Marked for David Ciurel
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Jun 2027
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Player ratings28 Jun 2027
Age has not caught Viktor Jónsson yet — 9.65
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.65 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Boardroom28 Jun 2027
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Hilmar Elís Hilmarsson has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Erik Tobias Sandberg 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.
Match26 Jun 2027
Three points for IA, 3‑1 the final word against IBV in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings28 Jun 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings28 Jun 2027
Gísli Laxdal was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.24. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Tempers go at IA
David Ciurel was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad28 Jun 2027
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Mar 2027
Gísli Eyjólfsson 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
David Ciurel in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at IA this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Mar 2027
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
Squad18 Jan 2027
Tempers go at IA
Guðmundur Þórarinsson 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at IA training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gísli Eyjólfsson 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
The medical room confirms 14 days on the sidelines for David Ciurel, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Oct 2026
Miloš Gordić: 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.” IA have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market26 Oct 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at IA is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at IA training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gísli Eyjólfsson 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
Squad12 Oct 2026
Tempers go at IA
Guðmundur Þórarinsson 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A move David Ciurel would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. David Ciurel is living that version at IA, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Too much change too quickly at IA
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match7 Sep 2026
Every point is an argument now for Botosani
Position 9 and 4 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Match5 Sep 2026
7 matches without a win for Botosani
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Botosani are no longer polite ones.
Market7 Sep 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Botosani, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market7 Sep 2026
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Petrolul moved on, Antonio Dumitru reports back to Botosani, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad7 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Botosani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 23 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Market7 Sep 2026
The fee is $160.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Petrolul drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Market7 Sep 2026
Business is business: Narcis Ilaş goes
Universitatea Craiova paid $380.0K and Botosani took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
A defender's afternoon for Charles Petro
Defensive actions: 21. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.