Marked for Malte Frejd Pålsson
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match31 Jul 2027
26 matches without a win, and then this, against Kalmar FF. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Boardroom2 Aug 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at Atvidaberg
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Atvidaberg is running low.
Boardroom2 Aug 2027
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
Malte Frejd Pålsson, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.65
A mark of 7.65 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
Adam Samuelsson: 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.” Atvidaberg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market2 Aug 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Atvidaberg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Djurgarden keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Market2 Aug 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Atvidaberg have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match24 Apr 2027
12 matches without a win for Atvidaberg
The run now stands at 12, and the questions being asked around Atvidaberg are no longer polite ones.
Market26 Apr 2027
Only the photograph left for Kevin Eriksson
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kevin Eriksson will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Atvidaberg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match24 Apr 2027
IFK Goteborg left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout26 Apr 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.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad26 Apr 2027
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 11. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
Adrian Skogmar is not enjoying his job description
Played out of position, hooked on the hour, asked to be somebody he is not — the details vary and the mood does not. Atvidaberg have a player doing his work under protest.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad11 Jan 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Andreas Lie-Strand and Atvidaberg agree another 3 years.
The dugout11 Jan 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.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
Dion Gashi has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Atvidaberg 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 Jan 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Andreas Lie-Strand trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Atvidaberg will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market9 Nov 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Adam Samuelsson will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Atvidaberg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Hugo Claesson and Atvidaberg agree another 4 years.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“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.
Market9 Nov 2026
“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.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Sabri Kondo 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 Sabri Kondo is on it.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Oliver Brynéus 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
Upbeat
Squad2 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Malmo FF
Robin Olsen and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Nov 2026
The award goes to Mayckel Lahdo, and nobody around here is inclined to argue with the choice.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Market2 Nov 2026
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Malmo FF has been clear about where Daníel Guðjohnsen stands, which is more than many ever get.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Mayckel Lahdo named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Mayckel Lahdo is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
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 Otto Rosengren is on it.
Market2 Nov 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gabriel Busanello signs something — a contract at Malmo FF or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Malmo FF, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Andrej Đurić 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 Andrej Đurić has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Aug 2026
2 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Match12 Aug 2026
A 1‑1 win over AIK, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Malte Frejd Pålsson did not need any: 7.63, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market17 Aug 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Atvidaberg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Deadline passes with 25 signed and 4 gone
That is the business done at Atvidaberg 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Atvidaberg have done the hard part with Falkenberg, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Match15 Aug 2026
4 matches without a win for Atvidaberg
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Atvidaberg are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Liam Uddfalk Lund 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.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Atvidaberg
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Albin Bergström was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad3 Aug 2026
The formation has left Robin Book behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Atvidaberg will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Atvidaberg
12 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
AIK have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Atvidaberg have made the call to Malmo FF. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
BK Hacken have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
BK Hacken have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Marked 7.44. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.