Let's talk Žalgiris for the new season.
So far the players in the team are:
Loren Woods
Paulius Jankunas
Žygimantas Janavicius
Mantas Kalnietis
Tadas Klimavicius
Jonas Maciulis
Å arunas Vasiliauskas
Dainius Å alenga
Eurelijus Žukauskas
Arturas Milaknis
It would be great season for Zalgiris , i know that...
Eurelijus Zukauskas stays with the club for one more season.
Here in Greece, rumours say that Tantas Klimavicius is signing for PAOK..
What about Zalgiris Vilius..??
Do they replace the players that leave the club...?
It must be a difficult situation..
What about Ratko Varda and Woods..?
I saw rumours about Tadas Klimavicius moving to PAOK. It sounds realisitc since Klimavicius played little and when he was on the court he wasn't very useful at all. He played in Greece last year so everything seems logical. Zalgiris wants to save money by letting him go.
The situation at Zalgiris is tense. Kaunas municipality supported the club by 2.2M Litas but those money have expired now. The club didn't find an investor. They need money to pay wages for the players. And as I said "new" board is doing as "well" as the old one.
Rumours about Ratko Varda going to Real Madrid to replace Lazaros Papadopoulos appeared today. It was also mentioned that Jonas Maciulis was put in the market and other clubs can ake offers to him. He was wanted by Real Madrid, Barcelona and some Turkish clubs last summer.
There were ne speculations about Loren Woods yet.
When Marcus Brown was loaned out to Maccabi, there were talks about a new player coming to replace him but it looks like it is impossible to do that because of the club's financial situation.
Zalgiris vs. BC Kyiv live now [url="http://http"]here[/url] (Promo cup)
Well it looks like Zalgiris will have a new investor eventually. It's not 100% guaranteed yet but everything seems to be moving to the right direction. It is interesting if we will see new players in the team this season and what level they will be.
This is a wild dream but it would be amazing if they could sign Macijauskas for the rest of the season.
P.S. Updated roster in the first post.
Players declared an ultimatum to the club - either they get paid or they will boycott next game against Nevezis.
I heard that Zalgiris' players issued an ultimatum to the team and that they won't show up for tonight's game.
What will happen if they don't show up to play tonight and in future games? Will that put Zalgiris' Euroleague A license into danger?
Players didn't travel to the game and before that Zalgiris asked LKL to move the game to another day. This request was accepted not even asking Nevezis' opinion about it. The game is scheduled for February 22nd.
According to some sites the debts of the club reached 30M Litas which is around ââ¬8.7M. Players are not getting their wages for the last 3-4 months and some claim they weren't paid at the end of last season too.
Jonas Maciulis said that all the players told their agents to look for new teams. They will only stay if the situation stays within next few days.
That's where the poor management of the club leads to...
Regarding Euroleague A license, I am not sure about it. If the club goes to bankrupt then obviously the license will be taken from them but if they somehow manage to sort their problems then it should be left to them. Whatever happens it is clear that other teams that were also candidates for A license will be pushing Euroleague to take the license from Zalgiris. They can't dream of a better situation for that I guess.
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½algiris found an investor and players will play next game. Am I right?
Yes, one of the major newspapers "Respublika" became the general sponsor and gave Zalgiris 3M Litas. The club is also trying to get almost 2M from the government for 1999 Euroleague title because they were awarded with 5M but only 3M were paid until now.
The situation has calmed down. At least for now.
That's good news.
Seems that Lithuania is a totally corruption-free country with press and major publishers not having everyone in their pocket using their money <img src='http://www.talkbasket.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='
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It is rumoured that Zalgiris players agreed to take a 10% pay cut in order to help the team survive through the season. Maybe Vilius can confirm this.
Yes, that's correct. We'll see how much that will help the team. This is just a temporary solution.
This [url="http://http"]Greek basketball blog[/url] is having an interesting poll on which of Zalgiris and Lituvos Rytas is a better team.
The poll ends tonight, so vote for Zalgiris everyone <img src='http://www.talkbasket.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='
' /> It is the first poll on the right side. Zalgiris is the 2nd choice.
Apparently the poll was created after the request of LKL itself who wanted to know the two teams' popularity in Greece.
Of course Zalgiris topped even this by a huge difference. Lietuvos Rytas you will never beat us in anything, not even a poll <img src='http://www.talkbasket.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='
' />
Paulius Motiejunas, GM of Zalgiris, admitted that the debt of the club is 20M Litas (~ 6M Euros). The main reason of the debt is the fact that the club was unable to gather the budget that was planned for several years in a row, according to him. It was done in order to get Euroleague A license.
He said that keeping Jonas Maciulis, Mantas Kalnietis and Paulius Jankunas at the club next season is unreal. Zalgiris wants to build a young Lithuanian team which would be strong in 3-4 years. They are still looking for a new investor. But who would want to invest in a team with such debt? Especially when the previous potential investors accused Zalgiris management of hiding the real financial status of the club. The debt of 20M Litas was first mentioned in the media back in autumn. The club denied that and said that at most the debt is 5M. And now we see that it was a lie to cover the real situation.
There is also a possiblity that Zalgiris could end in bankrupt. A new club would be established and would start all over. They would lose Euroleague A license if this scenario comes true.
Player wages are late and the best paid players have their wages delayed for half of teh season.
I somehow don't think the "greens" will disappear all of sudden. And knowing how Liths are crazy about basketball, I'm sure some people will come up if they are at the tip of the mountain.
Amateur board. Really sad.