Marked for Birkir Heimisson
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market30 Sep 2030
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.
Match28 Sep 2030
Whatever happens, Valur 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.
Squad30 Sep 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.
Squad30 Sep 2030
Tempers go at Valur
Jóhannes Kristinn Bjarnason 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.
Squad30 Sep 2030
“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.
Player ratings30 Sep 2030
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match31 Aug 2030
The wait goes on for Valur
4 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.
Market2 Sep 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Valur is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad2 Sep 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Sep 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Albin Skoglund and Valur agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad2 Sep 2030
“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.
Squad2 Sep 2030
Words at Valur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Birkir Heimisson 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 ratings2 Sep 2030
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 17 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings2 Sep 2030
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom2 Sep 2030
$968.2K on the table at Valur
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match13 Jul 2030
The small margins put Valur out
Out, 2‑0 to Stjarnan, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Player ratings15 Jul 2030
Age has not caught Albin Skoglund yet — 8.16
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.16 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad15 Jul 2030
“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.
Market15 Jul 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Valur is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad15 Jul 2030
Lúkas Logi Heimisson 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 terraces15 Jul 2030
At 23 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 ratings15 Jul 2030
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad15 Jul 2030
Tempers go at Valur
Gísli Laxdal 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.
Squad15 Jul 2030
“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
Triumph
Market1 Jul 2030
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Valur can pretend not to have heard.
Match29 Jun 2030
Nobody wants to play Valur 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.
Boardroom1 Jul 2030
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad1 Jul 2030
Tempers go at Valur
Tryggvi Hrafn Haraldsson 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 ratings1 Jul 2030
Marked 8.84. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Valur.
Squad1 Jul 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jakob Franz Pálsson, and the manager let it.
Player ratings1 Jul 2030
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 19 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings1 Jul 2030
15 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market17 Jun 2030
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.
Squad17 Jun 2030
Tempers go at Valur
Tryggvi Hrafn Haraldsson 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.
Squad17 Jun 2030
Lúkas Logi Heimisson 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.
Squad17 Jun 2030
“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.
Match15 Jun 2030
A 1‑0 win over Keflavik, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings17 Jun 2030
Defensive actions: 16. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad3 Jun 2030
Frederik Schram damages knee ligaments — 16 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 16 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.
Squad3 Jun 2030
Tempers go at Valur
Tryggvi Hrafn Haraldsson 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.
Squad3 Jun 2030
Lúkas Logi Heimisson 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 terraces3 Jun 2030
At 23 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.
Match1 Jun 2030
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Davron To'laganov. 1‑0 against Breidablik, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings3 Jun 2030
Davron To'laganov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.11. 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match3 Dec 2029
Every point is an argument now for Valur
Position 11 and 18 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market3 Dec 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Valur can pretend not to have heard.
Squad3 Dec 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Frederik Schram commits to Valur for another 2 years.
Squad3 Dec 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 Valur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Dec 2029
Words at Valur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Birkir Heimisson 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 Dec 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.
In brief
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Boardroom
$5.2M taken back off the Valur table
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Boardroom
Valur keep producing them
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match21 Jul 2029
8 matches without a win for Valur
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Valur are no longer polite ones.
Squad23 Jul 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.
Market23 Jul 2029
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Tempers go at Valur
Tryggvi Hrafn Haraldsson 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 ratings23 Jul 2029
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Lúkas Logi Heimisson 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.
Squad23 Jul 2029
The medical room confirms 31 days on the sidelines for João Rafael, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Player ratings23 Jul 2029
Defensive actions: 17. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Match21 Jul 2029
Valur and IBV cancel each other out
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. IBV came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Jul 2029
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Match11 Jul 2029
Valur through in the cup
A 1‑1 win over Fjolnir, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match16 Jul 2029
Every point is an argument now for Valur
Position 12 and 6 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market16 Jul 2029
“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 Valur, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match14 Jul 2029
7 matches without a win for Valur
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Valur are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings16 Jul 2029
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Kristján Oddur Haagensen did not need any: 7.76, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad16 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 Valur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Jul 2029
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.
Squad16 Jul 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tryggvi Hrafn Haraldsson, and the manager let it.