Marked for Mate Peteh
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces6 Aug 2029
The mood at Leiknir has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad6 Aug 2029
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Leiknir will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match4 Aug 2029
The wait goes on for Leiknir
5 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.
Player ratings6 Aug 2029
Mate Peteh pops up at the right end — 7.54
7.54, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Transfer targets6 Aug 2029
Leiknir had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Fylkir, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Ólafur Íshólm Ólafsson 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.
Match4 Aug 2029
Stjarnan left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Transfer targets6 Aug 2029
Leiknir asked and FH said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad6 Aug 2029
A row about effort at Leiknir
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Róbert Quental Árnason was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match30 Jun 2029
Róbert Quental Árnason had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Valur were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Squad2 Jul 2029
8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Player ratings2 Jul 2029
Two goals and a mark of 8.52 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad2 Jul 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 Leiknir this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout2 Jul 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mate Peteh, and the manager let it.
Squad2 Jul 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” August Kayanja-Drejgaard and Leiknir agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match30 Jun 2029
Honours even between Leiknir and Valur
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Boardroom2 Jul 2029
Intake day at the Leiknir academy
7 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
Squad2 Jul 2029
A place in the month's best eleven for Ahti Haikala
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Ahti Haikala has come out of that comparison in the side, and Leiknir have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad25 Jun 2029
Words at Leiknir training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Róbert Quental Árnason 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.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Mate Peteh 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 Leiknir this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match23 Jun 2029
A 1‑0 win over Fylkir, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings25 Jun 2029
Marked 8.12 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The dugout25 Jun 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Marcos Iglesias kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout25 Jun 2029
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Leiknir, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout25 Jun 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kacper Kotala, and the manager let it.
Looking ahead25 Jun 2029
Valur next, and one man in the Leiknir dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Player ratings25 Jun 2029
Successful dribbles: 11. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match2 Jun 2029
The wait goes on for Leiknir
9 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 dugout4 Jun 2029
“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.
Squad4 Jun 2029
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad4 Jun 2029
A falling-out at Leiknir
Róbert Quental Árnason and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match2 Jun 2029
A bad afternoon for Leiknir against IBV
1‑2 to IBV, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout4 Jun 2029
“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.
Squad4 Jun 2029
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Þorsteinn Emil Jónsson has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
The dugout4 Jun 2029
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Marcos Iglesias left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad4 Jun 2029
A place in the month's best eleven for Mate Peteh
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Mate Peteh has come out of that comparison in the side, and Leiknir have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom28 May 2029
“I have watched this squad. There is more in it than the table says.” First press conference, first promise — Marcos Iglesias made the one every new manager makes, and now comes the part where it gets checked.
Match26 May 2029
The wait goes on for Leiknir
8 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 dugout28 May 2029
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Leiknir have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad28 May 2029
Words exchanged at Leiknir
Ólafur Íshólm Ólafsson 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.
The dugout28 May 2029
“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.
Squad28 May 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lukas Tunedal and Leiknir agree another 3 years.
Player ratings28 May 2029
7.98, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Leiknir had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout28 May 2029
Óskar Borgþórsson is playing like a man with something to prove
The oldest phenomenon in the sport: a new voice in the dressing room and suddenly everybody is available for everything. Óskar Borgþórsson is training as though the last team sheet never existed, because as far as he is concerned it does not.
Match26 May 2029
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces14 May 2029
Supporters organise against the Leiknir board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Match12 May 2029
No end in sight to Leiknir's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Leiknir has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad14 May 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 Leiknir this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom14 May 2029
Still no name above the door at Leiknir
Day 13 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
Squad14 May 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mate Peteh commits to Leiknir for another 4 years.
Squad14 May 2029
A row about effort at Leiknir
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Róbert Quental Árnason was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad14 May 2029
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Leiknir can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Match12 May 2029
It needed Davíð Júlían Jónsson to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Breidablik, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Player ratings14 May 2029
Successful dribbles: 14. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces16 Apr 2029
Supporters organise against the Leiknir board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Boardroom16 Apr 2029
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Leiknir
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad16 Apr 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Philip Bergqvist
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Leiknir lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad16 Apr 2029
A falling-out at Leiknir
Róbert Quental Árnason and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 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.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Leiknir, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
“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 dugout16 Apr 2029
Mendim Elis Veselaj is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Lukas Tunedal has had enough of the bench
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Leiknir will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market11 Dec 2028
“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.
Squad11 Dec 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Aled Thomas and Leiknir agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad11 Dec 2028
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 dugout11 Dec 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dagur Ingi Hammer, and the manager let it.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Mate Peteh 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.
The dugout11 Dec 2028
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The dugout11 Dec 2028
Aled Thomas knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Leiknir, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout11 Dec 2028
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 Davíð Júlían Jónsson is on it.
Market11 Dec 2028
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Leiknir, another week without a signature from Davíð Júlían Jónsson.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces30 Oct 2028
Anger at Leiknir spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Boardroom30 Oct 2028
Pressure builds in the Leiknir boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad30 Oct 2028
28 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad30 Oct 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 Leiknir this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Oct 2028
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 dugout30 Oct 2028
Mate Peteh gets it from the manager
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout23 Oct 2028
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Leiknir have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Đorđe Vladisavljević 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.
Squad23 Oct 2028
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.
Squad23 Oct 2028
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Leiknir can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
The manager makes an example of Karan Gurung
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market16 Oct 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Leiknir can pretend not to have heard.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Words exchanged at Leiknir
Ólafur Íshólm Ólafsson 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.
The dugout16 Oct 2028
“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.
Squad16 Oct 2028
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.
Squad16 Oct 2028
The formation has left Ahti Haikala behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Leiknir will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The dugout16 Oct 2028
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 Davíð Júlían Jónsson is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match11 Sep 2028
Leiknir sink to position 10
18 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market11 Sep 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Leiknir can pretend not to have heard.
Market11 Sep 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Leiknir they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad11 Sep 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 Leiknir this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Sep 2028
A row about effort at Leiknir
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Róbert Quental Árnason was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
“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.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Mendim Elis Veselaj's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Looking ahead11 Sep 2028
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Valur in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
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
Uneasy
Market28 Aug 2028
“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.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Words exchanged at Leiknir
Ólafur Íshólm Ólafsson 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.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. August Kayanja-Drejgaard has, at Leiknir, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad28 Aug 2028
A row about effort at Leiknir
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Róbert Quental Árnason was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match26 Aug 2028
Fjolnir made Leiknir work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 11 actions, 6.83, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
Marked 8.32 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
Marked 8.07. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Leiknir.
The dugout28 Aug 2028
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Ólafur Íshólm Ólafsson will call it something else in private.