Marked for Eero Granlund
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad10 May 2032
6 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.
Market10 May 2032
“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 The request is on a desk at IA, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad10 May 2032
Gils Gíslason 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 terraces10 May 2032
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match8 May 2032
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Dagur Sigurdsson. 1‑0 against Valur, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad10 May 2032
A falling-out at IA
Johannes Käck and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 May 2032
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at IA can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout10 May 2032
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Kari Halldorsson on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout10 May 2032
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 Árni Marinó Einarsson is on it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market26 Apr 2032
“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.
Squad26 Apr 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at IA this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout26 Apr 2032
This is not rotation. Sverrir Bjarnason has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at IA is pretending otherwise.
Squad26 Apr 2032
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ragnar Smarason commits to IA for another 3 years.
The dugout26 Apr 2032
Ragnar Bjarnason has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at IA 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.
Market26 Apr 2032
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Daði Berg Jónsson’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout26 Apr 2032
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at IA, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market26 Apr 2032
IA have made Dagur Sigurdsson available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
The dugout26 Apr 2032
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Eero Granlund has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market5 Apr 2032
“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 IA, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad5 Apr 2032
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Pierre Daniel Épée Ngango is living that version at IA, and it tends to show in the first month.
Boardroom5 Apr 2032
Window shuts: 2 in, 3 out at IA
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 2 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Market5 Apr 2032
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Keflavik moved on, Sverrir Bjarnason reports back to IA, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Market5 Apr 2032
Everyone has stopped pretending: IBV will make the call about Dagur Sigurdsson this week. IA have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Transfer targets5 Apr 2032
IA ran out of time with Vikingur. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Squad5 Apr 2032
Words exchanged at IA
Mats Frans 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.
Squad5 Apr 2032
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The dugout5 Apr 2032
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
Market15 Mar 2032
“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.
Market15 Mar 2032
Keflavik come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and IA did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad15 Mar 2032
A season average of 7.00 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. IA know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad15 Mar 2032
A falling-out at IA
Gils Gíslason 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.
Squad15 Mar 2032
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and IA know it.
Market15 Mar 2032
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. IA will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
The dugout15 Mar 2032
Dagur Sigurdsson has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at IA 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.
Squad15 Mar 2032
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market8 Mar 2032
IBV come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and IA did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets8 Mar 2032
Fee done, terms next for Filip Jazvić
IA and IBV have settled on $31.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Market8 Mar 2032
Mats Frans 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 IA can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets8 Mar 2032
The offer went to KR this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad8 Mar 2032
Words exchanged at IA
Gils Gíslason 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.
Squad8 Mar 2032
Words at IA training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Styrmir Jóhann Ellertsson 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 dugout8 Mar 2032
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alfred Halldorsson, and the manager let it.
Market8 Mar 2032
A stepping stone, not a home, for Eero Granlund
He is doing his job and he is not settling. IA were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
Market8 Mar 2032
He is 18, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.