiris pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
The dugout23 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 0‑1 Fiodor Simkus left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Matheis Piskor has, at Kauno Zalgiris, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kauno Zalgiris this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Yann Vyxienh and Kauno Zalgiris agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Kauno Zalgiris training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Račić 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.
Yann Vyxienh is 18, and Kauno Zalgiris have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Christophe Ackah is 18, and Kauno Zalgiris have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
He is 17, and nobody at Kauno Zalgiris signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
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.
Franco Baldassarra 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.
With 4 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
An order from above at Kauno Zalgiris: somebody has to go
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luka Račić 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 Gratas Sirgėdas is on it.
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.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Kauno Zalgiris know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Kauno Zalgiris have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
Nobody at Kauno 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.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Nobody at Kauno 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Kauno Zalgiris. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“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 Kauno Zalgiris know it.
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 Tomas Švedkauskas is on it.
“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 Kauno Zalgiris know it.
Franco Baldassarra 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.
Everybody at Kauno Zalgiris saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 37 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Squad5 Oct 2026
14 new faces, and Kauno 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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Yoric Ravet is 37 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
Nobody at Kauno 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.
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 Nosa Iyobosa Edokpolor has written the date down.
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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Kauno Zalgiris. 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 Kauno Zalgiris this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Kauno 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.
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 Nosa Iyobosa Edokpolor has written the date down.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Kauno Zalgiris that is a harder question to answer.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Filip Novaković signs something — a contract at Kauno Zalgiris or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Yukiyoshi Karashima had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
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 Tomas Švedkauskas is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Kauno Zalgiris. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Kauno Zalgiris close the window on a squad of their own making
16 in and 2 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.
The name of Vykintas Slivka has come up in conversations Kauno Zalgiris were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Vykintas Slivka is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad7 Sep 2026
13 new faces, and Kauno 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.
“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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Utenis have kept their man, and Kauno Zalgiris go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Add another name to the list: Atlantas have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Eduardas Jurjonas. The answer from Kauno Zalgiris has not changed — yet.
Nobody at Kauno 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.
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Kauno Zalgiris would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Tomas Švedkauskas: 3 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kauno Zalgiris this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Paide have kept their man, and Kauno Zalgiris go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Nobody at Kauno 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
112 minutes played. Gratas Sirgėdas found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Atlantas went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Franco Baldassarra 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 phone has started ringing about Oyinlola Kayode again, and this time the name on the line is Suduva. Kauno Zalgiris are listening politely and promising nothing.
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zalgiris have kept their man, and Kauno Zalgiris go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Modestas Kuklys is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Edgaras Eliosius 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.
Franco Baldassarra 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.
Kauno Zalgiris asked and NK Celje said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“103 caps was 103 more than the boy who started ever expected.” At 35 he has stepped away from the national side and has not stepped away from Kauno Zalgiris.
The phone has started ringing about Rokas Lekiatas again, and this time the name on the line is Atlantas. Kauno Zalgiris are listening politely and promising nothing.