Marked for Samuel Hust
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom2 Apr 2029
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at IBV 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.
Squad2 Apr 2029
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.
Squad2 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 IBV this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets2 Apr 2029
IBV ran out of time with Keflavik. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Squad2 Apr 2029
The captaincy has been taken off Marcel Zapytowski. IBV will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
The dugout2 Apr 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 Arnór Ingi Kristinsson is on it.
Market2 Apr 2029
The name of Dag Hallgren keeps appearing in other people's back pages. IBV say nothing, which says plenty.
Squad2 Apr 2029
It is a strip of cloth and it decides nothing on a Saturday. It still tells the dressing room exactly whose opinion the manager values, which is the whole point of it.
Market2 Apr 2029
IBV spent the window trying to move Alex Freyr Hilmarsson on and nobody came. He trains with a squad that has already told him he is not part of it, and both sides now wait for the next one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market19 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.
Market19 Feb 2029
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. IBV have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
This is not rotation. Elvis Bwomono has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at IBV is pretending otherwise.
Squad19 Feb 2029
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 35 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Elvis Bwomono 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.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Words exchanged at IBV
Ingi Þór Lúðvíksson 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
Steady
Squad1 Jan 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 33 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad1 Jan 2029
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. IBV had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
This is not rotation. Alex Freyr Hilmarsson has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at IBV is pretending otherwise.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Words exchanged at IBV
Milan Tomić 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.
Squad1 Jan 2029
A row about effort at IBV
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alex Freyr Hilmarsson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Þorri Heiðar Bergmann trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad13 Nov 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sesar Örn Harðarson and IBV agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Words at IBV training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Elvis Bwomono 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 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 IBV this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Nov 2028
6 new faces, and IBV 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.
Market13 Nov 2028
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at IBV, another week without a signature from Daniel Babb.
The dugout13 Nov 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
Crisis
Market29 May 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 IBV, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match27 May 2028
The wait goes on for IBV
7 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.
The dugout29 May 2028
Samuel Hust says IBV went back on their word
“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.
Player ratings29 May 2028
Nobody could get near Omar Sowe
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match27 May 2028
IBV come up short against FH
FH left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad29 May 2028
A row about effort at IBV
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Joseph Iyendjock was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad29 May 2028
Words exchanged at IBV
Ramon Rees-Siso 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.
Squad29 May 2028
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at IBV can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout29 May 2028
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
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.
Match3 Apr 2028
Every point is an argument now for IBV
Position 10 and 23 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.
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
The IBV board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Market3 Apr 2028
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. IBV have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
Deadline passes with 4 signed and 6 gone
That is the business done at IBV 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.
Market3 Apr 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets3 Apr 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Valur have kept their man, and IBV go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Sesar Örn Harðarson 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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at IBV can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
In brief
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Squad
Tempers go at IBV
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The dugout
Omar Sowe knocks on the manager’s door
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The dugout
No hiding place for Samuel Hust