Marked for Marin Modrić
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market15 Mar 2032
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Valur they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad15 Mar 2032
A falling-out at Valur
Rafal Stefán Daníelsson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets15 Mar 2032
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.
The dugout15 Mar 2032
“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.
Transfer targets15 Mar 2032
A loan move for Fabio Carvalho is in the works
Valur have made the call to Benfica. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout15 Mar 2032
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Valur. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces28 Apr 2031
The mood at Valur 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.
Boardroom28 Apr 2031
Pressure builds in the Valur boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
The dugout28 Apr 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad28 Apr 2031
Words exchanged at Valur
Rafal Stefán Daníelsson 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 Apr 2031
21 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad28 Apr 2031
Words at Valur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakob Franz Pálsson 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.
The dugout28 Apr 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Úlfur Ágúst Björnsson, and the manager let it.
The dugout28 Apr 2031
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 Jónatan Ingi Jónsson is on it.
Market28 Apr 2031
The Gísli Laxdal story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gísli Laxdal signs something — a contract at Valur or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad13 Jan 2031
Shkelzen Veseli damages knee ligaments — 18 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 18 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad13 Jan 2031
Tempers go at Valur
Rafal Stefán Daníelsson 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.
Squad13 Jan 2031
Adam Ægir Pálsson 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 dugout13 Jan 2031
Nobody at Valur 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.
Market13 Jan 2031
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Albin Skoglund’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout13 Jan 2031
Niko Beroš 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 Valur, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Oct 2030
A falling-out at Valur
Tryggvi Hrafn Haraldsson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Oct 2030
Words at Valur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakob Franz Pálsson 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.
The dugout21 Oct 2030
Nobody at Valur 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 dugout21 Oct 2030
Markus Nakkim 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.
Market21 Oct 2030
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Albin Skoglund signs something — a contract at Valur or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad21 Oct 2030
The training reports on Marin Modrić are not good
A bad Saturday is forgiven; a bad Tuesday is chosen. Standards have slipped and in a building where everybody watches everybody, it has been noticed.