Marked for Pascal Gregor
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad6 Sep 2027
A season average of 7.68 with 28 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match4 Sep 2027
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Mihael Mlinarić will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Halmstad escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Marcus Danielson 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.
Player ratings6 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad6 Sep 2027
A row about effort at Halmstad
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mihael Mlinarić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings6 Sep 2027
A performance of 8.61 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings6 Sep 2027
A performance of 8.04 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
The Halmstad board find $3.0M for the manager
Money, not words, and it is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending $3.0M well is entirely his problem now.
Match4 Sep 2027
It needed Mihael Mlinarić to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against IFK Goteborg, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Jul 2027
9 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.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
The clubs have shaken hands with Orebro; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
“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.
Market26 Jul 2027
Hammarby come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Halmstad did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
No thanks: Theo Krantz rejects the move
Halmstad had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at IFK Norrkoping, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad26 Jul 2027
A falling-out at Halmstad
Marcus Danielson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings26 Jul 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market26 Jul 2027
Business is business: Joel Nilsson goes
BK Hacken paid $170.0K and Halmstad took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Mihael Mlinarić 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Jul 2027
A season average of 7.50 with 17 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words exchanged at Halmstad
Marcus Danielson 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.
Market19 Jul 2027
The phone has started ringing about Filip Schyberg again, and this time the name on the line is Hammarby. Halmstad are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Halmstad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mihael Mlinarić 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.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. IFK Norrkoping have kept their man, and Halmstad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
“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.
Match17 Jul 2027
Halmstad caught on 85 minutes
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then IF Elfsborg scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
A loan move for Theo Krantz is in the works
Halmstad have made the call to IFK Norrkoping. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Market19 Jul 2027
The Joel Nilsson conversation is coming
Everyone has stopped pretending: BK Hacken will make the call about Joel Nilsson this week. Halmstad have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad31 May 2027
16 days out for Pascal Gregor after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Halmstad will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings31 May 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.04, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad31 May 2027
A falling-out at Halmstad
Marcus Danielson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match29 May 2027
3‑4 to Helsingborg, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Match29 May 2027
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Halmstad and Helsingborg, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Boardroom31 May 2027
Halmstad counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Halmstad now.
The dugout31 May 2027
No hiding place for Rami Kaib
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rami Kaib, and the manager let it.
Player ratings31 May 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.48, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings31 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
In brief
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Match
The run is over for Halmstad
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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Looking ahead
Halmstad take on the side everybody is chasing
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad24 May 2027
24 days out for Pascal Gregor after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Halmstad will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout24 May 2027
Mihael Mlinarić: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Halmstad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match22 May 2027
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Mark Assinor scored in the 86th minute, IFK Goteborg had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Halmstad took the lot.
Match22 May 2027
Nobody wants to play Halmstad right now
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad24 May 2027
Words exchanged at Halmstad
Rami Kaib 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Halmstad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mihael Mlinarić 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.
Squad24 May 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ludvig Arvidsson commits to Halmstad for another 5 years.
The dugout24 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Joel Allansson, and the manager let it.
Match22 May 2027
It finished 1‑0, and it was Mark Assinor’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Halmstad.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad17 May 2027
A fracture rules Pascal Gregor out for 32 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Halmstad will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad17 May 2027
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Match15 May 2027
Nobody wants to play Halmstad right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Player ratings17 May 2027
Ninety minutes of Mark Assinor at his very best
Marked 9.64. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Halmstad.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Halmstad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mihael Mlinarić 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.
Match15 May 2027
A 3‑1 win over Kalmar FF, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The terraces17 May 2027
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings17 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout17 May 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Robin Kulusevski, on a 3‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad10 May 2027
Pascal Gregor breaks a bone — 39 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 39 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match5 May 2027
Halmstad march on in the cup
IFK Norrkoping are out and Halmstad go through, 1‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Player ratings10 May 2027
Age has not caught Nikola Vasić yet — 8.24
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.24 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Player ratings10 May 2027
Chances created: 19. The column nobody reads carried the whole story of the match, and his name was at the top of it.
Squad10 May 2027
Rami Kaib 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 Halmstad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match8 May 2027
It finished 2‑1, and it was Mark Assinor’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Halmstad.
The dugout10 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Omar Faraj
“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.
Squad10 May 2027
50 goals for this club, and somewhere in the stand there is a person who can still tell you where they were for most of them.
Player ratings10 May 2027
A performance of 8.45 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 May 2027
Pascal Gregor breaks a bone — 46 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 46 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match1 May 2027
1‑4 to BK Hacken, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad3 May 2027
A one-man rearguard from Tim Rönning
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad3 May 2027
A falling-out at Halmstad
Marcus Danielson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom3 May 2027
The numbers do not look good at Halmstad
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad3 May 2027
Mihael Mlinarić 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 dugout3 May 2027
“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.
Boardroom3 May 2027
Nobody left the Halmstad dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout3 May 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑4 defeat, delivered by Robin Kulusevski to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Apr 2027
A fracture rules Pascal Gregor out for 53 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Halmstad will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match24 Apr 2027
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 5‑2 against Falkenberg, and it could have been more.
Squad26 Apr 2027
4 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Squad26 Apr 2027
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Halmstad are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words exchanged at Halmstad
Marcus Danielson 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.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
A performance of 9.96 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match24 Apr 2027
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Halmstad and Falkenberg in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Match24 Apr 2027
Whatever happens, Halmstad do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Apr 2027
Pascal Gregor breaks a bone — 61 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 61 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
Joel Allansson: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Halmstad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words exchanged at Halmstad
Marcus Danielson 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 dugout19 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Filip Dagerstål, and the manager let it.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
A performance of 8.03 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
Filip Dagerstål 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.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
Match17 Apr 2027
A 1‑1 draw with Gefle leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
In brief
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Player ratings
The chances came and went for Mihael Mlinarić
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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Market
The Omar Faraj story refuses to die
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Apr 2027
Pascal Gregor breaks a bone — 68 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 68 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad12 Apr 2027
A falling-out at Halmstad
Marcus Danielson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Halmstad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mihael Mlinarić 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.
Match10 Apr 2027
Halmstad rescue it on 89 minutes
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 89. Hammarby had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Match10 Apr 2027
It needed Mihael Mlinarić to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Hammarby, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Filip Schyberg
“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 dugout12 Apr 2027
Omar Faraj 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 Halmstad, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 2‑2 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Looking ahead12 Apr 2027
Gefle next, and one man in the Halmstad dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Apr 2027
76 days out for Pascal Gregor after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Halmstad will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match3 Apr 2027
There were 87 minutes on the clock and IF Elfsborg had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Halmstad did not stop to explain themselves.
Boardroom5 Apr 2027
Deadline passes with 7 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at Halmstad 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
A falling-out at Halmstad
Filip Dagerstål and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Apr 2027
20 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Boardroom5 Apr 2027
Graduation day at Halmstad
1 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Halmstad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mihael Mlinarić 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 terraces5 Apr 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Ludvig Arvidsson has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Market5 Apr 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Joel Claesson is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Mar 2027
Pascal Gregor breaks a bone — 84 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 84 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market29 Mar 2027
Halmstad say no — this time
The offer from Helsingborg for Omar Faraj was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market29 Mar 2027
“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 Halmstad, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets29 Mar 2027
No thanks: Ronwen Mkhize rejects the move
Halmstad had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at SuperSport United, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Market29 Mar 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Halmstad have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad29 Mar 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Halmstad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Joel Nilsson, and the manager let it.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Mar 2027
Pascal Gregor breaks a bone — 91 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 91 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at Halmstad
Rami Kaib 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
A row about effort at Halmstad
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mihael Mlinarić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Joel Allansson
“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.
Transfer targets22 Mar 2027
A loan enquiry to SuperSport United: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
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.
Market22 Mar 2027
The Omar Faraj story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Omar Faraj signs something — a contract at Halmstad or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Steffen Lie Skålevik has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Mar 2027
Pascal Gregor breaks a bone — 98 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 98 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market15 Mar 2027
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Odd had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Squad15 Mar 2027
A falling-out at Halmstad
Marcus Danielson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Mihael Mlinarić 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.
Market15 Mar 2027
Kalmar FF paid $110.0K and Halmstad took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Transfer targets15 Mar 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Javor-Matis have kept their man, and Halmstad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market15 Mar 2027
No place for Joel Nilsson in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Joel Nilsson has his answer from Halmstad; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Squad15 Mar 2027
A season on the outside for Mark Assinor
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Halmstad has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Market15 Mar 2027
The name of Filip Dagerstål keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Halmstad say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Mar 2027
A fracture rules Pascal Gregor out for 105 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Halmstad will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market8 Mar 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Halmstad can pretend not to have heard.
Market8 Mar 2027
Halmstad say no — this time
The offer from Falkenberg for Malte Persson was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Marcus Danielson commits to Halmstad for another 2 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Halmstad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market8 Mar 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Isak Lustig is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market8 Mar 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Gustav Svanberg has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Squad8 Mar 2027
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.
Transfer targets8 Mar 2027
Javor-Matis have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Nov 2026
54 days out for Nils Hiljemark after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Halmstad will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad9 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Halmstad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market9 Nov 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Jakob Jansson has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Hussein Carneil
“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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Halmstad
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gustav Friberg was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gabriel Wallentin trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match19 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Halmstad
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Halmstad are no longer polite ones.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Pascal Gregor 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
3 matches without a goal for Halmstad
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
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. 10 actions, 6.61, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“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 dugout21 Sep 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Match19 Sep 2026
Halmstad and AIK cancel each other out
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. AIK came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Sep 2026
Only the photograph left for Gustav Friberg
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gustav Friberg will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Halmstad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Halmstad
Marcus Danielson 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Niilo Mäenpää 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 dugout7 Sep 2026
“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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Omar Faraj slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Omar Faraj is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Pascal Gregor
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Pascal Gregor has come out of that comparison in the side, and Halmstad have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Robin Kulusevski chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match1 Aug 2026
3‑0, and Omar Faraj took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Halmstad tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Both of them Omar Faraj's — 9.30
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.30, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Malte Persson, 20, steals the show — 8.00
Marked 8.00 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Pascal Gregor commits to Halmstad for another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Halmstad
Pascal Gregor and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces3 Aug 2026
He is 20 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Halmstad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. André Boman 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.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Pascal Gregor was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.04. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.