Marked for Eino Ehrnrooth
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout19 May 2036
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Odra Opole have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad19 May 2036
Aymeric Ahmed 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.
Squad19 May 2036
Przemysław Misiak 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 dugout19 May 2036
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Wojciech Banasik, and the manager let it.
Squad19 May 2036
It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
Market19 May 2036
1 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Odra Opole could get for him.
The dugout19 May 2036
Felipe Torres has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Odra Opole 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.
Market19 May 2036
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Odra Opole, another week without a signature from Eino Ehrnrooth.
The dugout19 May 2036
Bryn Deeley 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Feb 2036
69 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Odra Opole lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout4 Feb 2036
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Odra Opole may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom4 Feb 2036
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 4 gone
That is the business done at Odra Opole 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.
Market4 Feb 2036
Sander Linnes 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 Odra Opole can pretend not to have heard.
Match2 Feb 2036
4 matches without a win for Odra Opole
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Odra Opole are no longer polite ones.
Squad4 Feb 2036
Aymeric Ahmed 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 targets4 Feb 2036
The window shuts on the Rúben Furtado deal
Odra Opole ran out of time with Korona. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Squad4 Feb 2036
Przemysław Misiak 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.
Boardroom4 Feb 2036
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Tomasz Pytlak has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Odra Opole have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market22 Jan 2035
“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 Vikingur, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad22 Jan 2035
Words at Vikingur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sveinn Gísli Þorkelsson 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.
Squad22 Jan 2035
A falling-out at Vikingur
Malthe Ladefoged and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Jan 2035
14 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout22 Jan 2035
Nobody at Vikingur 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 dugout22 Jan 2035
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rasmus Braithwaite trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout22 Jan 2035
The manager makes an example of Dani Hodzic
“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.
Market22 Jan 2035
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Sveinn Gísli Þorkelsson signs something — a contract at Vikingur or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market22 Jan 2035
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Nov 2034
Words exchanged at Vikingur
Sveinn Gísli Þorkelsson 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.
Squad27 Nov 2034
Words at Vikingur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sveinn Margeir Hauksson 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.
Squad27 Nov 2034
The medical room confirms 70 days on the sidelines for Pálmi Nökkvason, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout27 Nov 2034
Nobody at Vikingur 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 dugout27 Nov 2034
The manager makes an example of Eino Ehrnrooth
“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.
Market27 Nov 2034
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Sveinn Gísli Þorkelsson’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.