Marked for Daniel Svensson
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Feb 2031
15 days out for Daniel Svensson after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. IF Elfsborg will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market17 Feb 2031
Malmo FF come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and IF Elfsborg did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market17 Feb 2031
“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 The request is on a desk at IF Elfsborg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad17 Feb 2031
Thomas Maier arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Thomas Maier has, at IF Elfsborg, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Transfer targets17 Feb 2031
IF Elfsborg offered $160.0K; Helsingborg said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad17 Feb 2031
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rasmus Niklasson Petrovic was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom17 Feb 2031
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Dmitriy Emeljanov has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means IF Elfsborg have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Squad17 Feb 2031
Oliver Månsson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Feb 2031
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. IF Elfsborg have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad10 Feb 2031
23 days out for Daniel Svensson after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. IF Elfsborg will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom10 Feb 2031
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $3.8M of what IF Elfsborg paid for Bienvenue Kanakimana is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
Market10 Feb 2031
IF Elfsborg spend $1.9M to raise the standard
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $1.9M has been paid because Viktor Andersson is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Market10 Feb 2031
“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.
Market10 Feb 2031
The phone has started ringing about Kalle Joelsson again, and this time the name on the line is GAIS. IF Elfsborg are listening politely and promising nothing.
Transfer targets10 Feb 2031
Everything agreed with IFK Värnamo, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets10 Feb 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. IFK Goteborg have kept their man, and IF Elfsborg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets10 Feb 2031
The offer went to IK Brage 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Feb 2031
A fracture rules Daniel Svensson out for 31 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason IF Elfsborg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market3 Feb 2031
“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.
Transfer targets3 Feb 2031
The offer went to IFK Värnamo 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.
Transfer targets3 Feb 2031
IF Elfsborg have gone to Kalmar FF with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Transfer targets3 Feb 2031
$150.0K was the most the club would pay and Utsikten were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Market3 Feb 2031
The phone has started ringing about Felix Jakobsson again, and this time the name on the line is HJK. IF Elfsborg are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad3 Feb 2031
Words at IF Elfsborg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rasmus Niklasson Petrovic 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.
Squad3 Feb 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at IF Elfsborg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout3 Feb 2031
Tim Erlandsson faces a manager he fell out with
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at IF Elfsborg expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Tim Erlandsson.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Jan 2031
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 40 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market27 Jan 2031
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around IF Elfsborg people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market27 Jan 2031
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Bienvenue Kanakimana will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around IF Elfsborg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad27 Jan 2031
Words at IF Elfsborg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rasmus Niklasson Petrovic 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 Jan 2031
“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 IF Elfsborg know it.
The dugout27 Jan 2031
Tim Erlandsson faces a manager he fell out with
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at IF Elfsborg expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Tim Erlandsson.
Squad27 Jan 2031
Malek Adrar 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 IF Elfsborg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout27 Jan 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Herman Magnusson, and the manager let it.
The dugout27 Jan 2031
Oliver Kapsimalis has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at IF Elfsborg 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad20 Jan 2031
A fracture rules Daniel Svensson out for 47 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason IF Elfsborg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market20 Jan 2031
Edi Sylisufaj has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around IF Elfsborg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad20 Jan 2031
Words at IF Elfsborg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rasmus Niklasson Petrovic 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 dugout20 Jan 2031
Tim Erlandsson faces a manager he fell out with
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at IF Elfsborg expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Tim Erlandsson.
Squad20 Jan 2031
Patrik Isak and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market20 Jan 2031
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Tage Johansen has his answer from IF Elfsborg; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout20 Jan 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 Silvan Schwegler is on it.
Market20 Jan 2031
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Rasmus Niklasson Petrovic signs something — a contract at IF Elfsborg or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market20 Jan 2031
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings6 May 2030
A debut Daniel Svensson will not forget — 7.89
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 1 on the scoresheet, 7.89 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Market6 May 2030
“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.
The dugout6 May 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” IF Elfsborg may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings6 May 2030
Andreas Murbeck pops up at the right end — 7.69
7.69, 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.
Player ratings6 May 2030
Up for the corner, and Silvan Schwegler delivers — 7.94
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Silvan Schwegler scored, was marked 7.94, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad6 May 2030
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.
Boardroom6 May 2030
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Xavier Odhiambo has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means IF Elfsborg have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Player ratings6 May 2030
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.