From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Nov 2029
A fracture rules Ionut Mihaila out for 18 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kauno Zalgiris will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market26 Nov 2029
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Kauno Zalgiris can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Vykintas Slivka 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 Nov 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kajus Bička was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Nov 2029
When it matters, Léo Ribeiro plays
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.
The dugout26 Nov 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kajus Bička, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Nov 2029
A fracture rules Ionut Mihaila out for 26 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kauno Zalgiris will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market19 Nov 2029
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.
Squad19 Nov 2029
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Kauno Zalgiris will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Squad19 Nov 2029
7 clean sheets across a season, and the one award on the pitch nobody else is eligible for. Most keepers get through a whole career without a year like it.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Marko Konatar 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 dugout19 Nov 2029
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 Damjan Pavlović is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Nov 2029
A fracture rules Ionut Mihaila out for 33 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kauno Zalgiris will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market12 Nov 2029
Only the photograph left for Rokas Lekiatas
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rokas Lekiatas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kauno Zalgiris the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad12 Nov 2029
Vykintas Slivka and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Nov 2029
Words at Kauno Zalgiris training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valdas Paulauskas 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 dugout12 Nov 2029
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.
The dugout12 Nov 2029
“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.
The dugout12 Nov 2029
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Damjan Pavlović trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market12 Nov 2029
“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 dugout12 Nov 2029
Kajus Bička has been promised minutes
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 Kajus Bička has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match5 Nov 2029
Kauno Zalgiris refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 21 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Market5 Nov 2029
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.
Squad5 Nov 2029
Vykintas Slivka 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.
Squad5 Nov 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Léo Ribeiro and Kauno Zalgiris agree another 2 years.
Squad5 Nov 2029
“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.
Market5 Nov 2029
“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 dugout5 Nov 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Valdas Paulauskas, and the manager let it.
The dugout5 Nov 2029
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.
Squad5 Nov 2029
Kajus Bička 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
Steady
Squad29 Oct 2029
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.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Words at Kauno Zalgiris training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valdas Paulauskas 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 dugout29 Oct 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fedor Černych, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Oct 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nicolás Mosquera
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kauno Zalgiris lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market22 Oct 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marius Paulauskas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kauno Zalgiris the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad22 Oct 2029
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.
Squad22 Oct 2029
Valdas Paulauskas 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.
The dugout22 Oct 2029
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 Damjan Pavlović is on it.
The dugout22 Oct 2029
Fedor Černych knocks on the manager's door
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Oct 2029
23 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kauno Zalgiris lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market15 Oct 2029
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.
Squad15 Oct 2029
Vykintas Slivka and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Oct 2029
Words at Kauno Zalgiris training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arvydas Slavickas 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 dugout15 Oct 2029
Tomas Švedkauskas has become a man the manager trusts
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 dugout15 Oct 2029
“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
Squad8 Oct 2029
31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kauno Zalgiris lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match8 Oct 2029
21 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market8 Oct 2029
Motiejus Burba has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kauno Zalgiris they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad8 Oct 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Anthony Kalik commits to Kauno Zalgiris for another 3 years.
Squad8 Oct 2029
Vykintas Slivka 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.
Squad8 Oct 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Valdas Paulauskas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market1 Oct 2029
“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.
Squad1 Oct 2029
Vykintas Slivka 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 dugout1 Oct 2029
“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.
Squad1 Oct 2029
“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 Oct 2029
Words at Kauno Zalgiris training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arvydas Valskis 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 dugout1 Oct 2029
Amine Lazrak asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Sep 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marius Paulauskas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kauno Zalgiris the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market24 Sep 2029
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad24 Sep 2029
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 dugout24 Sep 2029
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.
The dugout24 Sep 2029
“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.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Words at Kauno Zalgiris training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kajus Bička 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
Market17 Sep 2029
Only the photograph left for Rokas Lekiatas
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rokas Lekiatas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kauno Zalgiris the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Vykintas Slivka and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout17 Sep 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Léo Ribeiro, and the manager let it.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Valdas Paulauskas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout17 Sep 2029
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 dugout17 Sep 2029
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Valdas Paulauskas trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market17 Sep 2029
The clock does Diógenes Inácio’s negotiating for him
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Kauno Zalgiris could ask drops and the wages Diógenes Inácio can ask rise.
Boardroom17 Sep 2029
33 graduates, from a department now rated 7 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match10 Sep 2029
Kauno Zalgiris refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 21 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Market10 Sep 2029
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.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Damjan Pavlović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Sep 2029
A muscle injury and 16 days out for Motiejus Burba
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Kauno Zalgiris will quote 16 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Transfer targets10 Sep 2029
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.
Transfer targets10 Sep 2029
The clock did what Siauliai would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
Squad10 Sep 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ionut Mihaila and Kauno Zalgiris agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Words at Kauno Zalgiris training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valdas Paulauskas 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 dugout10 Sep 2029
“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
Market3 Sep 2029
“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.
The dugout3 Sep 2029
Fedor Černych: that is not what I was promised
“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.
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
Deadline passes with 10 signed and 12 gone
That is the business done at Kauno Zalgiris 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.
Squad3 Sep 2029
Vykintas Slivka 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 targets3 Sep 2029
The clock did what Zalgiris would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
Squad3 Sep 2029
“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.
Market3 Sep 2029
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad3 Sep 2029
Valdas Paulauskas 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.
The dugout3 Sep 2029
When it matters, Léo Ribeiro plays
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market27 Aug 2029
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.
Squad27 Aug 2029
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.
Squad27 Aug 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Valdas Paulauskas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout27 Aug 2029
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.
The dugout27 Aug 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kajus Bička, and the manager let it.
The dugout27 Aug 2029
Fedor Černych asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market20 Aug 2029
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.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Vykintas Slivka and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets20 Aug 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Trakai have kept their man, and Kauno Zalgiris go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Valdas Paulauskas 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.
The dugout20 Aug 2029
Tomas Švedkauskas has become a man the manager trusts
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.
Market20 Aug 2029
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Kauno Zalgiris, another week without a signature from Motiejus Burba.
The dugout20 Aug 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marius Paulauskas, and the manager let it.
Squad20 Aug 2029
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Kauno Zalgiris would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Market20 Aug 2029
Tom Wiles leaves for nothing
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Tom Wiles leaves Kauno Zalgiris the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match13 Aug 2029
Kauno Zalgiris refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 21 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Market13 Aug 2029
Only the photograph left for Motiejus Burba
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Motiejus Burba will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kauno Zalgiris the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market13 Aug 2029
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market13 Aug 2029
“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.
Squad13 Aug 2029
Vykintas Slivka 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.
Transfer targets13 Aug 2029
$230.0K was the most the club would pay and Trakai 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 targets13 Aug 2029
Kauno Zalgiris asked and Zalgiris 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 dugout13 Aug 2029
The manager makes an example of Vykintas Slivka
“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.
Market13 Aug 2029
A stepping stone, not a home, for Vikintas Dapkus
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Kauno Zalgiris were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market6 Aug 2029
Amine Lazrak hands in a written request
“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.
Market6 Aug 2029
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.
Transfer targets6 Aug 2029
The offer went to Trakai this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Vykintas Slivka 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.
Market6 Aug 2029
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Kauno Zalgiris have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
The dugout6 Aug 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fabien Ourega, and the manager let it.
Market6 Aug 2029
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Kauno Zalgiris, another week without a signature from Damjan Pavlović.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Valdas Paulauskas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match25 Jul 2029
Suduva go through and Kauno Zalgiris go home, 1‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Market30 Jul 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Anton Tolordava will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kauno Zalgiris the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout30 Jul 2029
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad30 Jul 2029
40 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad30 Jul 2029
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.
Player ratings30 Jul 2029
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout30 Jul 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Anton Tolordava, and the manager let it.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Valdas Paulauskas 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.
The dugout30 Jul 2029
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market23 Jul 2029
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.
The dugout23 Jul 2029
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market23 Jul 2029
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Franco Baldassarra wants continental football; whether Kauno Zalgiris can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Vykintas Slivka and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Jul 2029
The quietest bad news in football. At 17 nothing has moved for months — not backwards, which would at least be a conversation, simply nowhere. Somebody at the club will have to decide whether that is the club's fault or his.
The dugout23 Jul 2029
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.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Words at Kauno Zalgiris training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kajus Bička 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 dugout23 Jul 2029
The manager makes an example of Kajus Bička
“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.
The dugout23 Jul 2029
Léo Ribeiro asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market16 Jul 2029
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Kauno Zalgiris have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad16 Jul 2029
18 days out for Marius Eliosius after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Kauno Zalgiris will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market16 Jul 2029
“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.
Match16 Jul 2029
Position 3 and 21 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market16 Jul 2029
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.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Vykintas Slivka 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.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2029
Kauno Zalgiris asked and Zalgiris said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market16 Jul 2029
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Anton Tolordava has his answer from Kauno Zalgiris; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout16 Jul 2029
Luka Račić gets it from the manager
“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
Market9 Jul 2029
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Kauno Zalgiris have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad9 Jul 2029
A fracture rules Marius Eliosius out for 26 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kauno Zalgiris will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Transfer targets9 Jul 2029
The clubs have shaken hands with Zalgiris; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Market9 Jul 2029
Marvin Owen hands in a written request
“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.
Market9 Jul 2029
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.
Transfer targets9 Jul 2029
The deal with Atlantas 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.
Squad9 Jul 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Fabien Ourega commits to Kauno Zalgiris for another 2 years.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Vykintas Slivka 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 targets9 Jul 2029
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Jul 2029
A fracture rules Marius Eliosius out for 34 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kauno Zalgiris will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market2 Jul 2029
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.
Market2 Jul 2029
Petr Číž hands in a written request
“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.
Squad2 Jul 2029
68 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Market2 Jul 2029
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Kauno Zalgiris have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad2 Jul 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Fabien Ourega commits to Kauno Zalgiris for another 2 years.
Squad2 Jul 2029
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.
Boardroom2 Jul 2029
5 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
The dugout2 Jul 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Valdas Paulauskas, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad25 Jun 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 42 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market25 Jun 2029
Only the photograph left for Rokas Lekiatas
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rokas Lekiatas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kauno Zalgiris the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout25 Jun 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Kauno Zalgiris may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2029
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.
Squad25 Jun 2029
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 dugout25 Jun 2029
“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.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Words at Kauno Zalgiris training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valdas Paulauskas 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 dugout25 Jun 2029
Tomas Švedkauskas has become a man the manager trusts
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 dugout25 Jun 2029
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Kauno Zalgiris told Amine Lazrak something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Jun 2029
Andrius Satkus damages knee ligaments — 16 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 16 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.
Market18 Jun 2029
Terms done: Luka Račić is going
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Zalgiris waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Kauno Zalgiris is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad18 Jun 2029
A fracture rules Marius Eliosius out for 49 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kauno Zalgiris will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match18 Jun 2029
Position 3 and 21 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market18 Jun 2029
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.
The dugout18 Jun 2029
“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.
Transfer targets18 Jun 2029
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.
Squad18 Jun 2029
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 dugout18 Jun 2029
“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
Squad11 Jun 2029
23 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kauno Zalgiris lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market11 Jun 2029
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Kauno Zalgiris have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad11 Jun 2029
56 days out for Marius Eliosius after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Kauno Zalgiris will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market11 Jun 2029
The offer from Utenis for Valdas Paulauskas 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.
Market11 Jun 2029
The name of Luka Račić has come up in conversations Kauno Zalgiris were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Vykintas Slivka 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 targets11 Jun 2029
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.
Squad11 Jun 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kajus Bička and Kauno Zalgiris agree another 3 years.
The dugout11 Jun 2029
The manager makes an example of Léo Ribeiro
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad4 Jun 2029
30 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kauno Zalgiris lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 63 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match4 Jun 2029
21 points, and the season has a number on it. Whatever it felt like from the inside, this is what it will look like in a book.
Player ratings4 Jun 2029
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.70, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad4 Jun 2029
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.
Market4 Jun 2029
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Kauno Zalgiris have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Match2 Jun 2029
It finished 2‑0, and it was Motiejus Burba’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Kauno Zalgiris.
Player ratings4 Jun 2029
A performance of 8.27 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings4 Jun 2029
Defensive actions: 18, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings28 May 2029
Successful dribbles: 36. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad28 May 2029
70 days out for Marius Eliosius after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Kauno Zalgiris will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market28 May 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marius Paulauskas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kauno Zalgiris the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match26 May 2029
After 9 games, Kauno Zalgiris finally taste it again
The first defeat in 9 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Trakai; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Squad28 May 2029
Vykintas Slivka 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.
Match26 May 2029
Trakai left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout28 May 2029
Luka Račić gets it from the manager
“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.
Squad28 May 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Valdas Paulauskas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout28 May 2029
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Donatas Kuklys after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 May 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 77 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match21 May 2029
Position 3 and 18 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market21 May 2029
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.
Match19 May 2029
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 9 matches without defeat is a foundation Kauno Zalgiris did not have in the autumn.
Market21 May 2029
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Franco Baldassarra wants continental football; whether Kauno Zalgiris can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad21 May 2029
Vykintas Slivka and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match19 May 2029
A 4‑2 win over Stumbras, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout21 May 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tomas Švedkauskas, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 May 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 84 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match12 May 2029
There were 88 minutes on the clock and Suduva had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Kauno Zalgiris did not stop to explain themselves.
Market14 May 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Anton Tolordava will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kauno Zalgiris the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match12 May 2029
Whatever happens, Kauno Zalgiris do not lose
8 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad14 May 2029
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.
Match12 May 2029
It finished 1‑0, and it was Damjan Pavlović’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Kauno Zalgiris.
Player ratings14 May 2029
Marked 8.07 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad14 May 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Liam Poulin commits to Kauno Zalgiris for another 4 years.
Squad14 May 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Valdas Paulauskas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
-
Player ratings
Nothing got past Luka Račić
-
The dugout
Fedor Černych gets picked when it counts
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 May 2029
A fracture rules Marius Eliosius out for 91 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kauno Zalgiris will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market7 May 2029
Rokas Lekiatas has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kauno Zalgiris they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad7 May 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Vykintas Slivka commits to Kauno Zalgiris for another 2 years.
Match5 May 2029
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad7 May 2029
Vykintas Slivka 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.
Market7 May 2029
“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.
Squad7 May 2029
Words at Kauno Zalgiris training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valdas Paulauskas 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 dugout7 May 2029
Vykintas Slivka has become a man the manager trusts
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 dugout7 May 2029
The manager makes an example of Kajus Bička
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Apr 2029
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad30 Apr 2029
A fracture rules Marius Eliosius out for 98 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kauno Zalgiris will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings30 Apr 2029
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.93 for the rest of it.
Player ratings30 Apr 2029
Damjan Pavlović pops up at the right end — 7.72
7.72, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Market30 Apr 2029
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.
Match28 Apr 2029
Whatever happens, Kauno Zalgiris do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad30 Apr 2029
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.
Match28 Apr 2029
A point taken on 94 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
The manager makes an example of Anton Tolordava
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market23 Apr 2029
“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.
Match23 Apr 2029
10 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market23 Apr 2029
Motiejus Burba has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kauno Zalgiris they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Vykintas Slivka and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Ionut Mihaila is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Match21 Apr 2029
It finished 1‑0, and it was Anthony Kalik’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Kauno Zalgiris.
Looking ahead23 Apr 2029
Zalgiris next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Player ratings23 Apr 2029
Marked 8.08 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The dugout23 Apr 2029
Something was said to Damjan Pavlović and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Kauno Zalgiris training over how hard people work
-
The dugout
Fabien Ourega is still being punished for one mistake
-
The dugout
The view from the dugout
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market16 Apr 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kauno Zalgiris they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings16 Apr 2029
Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad16 Apr 2029
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 dugout16 Apr 2029
The manager makes an example of Léo Ribeiro
“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.
Match16 Apr 2029
7 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Words at Kauno Zalgiris training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valdas Paulauskas 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.
Player ratings16 Apr 2029
Marked 7.43. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Boardroom16 Apr 2029
A clause somebody insisted on years ago, in a negotiation nobody remembers, has just paid Kauno Zalgiris $170.0K. Ivan Fiolić left a long time ago; the paperwork stayed.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match4 Apr 2029
Atlantas are out and Kauno Zalgiris go through, 4‑2 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Squad9 Apr 2029
20 days out for Fedor Černych after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Kauno Zalgiris will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings9 Apr 2029
Marius Paulauskas could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 8.04
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 8.04, 1 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
Player ratings9 Apr 2029
A brace, and Marius Eliosius takes the afternoon — 9.64
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marius Eliosius provided it, and the 9.64 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market9 Apr 2029
Only the photograph left for Rokas Lekiatas
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rokas Lekiatas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kauno Zalgiris the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Vykintas Slivka 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.
Player ratings9 Apr 2029
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad9 Apr 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Léo Ribeiro and Kauno Zalgiris agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Apr 2029
27 days out for Fedor Černych after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Kauno Zalgiris will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings2 Apr 2029
Successful dribbles: 26. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market2 Apr 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kauno Zalgiris they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match31 Mar 2029
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Kauno Zalgiris are no longer polite ones.
Match31 Mar 2029
4 matches without a goal for Kauno Zalgiris
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Vykintas Slivka 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.
Squad2 Apr 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Léo Ribeiro and Kauno Zalgiris agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad2 Apr 2029
100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
The dugout2 Apr 2029
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Mar 2029
A fracture rules Fedor Černych out for 35 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kauno Zalgiris will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market26 Mar 2029
“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.
Market26 Mar 2029
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.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Vykintas Slivka and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match24 Mar 2029
3 matches without a goal for Kauno Zalgiris
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Match24 Mar 2029
0‑2 to Suduva, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fabien Ourega, and the manager let it.
Player ratings26 Mar 2029
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Words at Kauno Zalgiris training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valdas Paulauskas 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
Squad19 Mar 2029
A fracture rules Fedor Černych out for 42 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kauno Zalgiris will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market19 Mar 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kauno Zalgiris they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market19 Mar 2029
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Franco Baldassarra wants continental football; whether Kauno Zalgiris can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Anton Tolordava and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Words at Kauno Zalgiris training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valdas Paulauskas 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 dugout19 Mar 2029
The manager makes an example of Kajus Bička
“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.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
“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.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Mar 2029
49 days out for Fedor Černych after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Kauno Zalgiris will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match10 Mar 2029
0‑3 to Zalgiris, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market12 Mar 2029
Only the photograph left for Rokas Lekiatas
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rokas Lekiatas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kauno Zalgiris the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Fedor Černych and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout12 Mar 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tomas Švedkauskas, and the manager let it.
Player ratings12 Mar 2029
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom12 Mar 2029
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad12 Mar 2029
“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.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
Vykintas Slivka has become a man the manager trusts
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The dugout
Fabien Ourega does not fit this one
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Mar 2029
A fracture rules Fedor Černych out for 56 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kauno Zalgiris will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings5 Mar 2029
Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings5 Mar 2029
Amine Lazrak, 19, steals the show — 7.79
Marked 7.79 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Market5 Mar 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marius Paulauskas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kauno Zalgiris the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad5 Mar 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Franco Baldassarra and Kauno Zalgiris agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Vykintas Slivka 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.
Boardroom5 Mar 2029
5 academy graduates step up at Kauno Zalgiris
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
The terraces5 Mar 2029
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Amine Lazrak 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.
Market5 Mar 2029
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Arnas Vaitkunas is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Feb 2029
A fracture rules Fedor Černych out for 63 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kauno Zalgiris will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market26 Feb 2029
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.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Vykintas Slivka and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Words at Kauno Zalgiris training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valdas Paulauskas 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 dugout26 Feb 2029
Tomas Švedkauskas has become a man the manager trusts
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.
Match26 Feb 2029
Position 5, 13 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Feb 2029
A fracture rules Fedor Černych out for 71 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kauno Zalgiris will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market19 Feb 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kauno Zalgiris they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad19 Feb 2029
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.
Squad19 Feb 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Marko Konatar commits to Kauno Zalgiris for another 3 years.
Transfer targets19 Feb 2029
The window shuts on the Justas Sernas deal
Kauno Zalgiris ran out of time with Atlantas. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
Luka Račić gets it from the manager
“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.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
Léo Ribeiro 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 Léo Ribeiro is on it.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Tomas Švedkauskas has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Feb 2029
Fedor Černych breaks a bone — 78 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 78 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market12 Feb 2029
“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.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Vykintas Slivka 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 targets12 Feb 2029
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.
Transfer targets12 Feb 2029
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Kauno Zalgiris will try again when the window opens; Zalgiris may not be selling by then.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Valdas Paulauskas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad12 Feb 2029
The formation has left Kajus Bička behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Kauno Zalgiris will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The dugout12 Feb 2029
Fedor Černych has become a man the manager trusts
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 dugout12 Feb 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marius Paulauskas, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Feb 2029
Fedor Černych breaks a bone — 85 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 85 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market5 Feb 2029
“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.
Transfer targets5 Feb 2029
The clubs have shaken hands with Zalgiris; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
Kauno Zalgiris close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 4 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.
Market5 Feb 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kauno Zalgiris they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Vykintas Slivka 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 dugout5 Feb 2029
The manager makes an example of Damjan Pavlović
“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.
Transfer targets5 Feb 2029
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Kauno Zalgiris will try again when the window opens; Trakai may not be selling by then.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Valdas Paulauskas 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
Squad29 Jan 2029
Fedor Černych breaks a bone — 95 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 95 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market29 Jan 2029
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.
Transfer targets29 Jan 2029
$81.0K settles it between the clubs for Justas Sernas
Atlantas have accepted the money. What Kauno Zalgiris do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Market29 Jan 2029
Only the photograph left for Motiejus Burba
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Motiejus Burba will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kauno Zalgiris the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad29 Jan 2029
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 dugout29 Jan 2029
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.
The dugout29 Jan 2029
Damjan Pavlović asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Match29 Jan 2029
Position 5 on 13 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
Market29 Jan 2029
6 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Kauno Zalgiris money.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Jan 2029
102 days out for Fedor Černych after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Kauno Zalgiris will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market22 Jan 2029
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Utenis waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Kauno Zalgiris is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market22 Jan 2029
“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.
Market22 Jan 2029
The offer from Utenis for Valdas Paulauskas 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.
Market22 Jan 2029
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.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Fedor Černych 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 dugout22 Jan 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Anton Tolordava, and the manager let it.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Valdas Paulauskas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout22 Jan 2029
When it matters, Léo Ribeiro plays
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market15 Jan 2029
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Kauno Zalgiris have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The dugout15 Jan 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Kauno Zalgiris may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market15 Jan 2029
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets15 Jan 2029
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Kauno Zalgiris have done the hard part with Trakai, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Market15 Jan 2029
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Kauno Zalgiris can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Vykintas Slivka 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 targets15 Jan 2029
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.
Market15 Jan 2029
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Kauno Zalgiris have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Valdas Paulauskas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market8 Jan 2029
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Stumbras waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Kauno Zalgiris is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market8 Jan 2029
Zalgiris come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Kauno Zalgiris did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets8 Jan 2029
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Kauno Zalgiris have done the hard part with Zalgiris, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Vykintas Slivka 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.
Market8 Jan 2029
The name of Motiejus Burba has come up in conversations Kauno Zalgiris were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Market8 Jan 2029
Luka Račić told to find a new club
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Luka Račić has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Kauno Zalgiris.
The dugout8 Jan 2029
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 Vykintas Slivka is on it.
Boardroom8 Jan 2029
Open for business: Kauno Zalgiris enter the window
The registration window is open and the phone has started. Between now and the deadline this club will be linked with forty players and sign three, which is the usual ratio.
Squad8 Jan 2029
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Franco Baldassarra keeps the shirt for now, at Kauno Zalgiris's convenience rather than his own.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Jan 2029
Vykintas Slivka and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market1 Jan 2029
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Damjan Pavlović has his answer from Kauno Zalgiris; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Valdas Paulauskas 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.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
Luka Račić gets it from the manager
“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.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
Tomas Švedkauskas has become a man the manager trusts
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.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Dec 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Vykintas Slivka
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kauno Zalgiris lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad25 Dec 2028
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.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Valdas Paulauskas 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
Squad18 Dec 2028
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kauno Zalgiris lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market18 Dec 2028
Rokas Lekiatas has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kauno Zalgiris they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Anton Tolordava 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 dugout18 Dec 2028
“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.
The dugout18 Dec 2028
Fedor Černych has become a man the manager trusts
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 dugout18 Dec 2028
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Franco Baldassarra has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Dec 2028
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kauno Zalgiris lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Anton Tolordava 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.
Market11 Dec 2028
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Valdas Paulauskas 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.
Squad11 Dec 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Christophe Colin and Kauno Zalgiris agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout11 Dec 2028
“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
Uneasy
Squad4 Dec 2028
36 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kauno Zalgiris lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad4 Dec 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Fabien Ourega and Kauno Zalgiris agree another 2 years.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Fedor Černych 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.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Valdas Paulauskas 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.
Market4 Dec 2028
He is 18, 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.
The dugout4 Dec 2028
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.
The dugout4 Dec 2028
Damjan Pavlović asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market4 Dec 2028
“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.
Match4 Dec 2028
Position 5, 13 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Nov 2028
Vykintas Slivka damages knee ligaments — 44 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 44 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.
Squad27 Nov 2028
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 dugout27 Nov 2028
Léo Ribeiro 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 Léo Ribeiro is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad20 Nov 2028
Vykintas Slivka damages knee ligaments — 51 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 51 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.
Market20 Nov 2028
Only the photograph left for Rokas Lekiatas
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rokas Lekiatas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kauno Zalgiris the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom20 Nov 2028
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Robert Łukowiak has agreed terms with Trakai for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Vykintas Slivka 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 dugout20 Nov 2028
Fedor Černych has become a man the manager trusts
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.
Market20 Nov 2028
The shop window has Marvin Owen in it
Kauno Zalgiris have let the market know Marvin Owen can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad13 Nov 2028
58 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kauno Zalgiris lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market13 Nov 2028
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Kauno Zalgiris can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Vykintas Slivka 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 dugout13 Nov 2028
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 Vykintas Slivka is on it.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
Luka Račić asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market13 Nov 2028
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Moses Alexander-Walker may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad6 Nov 2028
65 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kauno Zalgiris lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Vykintas Slivka and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout6 Nov 2028
Tomas Švedkauskas has become a man the manager trusts
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.
Squad6 Nov 2028
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. Marko Konatar has moved up it.
Match6 Nov 2028
Position 5 on 13 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
The dugout6 Nov 2028
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 Anton Tolordava has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Oct 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Vykintas Slivka
72 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kauno Zalgiris lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Anton Tolordava and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
When it matters, Léo Ribeiro plays
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Oct 2028
Vykintas Slivka damages knee ligaments — 79 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 79 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.
Market23 Oct 2028
Only the photograph left for Rokas Lekiatas
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rokas Lekiatas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kauno Zalgiris the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Anton Tolordava 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Oct 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Vykintas Slivka
86 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kauno Zalgiris lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad16 Oct 2028
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 dugout16 Oct 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Anton Tolordava, and the manager let it.
The dugout16 Oct 2028
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.
Squad16 Oct 2028
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.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Luka Račić has seen what the next man earns
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Oct 2028
93 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kauno Zalgiris lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad9 Oct 2028
A muscle injury and 14 days out for Aidas Eliosius
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Kauno Zalgiris will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad9 Oct 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Vykintas Slivka commits to Kauno Zalgiris for another 2 years.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Vykintas Slivka and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
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.
Match9 Oct 2028
Continental football is in reach for Kauno Zalgiris
13 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Oct 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Vykintas Slivka
101 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kauno Zalgiris lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad2 Oct 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Vykintas Slivka and Kauno Zalgiris agree another 2 years.
Squad2 Oct 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Sep 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Vykintas Slivka
108 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kauno Zalgiris lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market25 Sep 2028
Only the photograph left for Rokas Lekiatas
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rokas Lekiatas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kauno Zalgiris the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Vykintas Slivka 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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jenson Kilroy and Kauno Zalgiris agree another 3 years.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
The manager makes an example of Luka Račić
“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.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Sep 2028
Vykintas Slivka damages knee ligaments — 116 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 116 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.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Vykintas Slivka 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 dugout18 Sep 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Damjan Pavlović, and the manager let it.
Squad18 Sep 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Marvin Owen and Kauno Zalgiris agree another 3 years.
The dugout18 Sep 2028
When it matters, Léo Ribeiro plays
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.
Squad18 Sep 2028
The formation has left Marvin Owen behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Kauno Zalgiris will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The dugout18 Sep 2028
Luka Račić asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market18 Sep 2028
No fee and no drama: Marvin Owen has signed at Kauno Zalgiris, and the wage bill is the only line that moved.
Market18 Sep 2028
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Amine Benchaib leaves Kauno Zalgiris the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Sep 2028
123 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kauno Zalgiris lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market11 Sep 2028
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Franco Baldassarra wants continental football; whether Kauno Zalgiris can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Transfer targets11 Sep 2028
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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Anton Tolordava and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
Tomas Švedkauskas has become a man the manager trusts
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 dugout11 Sep 2028
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Kauno Zalgiris told Arvydas Valskis something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
“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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
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.
Match11 Sep 2028
Position 5, 13 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Sep 2028
131 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kauno Zalgiris lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Deadline passes with 14 signed and 12 gone
That is the business done at Kauno Zalgiris 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.
Squad4 Sep 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Léo Ribeiro and Kauno Zalgiris agree another 2 years.
Squad4 Sep 2028
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.
Transfer targets4 Sep 2028
The clock did what Suduva would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
The dugout4 Sep 2028
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.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Lukas Kuklys slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Lukas Kuklys is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The dugout4 Sep 2028
“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.
The dugout4 Sep 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Aug 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Vykintas Slivka
139 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kauno Zalgiris lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market28 Aug 2028
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Atlantas waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Kauno Zalgiris is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market28 Aug 2028
“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.
Market28 Aug 2028
Rokas Lekiatas has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kauno Zalgiris they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Anton Tolordava 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 dugout28 Aug 2028
Lukas Kuklys knocks on the manager's door
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Aug 2028
147 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kauno Zalgiris lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout21 Aug 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Kauno Zalgiris may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market21 Aug 2028
Atlantas come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Kauno Zalgiris did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets21 Aug 2028
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Kauno Zalgiris have done the hard part with Suduva, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Vykintas Slivka 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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Words at Kauno Zalgiris training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valdas Paulauskas 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
Squad14 Aug 2028
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.
Transfer targets14 Aug 2028
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.
The dugout14 Aug 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Anton Tolordava, and the manager let it.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Valdas Paulauskas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout14 Aug 2028
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.
Squad14 Aug 2028
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.
Market14 Aug 2028
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Match14 Aug 2028
Continental football is in reach for Kauno Zalgiris
13 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
Squad14 Aug 2028
A season on the outside for Tom Wiles
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Kauno Zalgiris has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout7 Aug 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Vykintas Slivka and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market7 Aug 2028
The chase for Arvydas Valskis ended with $140.0K changing hands and Utenis out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Tom Wiles 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. Tom Wiles has, at Kauno Zalgiris, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Transfer targets7 Aug 2028
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 Aug 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Marko Konatar and Kauno Zalgiris agree another 3 years.
Market7 Aug 2028
He is 19, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
The dugout7 Aug 2028
Vykintas Slivka has become a man the manager trusts
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.
Squad7 Aug 2028
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. Franco Baldassarra has moved up it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 Jul 2028
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Atlantas waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Kauno Zalgiris is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Transfer targets31 Jul 2028
$140.0K settles it between the clubs for Arvydas Valskis
Utenis have accepted the money. What Kauno Zalgiris do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Market31 Jul 2028
Only the photograph left for Rokas Lekiatas
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rokas Lekiatas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kauno Zalgiris the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Vykintas Slivka 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.
Squad31 Jul 2028
A muscle injury sidelines Arnas Girdvainis for 14 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Kauno Zalgiris will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marko Stanojević was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout31 Jul 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Luka Račić, and the manager let it.
The dugout31 Jul 2028
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.
The dugout31 Jul 2028
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Jul 2028
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.
Transfer targets24 Jul 2028
Kauno Zalgiris asked and Utenis 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 Jul 2028
Marko Konatar and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Marko Stanojević 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.
The dugout24 Jul 2028
Léo Ribeiro has become a man the manager trusts
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 dugout24 Jul 2028
The manager makes an example of Jenson Kilroy
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market17 Jul 2028
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Kauno Zalgiris have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The dugout17 Jul 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Marko Konatar 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 dugout17 Jul 2028
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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Words at Kauno Zalgiris training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anton Tolordava 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 dugout17 Jul 2028
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Jul 2028
“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.
Market10 Jul 2028
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.
Market10 Jul 2028
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Marko Konatar 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 dugout10 Jul 2028
The manager makes an example of Damjan Pavlović
“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.
The dugout10 Jul 2028
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 Vykintas Slivka is on it.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Anton Tolordava 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.
Match10 Jul 2028
Continental football is in reach for Kauno Zalgiris
13 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
The dugout10 Jul 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Deividas Mikelionis trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market3 Jul 2028
“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.
Transfer targets3 Jul 2028
Everything agreed with Zalgiris, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Market3 Jul 2028
Only the photograph left for Rokas Lekiatas
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rokas Lekiatas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kauno Zalgiris the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Vykintas Slivka 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.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
Squad3 Jul 2028
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. Vykintas Slivka has moved up it.
The dugout3 Jul 2028
Lukas Kuklys knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lukas Kuklys trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout3 Jul 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market26 Jun 2028
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Atlantas waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Kauno Zalgiris is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Transfer targets26 Jun 2028
The clubs have shaken hands with Utenis; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Market26 Jun 2028
“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.
Market26 Jun 2028
Only the photograph left for Amine Benchaib
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Amine Benchaib will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kauno Zalgiris the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Vykintas Slivka 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 Jun 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jenson Kilroy and Kauno Zalgiris agree another 3 years.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anton Tolordava was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Jun 2028
Léo Ribeiro 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 Léo Ribeiro is on it.
The dugout26 Jun 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Anton Tolordava, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market19 Jun 2028
$1.4M from Zalgiris for Lirim Kastrati. Money is money, but the dressing room has lost the man it looked to.
Market19 Jun 2028
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 terraces19 Jun 2028
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Lirim Kastrati was one of the reasons people came, and $1.4M does not replace that by itself.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
The clubs have shaken hands with Zalgiris; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
Kauno Zalgiris offered $160.0K; Utenis said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad19 Jun 2028
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.
Squad19 Jun 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Liam Poulin commits to Kauno Zalgiris for another 4 years.
Squad19 Jun 2028
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Kauno Zalgiris will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anton Tolordava was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Jun 2028
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.
Market12 Jun 2028
“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.
Transfer targets12 Jun 2028
The offer went to Utenis this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Vykintas Slivka and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout12 Jun 2028
The manager makes an example of Damjan Pavlović
“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.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Words at Kauno Zalgiris training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marko Konatar 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.
Market12 Jun 2028
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Kauno Zalgiris will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
The dugout12 Jun 2028
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.
Market12 Jun 2028
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Eduardas Jurjonas has his answer from Kauno Zalgiris; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Jun 2028
The season ends: position 5 for Kauno Zalgiris
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 13 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Market5 Jun 2028
“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.
Player ratings5 Jun 2028
Up for the corner, and Franco Baldassarra delivers — 7.67
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Franco Baldassarra scored, was marked 7.67, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Market5 Jun 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kauno Zalgiris they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings5 Jun 2028
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match3 Jun 2028
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Words at Kauno Zalgiris training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lirim Kastrati 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 dugout5 Jun 2028
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market29 May 2028
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.
Squad29 May 2028
At 21 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.
Match27 May 2028
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at Kauno Zalgiris training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lirim Kastrati 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.
Squad29 May 2028
Marko Konatar and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout29 May 2028
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 0‑2 Donatas Kuklys left the room before anybody could ask which.
Player ratings29 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout29 May 2028
Léo Ribeiro has become a man the manager trusts
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.
Market29 May 2028
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Deividas Mikelionis has his answer from Kauno Zalgiris; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings22 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match20 May 2028
Stumbras made Kauno Zalgiris work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings22 May 2028
Ninety minutes of Lirim Kastrati at his very best
Marked 8.35. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Kauno Zalgiris.
Squad22 May 2028
Fedor Černych 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.
Squad22 May 2028
Marko Konatar 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.
The dugout22 May 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Donatas Kuklys kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout22 May 2028
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.
The dugout22 May 2028
The manager makes an example of Matteo Arrighi
“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.
Squad22 May 2028
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Kauno Zalgiris have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match13 May 2028
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Kauno Zalgiris can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad15 May 2028
Vykintas Slivka and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match13 May 2028
Suduva left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad15 May 2028
Lirim Kastrati 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.
The dugout15 May 2028
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout15 May 2028
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 Vykintas Slivka is on it.
The dugout15 May 2028
“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.
Looking ahead15 May 2028
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Stumbras in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Player ratings15 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 11. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout8 May 2028
Lukas Kuklys: that is not what I was promised
“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.
Market8 May 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Eduardas Jurjonas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kauno Zalgiris the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market8 May 2028
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Kauno Zalgiris can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad8 May 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Fabien Ourega and Kauno Zalgiris agree another 2 years.
Squad8 May 2028
Vykintas Slivka 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.
Match6 May 2028
Siauliai left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad8 May 2028
Lirim Kastrati 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.
The dugout8 May 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tomas Švedkauskas, and the manager let it.
The dugout8 May 2028
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Donatas Kuklys after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market1 May 2028
Only the photograph left for Rokas Lekiatas
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rokas Lekiatas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kauno Zalgiris the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad1 May 2028
Vykintas Slivka 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.
Match29 Apr 2028
0‑2 to Zalgiris, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad1 May 2028
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Player ratings1 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout1 May 2028
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 0‑2 Donatas Kuklys left the room before anybody could ask which.
Player ratings1 May 2028
Ten men and a goalkeeper behind him, and it still finished in the net. He knew before anybody told him, and nobody at Kauno Zalgiris needed to.
Squad1 May 2028
Marko Stanojević 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.
The dugout1 May 2028
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match22 Apr 2028
The 86th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Valdas Paulauskas decided nobody was going anywhere. Utenis had no time left to answer.
Player ratings24 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match22 Apr 2028
Three points for Kauno Zalgiris, 1‑0 the final word against Utenis in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad24 Apr 2028
200 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Squad24 Apr 2028
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.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words at Kauno Zalgiris training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lirim Kastrati 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.
Player ratings24 Apr 2028
Marked 7.71 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Kauno Zalgiris had the best player on the pitch.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Kauno Zalgiris are still strangers to each other
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.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Donatas Kuklys, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Apr 2028
18 days out for Robert Łukowiak after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Kauno Zalgiris will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
Damjan Pavlović: that is not what I was promised
“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.
Match15 Apr 2028
8 matches without a win, and then this, against Atlantas. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Player ratings17 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match15 Apr 2028
Three points for Kauno Zalgiris, 1‑0 the final word against Atlantas in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings17 Apr 2028
A performance of 8.09 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Marko Konatar 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.
Match17 Apr 2028
Half the programme played, position 4, 7 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Lirim Kastrati 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
Match5 Apr 2028
Siauliai ended it 0‑1. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Match8 Apr 2028
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Kauno Zalgiris are no longer polite ones.
Squad10 Apr 2028
A fracture rules Robert Łukowiak out for 26 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kauno Zalgiris will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings10 Apr 2028
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.24, and nobody on the pitch better.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Kauno Zalgiris may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market10 Apr 2028
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.
Player ratings10 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad10 Apr 2028
The medical room confirms 17 days on the sidelines for Ignas Vaitkunas, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Anton Tolordava 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings3 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 37. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad3 Apr 2028
35 days out for Robert Łukowiak after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Kauno Zalgiris will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match3 Apr 2028
3 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Match1 Apr 2028
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Kauno Zalgiris are no longer polite ones.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
Amine Benchaib: that is not what I was promised
“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.
Market3 Apr 2028
Only the photograph left for Rokas Lekiatas
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rokas Lekiatas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kauno Zalgiris the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Fedor Černych and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words at Kauno Zalgiris training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lirim Kastrati 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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad27 Mar 2028
A fracture rules Robert Łukowiak out for 42 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kauno Zalgiris will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match25 Mar 2028
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Tomas Švedkauskas and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match25 Mar 2028
Suduva left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Lirim Kastrati 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.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Saverio D'Onofrio, and the manager let it.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Anthony Kalik's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Donatas Kuklys to a room that had heard them before.
Squad27 Mar 2028
5 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad20 Mar 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 49 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.94, and nobody on the pitch better.
Match18 Mar 2028
No end in sight to Kauno Zalgiris's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Kauno Zalgiris has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad20 Mar 2028
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.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
“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.
Match18 Mar 2028
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Siauliai scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Marko Konatar 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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Tomas Švedkauskas knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match11 Mar 2028
0‑4 to Zalgiris, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad13 Mar 2028
A fracture rules Robert Łukowiak out for 56 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kauno Zalgiris will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market13 Mar 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kauno Zalgiris they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Tomas Švedkauskas 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.
Market13 Mar 2028
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Kauno Zalgiris can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words at Kauno Zalgiris training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lirim Kastrati 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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
The medical room confirms 45 days on the sidelines for Ignas Vaitkunas, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
“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.
Boardroom13 Mar 2028
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad6 Mar 2028
A fracture rules Robert Łukowiak out for 63 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kauno Zalgiris will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings6 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings6 Mar 2028
Léo Ribeiro, 33, rolls back the years — 7.94
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.94 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market6 Mar 2028
Only the photograph left for Rokas Lekiatas
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rokas Lekiatas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kauno Zalgiris the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Anthony Kalik commits to Kauno Zalgiris for another 3 years.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Tomas Švedkauskas 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.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
4 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Market6 Mar 2028
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Marius Paulauskas is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market6 Mar 2028
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Aidas Eliosius 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
Upbeat
Squad28 Feb 2028
70 days out for Robert Łukowiak after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Kauno Zalgiris will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad28 Feb 2028
A muscle injury sidelines Darius Novikovas for 14 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Kauno Zalgiris will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad28 Feb 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lukas Kuklys and Kauno Zalgiris agree another 3 years.
Squad28 Feb 2028
5 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.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
When it matters, Léo Ribeiro plays
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.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
“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.
Market28 Feb 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Kauno Zalgiris know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
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 Damjan Pavlović has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Feb 2028
A fracture rules Robert Łukowiak out for 78 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kauno Zalgiris will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match21 Feb 2028
Kauno Zalgiris refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 27 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Market21 Feb 2028
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Atlantas moved on, Deividas Mikelionis reports back to Kauno Zalgiris, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Liam Poulin 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. Liam Poulin has, at Kauno Zalgiris, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Lirim Kastrati 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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
The medical room confirms 33 days on the sidelines for Marko Stanojević, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
“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.
Market21 Feb 2028
He is 18, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
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 Vykintas Slivka is on it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Feb 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 85 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market14 Feb 2028
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Trakai moved on, Lirim Kastrati reports back to Kauno Zalgiris, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Market14 Feb 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kauno Zalgiris they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Lirim Kastrati 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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
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.
Market14 Feb 2028
He signed expecting a bigger stage than the one he found. It has not taken long, and it has not taken the dressing room long to notice either.
Squad14 Feb 2028
No place for Amine Lazrak in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Kauno Zalgiris are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
The manager makes an example of Amine Benchaib
“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.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
Fedor Černych has become a man the manager trusts
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Feb 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 92 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market7 Feb 2028
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.
Market7 Feb 2028
“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.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Window shuts: 4 in, 3 out at Kauno Zalgiris
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 4 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets7 Feb 2028
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Zalgiris is saying, and nobody at Kauno Zalgiris is enjoying the guessing.
Market7 Feb 2028
Only the photograph left for Rokas Lekiatas
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rokas Lekiatas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kauno Zalgiris the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market7 Feb 2028
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Amine Benchaib reports back to Kauno Zalgiris with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Tomas Švedkauskas 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.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Matteo Arrighi 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. Matteo Arrighi has, at Kauno Zalgiris, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market31 Jan 2028
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Kauno Zalgiris have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 101 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market31 Jan 2028
“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.
Market31 Jan 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kauno Zalgiris they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Tomas Švedkauskas and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lirim Kastrati was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market31 Jan 2028
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Lirim Kastrati has his answer from Kauno Zalgiris; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout31 Jan 2028
“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.
The dugout31 Jan 2028
Léo Ribeiro 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 Léo Ribeiro is on it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market24 Jan 2028
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.
Match24 Jan 2028
Kauno Zalgiris refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 27 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Market24 Jan 2028
“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.
Market24 Jan 2028
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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
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.
Market24 Jan 2028
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Kauno Zalgiris have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad24 Jan 2028
61 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lirim Kastrati was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
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 Vykintas Slivka is on it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market17 Jan 2028
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Atlantas waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Kauno Zalgiris is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market17 Jan 2028
“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.
Transfer targets17 Jan 2028
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 Jan 2028
Vykintas Slivka 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.
Market17 Jan 2028
Trakai are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Kauno Zalgiris will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words at Kauno Zalgiris training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marko Konatar 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 dugout17 Jan 2028
Luka Račić gets it from the manager
“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.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
Fedor Černych 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 Fedor Černych is on it.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market10 Jan 2028
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Kauno Zalgiris have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
Kauno Zalgiris had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Zalgiris, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Tomas Švedkauskas 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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Lirim Kastrati 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.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
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.
Market10 Jan 2028
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Kauno Zalgiris, another week without a signature from Darius Novikovas.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
“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.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market3 Jan 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Léo Ribeiro honoured for the season
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Kauno Zalgiris had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Market3 Jan 2028
“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.
Market3 Jan 2028
Add another name to the list: Stumbras have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Rokas Lekiatas. The answer from Kauno Zalgiris has not changed — yet.
Market3 Jan 2028
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lirim Kastrati was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Marko Konatar and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout3 Jan 2028
Léo Ribeiro 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 Léo Ribeiro is on it.
The dugout3 Jan 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Darius Novikovas trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.