From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad6 Mar 2028
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Valur will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market6 Mar 2028
“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.
Market6 Mar 2028
Albin Skoglund has one foot out of the door
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.
Transfer targets6 Mar 2028
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Caracas is saying, and nobody at Valur is enjoying the guessing.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Samúel Kári Friðjónsson commits to Valur for another 2 years.
Transfer targets6 Mar 2028
FH wanted more than $83.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Markus Nakkim 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.
Transfer targets6 Mar 2028
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.
Squad6 Mar 2028
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Feb 2028
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Valur will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market28 Feb 2028
“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 targets28 Feb 2028
Everything agreed with Caracas, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Boardroom28 Feb 2028
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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words exchanged at Valur
Jónatan Ingi Jónsson 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.
Transfer targets28 Feb 2028
Valur asked and Crvena Zvezda said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad28 Feb 2028
A row about effort at Valur
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sigurður Gunnar Jónsson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Valur are still strangers to each other
9 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Transfer targets28 Feb 2028
Valur have made the call to Malmo FF. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Feb 2028
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Valur will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market21 Feb 2028
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Valur people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets21 Feb 2028
The deal with Malmo FF is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad21 Feb 2028
A row about effort at Valur
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Markus Nakkim was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets21 Feb 2028
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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
A falling-out at Valur
Daði Bærings Halldórsson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Feb 2028
The medical room confirms 14 days on the sidelines for Hólmar Örn Eyjólfsson, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
Frederik Schram has become a man the manager trusts
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.
Market21 Feb 2028
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Bjarni Mark Duffield may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Feb 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 72 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Daði Bærings Halldórsson has just signed for Valur, and for once the answer mattered.
Market14 Feb 2028
Axel Toft puts it in writing
“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.
Transfer targets14 Feb 2028
Everything agreed with Gimnasia La Plata, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Boardroom14 Feb 2028
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Sindri Björnsson has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Valur have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Squad14 Feb 2028
A row about effort at Valur
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jakob Franz Pálsson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets14 Feb 2028
Valur asked and IA said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad14 Feb 2028
A falling-out at Valur
Bjarni Mark Duffield and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Feb 2028
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Valur people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Squad7 Feb 2028
A move Gustav Jansson would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Gustav Jansson is living that version at Valur, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad7 Feb 2028
A falling-out at Valur
Jónatan Ingi Jónsson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Breidablik will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Andri Rafn Yeoman has pre-agreed a move to Valur, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Squad7 Feb 2028
A row about effort at Valur
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jakob Franz Pálsson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets7 Feb 2028
Valur asked and FC Nordsjaelland said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Feb 2028
23 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Transfer targets7 Feb 2028
Bodo/Glimt 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.
Market7 Feb 2028
He is 20, and nobody at Valur signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words exchanged at Valur
Jónatan Ingi Jónsson 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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
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 dugout31 Jan 2028
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.
The dugout31 Jan 2028
“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 dugout31 Jan 2028
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Jan 2028
Tempers go at Valur
Jónatan Ingi Jónsson 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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
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 dugout24 Jan 2028
“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
Uneasy
The dugout17 Jan 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Valur may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market17 Jan 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Stefán Þór S. Ágústsson will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Valur the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Jakob Franz 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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
A falling-out at Valur
Ingimar Torbjörnsson Støle and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
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 Frederik Schram is on it.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Jan 2028
A falling-out at Valur
Jónatan Ingi Jónsson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Jakob Franz 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 dugout10 Jan 2028
“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 dugout10 Jan 2028
Gísli Laxdal gets picked when it counts
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 Gísli Laxdal is on it.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
“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.
Market10 Jan 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Patrick Pedersen signs something — a contract at Valur or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market3 Jan 2028
“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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at Valur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tryggvi Hrafn Haraldsson 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 Jan 2028
Words exchanged at Valur
Sigurður Gunnar Jónsson 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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Valur are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout3 Jan 2028
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.
The dugout3 Jan 2028
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.
Market3 Jan 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Valur know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market3 Jan 2028
“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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Valur have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Dec 2027
A row about effort at Valur
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tryggvi Hrafn Haraldsson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad27 Dec 2027
A falling-out at Valur
Sigurjón Mogensen and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
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 Jakob Franz Pálsson is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market20 Dec 2027
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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
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 dugout20 Dec 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Albin Skoglund, and the manager let it.
The dugout20 Dec 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.
Market20 Dec 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad13 Dec 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jakob Franz Pálsson and Valur agree another 3 years.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words exchanged at Valur
Jónatan Ingi Jónsson 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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at Valur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tryggvi Hrafn Haraldsson 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad6 Dec 2027
A falling-out at Valur
Jónatan Ingi Jónsson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad6 Dec 2027
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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Too much change too quickly at Valur
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout6 Dec 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.
The dugout6 Dec 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.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jakob Franz Pálsson trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Nov 2027
A row about effort at Valur
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bjarni Mark Duffield was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Gísli Laxdal 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 Valur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
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 dugout29 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Stefán Þór S. Ágústsson, and the manager let it.
The dugout29 Nov 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 Albin Skoglund has written the date down.
Market29 Nov 2027
The shop window has Gísli Laxdal in it
Valur have let the market know Gísli Laxdal can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout22 Nov 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Valur have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market22 Nov 2027
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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Tempers go at Valur
Jónatan Ingi Jónsson 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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
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 dugout22 Nov 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 Nov 2027
“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.
Market22 Nov 2027
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.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
“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.
The dugout22 Nov 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 Árni Snær Ólafsson has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout15 Nov 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Valur may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad15 Nov 2027
A row about effort at Valur
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bjarni Mark Duffield was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Tempers go at Valur
Sigurjón Mogensen 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.
The dugout15 Nov 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.
The dugout15 Nov 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.
Market15 Nov 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Patrick Pedersen’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Nov 2027
A falling-out at Valur
Samukele Kabini and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Nov 2027
A row about effort at Valur
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bjarni Mark Duffield was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad8 Nov 2027
5 new faces, and Valur are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
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 dugout8 Nov 2027
Amin Cosic gets it from the manager
“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 dugout8 Nov 2027
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Nov 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 Valur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout1 Nov 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.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
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 dugout1 Nov 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bjarni Mark Duffield trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad1 Nov 2027
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Valur would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Árni Snær Ólafsson has moved up it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market25 Oct 2027
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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Tempers go at Valur
Jónatan Ingi Jónsson 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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Bjarni Mark Duffield 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.
Market25 Oct 2027
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Squad25 Oct 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Pálmi Nökkvason commits to Valur for another 3 years.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
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 Frederik Schram is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words exchanged at Valur
Jónatan Ingi Jónsson 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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Valur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bjarni Mark Duffield 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 dugout18 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hólmar Örn Eyjólfsson, and the manager let it.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
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 Samukele Kabini is on it.
Market18 Oct 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Patrick Pedersen’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout18 Oct 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 Albin Skoglund has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Oct 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 Valur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Albin Skoglund 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Kristófer Dagur Arnarsson commits to Valur for another 4 years.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Too much change too quickly at Valur
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
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 dugout11 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kristófer Dagur Arnarsson, and the manager let it.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Frederik Schram trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Market11 Oct 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Valur know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match29 Sep 2027
The small margins put Valur out
Out, 0‑3 to FH, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 30. 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.
The terraces4 Oct 2027
Valur are taken apart by FH — and the town wants answers
It finished 0-3. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
Squad4 Oct 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Patrick Pedersen and Valur agree another 2 years.
Squad4 Oct 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 Valur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market4 Oct 2027
20 games and 9 goals away from here, and a man the manager did not have last summer. The loan did what loans are supposed to do and almost never do.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Valur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Albin Skoglund 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 dugout4 Oct 2027
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Frederik Schram will call it something else in private.
Boardroom4 Oct 2027
Inquest at Valur
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match27 Sep 2027
Valur finish in position 6
35 points, and the season has a number on it. Whatever it felt like from the inside, this is what it will look like in a book.
Market27 Sep 2027
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.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Sturla Sagatun-Kristjánsson has just signed for Valur, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Valur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samukele Kabini 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.
Match25 Sep 2027
A bad afternoon for Valur against Stjarnan
0‑2 to Stjarnan, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout27 Sep 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.
Loan watch27 Sep 2027
“I did not go to Breidablik to sit and watch. I want to come back to Valur and fight for my place.” 6 appearances in 28 matches say the rest.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jon Fridjonsson after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match18 Sep 2027
Nowhere to hide for Valur
1‑4 against Vikingur, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words exchanged at Valur
Samukele Kabini 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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Jakob Franz 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 dugout20 Sep 2027
The manager makes an example of Albin Skoglund
“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.
Boardroom20 Sep 2027
Doors closed at Valur
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Loan watch20 Sep 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Valur, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jon Fridjonsson after 1‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
A touch he did not want, a bounce he could not have read, and his name in the wrong column. There is no consoling a man after one of these, and Valur will not try tonight.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
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 Frederik Schram is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market13 Sep 2027
“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.
Match11 Sep 2027
Óskar Borgþórsson wins it after the whistle should have gone
94 minutes played. Óskar Borgþórsson found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Leiknir went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Squad13 Sep 2027
A falling-out at Valur
Samukele Kabini and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
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.
Match11 Sep 2027
It finished 2‑1, and it was Óskar Borgþórsson’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Valur.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Óskar Borgþórsson was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.42. 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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
A row about effort at Valur
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bjarni Mark Duffield was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market13 Sep 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Bjarni Mark Duffield has his answer from Valur; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout13 Sep 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings6 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 34. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings6 Sep 2027
At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.90, and nobody on the pitch better.
The dugout6 Sep 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.
Squad6 Sep 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 Valur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at Valur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samukele Kabini 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.
Match4 Sep 2027
Patrick Pedersen scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to FH, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Market6 Sep 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Kristinn Freyr Sigurðsson has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Valur.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
The Valur board find $1.7M for the manager
Money, not words, and it is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending $1.7M well is entirely his problem now.
The dugout6 Sep 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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Jon Fridjonsson to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match28 Aug 2027
Nowhere to hide for Valur
1‑4 against Keflavik, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market30 Aug 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 Valur, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market30 Aug 2027
Vikingur come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Valur did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market30 Aug 2027
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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Tempers go at Valur
Jónatan Ingi Jónsson 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 Aug 2027
Samukele Kabini 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 dugout30 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Markus Nakkim, and the manager let it.
Squad30 Aug 2027
50 goals in these colours now, every one of them somebody’s memory. There is a supporter in the stand who can tell you where he was for most of them.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Marked 8.14. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Valur.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad23 Aug 2027
Adam Ægir Pálsson damages knee ligaments — 15 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
Match18 Aug 2027
Valur through in the cup
A 1‑0 win over Fylkir, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Two goals and a mark of 9.16 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market23 Aug 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 Valur, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market23 Aug 2027
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Vikingur moved on, Kristinn Freyr Sigurðsson reports back to Valur, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
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.
Boardroom23 Aug 2027
Deadline passes with 11 signed and 8 gone
That is the business done at Valur 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.
Market23 Aug 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Valur have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
Valur asked and FC Midtjylland said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
In brief
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Squad
A row about effort at Valur
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Match
Valur hit back inside 1 minutes
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The dugout
Albin Skoglund gets it from the manager
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Aug 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Adam Ægir Pálsson
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Valur lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market16 Aug 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Valur people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The dugout16 Aug 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Samukele Kabini 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.
Match14 Aug 2027
Breidablik left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. FC Copenhagen have kept their man, and Valur go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match14 Aug 2027
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 6 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Match14 Aug 2027
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Valur. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
The dugout16 Aug 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad9 Aug 2027
31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Valur lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings9 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 33. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match7 Aug 2027
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Jónatan Ingi Jónsson scored in the 86th minute, Fylkir had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Valur took the lot.
Market9 Aug 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 Valur can pretend not to have heard.
Match7 Aug 2027
Nobody wants to play Valur right now
6 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.
Market9 Aug 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Fjolnir waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Valur is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Valur may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market9 Aug 2027
Breidablik come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Valur did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market9 Aug 2027
The name of Kristinn Freyr Sigurðsson has come up in conversations Valur were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad2 Aug 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Adam Ægir Pálsson
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Valur lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match31 Jul 2027
No mercy from Valur
Fjolnir will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Valur were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Aron Elís Þrándarson provided it, and the 9.14 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad2 Aug 2027
315 appearances across 13 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Valur know what they have.
Match31 Jul 2027
Valur make it 5 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Valur have 5 straight wins of it.
Market2 Aug 2027
Keflavik come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Valur did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.80, and nobody on the pitch better.
Market2 Aug 2027
“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 targets2 Aug 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: FC Copenhagen keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad26 Jul 2027
Adam Ægir Pálsson damages knee ligaments — 45 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 45 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.
Market26 Jul 2027
Valur say no — this time
The offer from Fjolnir for Kristinn Freyr Sigurðsson 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.
Match24 Jul 2027
Nobody wants to play Valur 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words exchanged at Valur
Samukele Kabini 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Facundo Quintana 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.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
Valur asked and Olympiacos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match24 Jul 2027
Valur get the job done against IA
A 2‑1 win over IA, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout26 Jul 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.
Player ratings26 Jul 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad19 Jul 2027
52 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Valur lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings19 Jul 2027
What a way to start for Stefan Palsson — 8.64
2 on the scoresheet on his first appearance and a mark of 8.64 beside it. Most debuts are got through; this one was enjoyed, by him and by everybody watching it.
Match14 Jul 2027
Valur through in the cup
A 3‑2 win over Leiknir, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings19 Jul 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.00, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market19 Jul 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 Valur, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match17 Jul 2027
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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
A falling-out at Valur
Jónatan Ingi Jónsson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match17 Jul 2027
Valur find a way past IBV
IBV made Valur work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings19 Jul 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Jul 2027
59 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Valur lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match10 Jul 2027
4‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings12 Jul 2027
A brace, and Patrick Pedersen takes the afternoon — 9.29
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Patrick Pedersen provided it, and the 9.29 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad12 Jul 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 Valur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom12 Jul 2027
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Valur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Facundo Quintana 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 ratings12 Jul 2027
Marked 8.61. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Valur.
Player ratings12 Jul 2027
Marked 8.38 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Market12 Jul 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Hólmar Örn Eyjólfsson has his answer from Valur; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Jul 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Adam Ægir Pálsson
66 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Valur lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market5 Jul 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 Valur, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout5 Jul 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Valur have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad5 Jul 2027
A row about effort at Valur
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Facundo Quintana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match3 Jul 2027
A bad afternoon for Valur against Vikingur
1‑2 to Vikingur, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout5 Jul 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Jon Fridjonsson left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad5 Jul 2027
A falling-out at Valur
Alfred Johannsson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Jul 2027
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Sigurður Arnar Magnússon is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
Intake day at the Valur academy
7 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Jun 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Adam Ægir Pálsson
73 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Valur lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market28 Jun 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 Valur can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings28 Jun 2027
A defender's goal wins it for Valur — 7.85
1 for Samúel Kári Friðjónsson, marked 7.85, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words exchanged at Valur
Samukele Kabini 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.
Match26 Jun 2027
Leiknir made Valur work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings28 Jun 2027
Ninety minutes of Albin Skoglund at his very best
Marked 8.05. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Valur.
The dugout28 Jun 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.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Jon Fridjonsson on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
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 Aron Jóhannsson is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Jun 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Adam Ægir Pálsson
80 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Valur lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings21 Jun 2027
Successful dribbles: 37. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market21 Jun 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 Valur can pretend not to have heard.
Squad21 Jun 2027
A row about effort at Valur
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Facundo Quintana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match19 Jun 2027
FH take the points off Valur
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout21 Jun 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.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
Patrick Pedersen 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.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Player ratings21 Jun 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Jun 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Adam Ægir Pálsson
87 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Valur lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings14 Jun 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad14 Jun 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 Valur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Jun 2027
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.
Loan watch14 Jun 2027
“I did not go to Breidablik to sit and watch. I want to come back to Valur and fight for my place.” 4 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
Squad14 Jun 2027
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Valur will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
The manager makes an example of Amin Cosic
“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 dugout14 Jun 2027
“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.
Looking ahead14 Jun 2027
The leaders are next for Valur
FH top the table and they are coming into view. Nothing to lose, which is what every manager says before losing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Jun 2027
Adam Ægir Pálsson damages knee ligaments — 94 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 94 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.
Match5 Jun 2027
Aron Elís Þrándarson wins it after the whistle should have gone
90 minutes played. Aron Elís Þrándarson found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and KR went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Tempers go at Valur
Samukele Kabini 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Sigurður Arnar Magnússon commits to Valur for another 4 years.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Valur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tryggvi Hrafn Haraldsson 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.
Match5 Jun 2027
It finished 2‑1, and it was Aron Elís Þrándarson’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Valur.
Player ratings7 Jun 2027
Marked 8.27 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings7 Jun 2027
A performance of 8.19 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings7 Jun 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 May 2027
101 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Valur lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad31 May 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad31 May 2027
Words exchanged at Valur
Jónatan Ingi Jónsson 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.
Squad31 May 2027
A row about effort at Valur
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Facundo Quintana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match29 May 2027
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout31 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Facundo Quintana, and the manager let it.
Player ratings31 May 2027
Marked 7.03 on 11 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Loan watch31 May 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Valur, and 4 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout31 May 2027
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 May 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Adam Ægir Pálsson
108 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Valur lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match22 May 2027
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Fylkir, and it could have been more.
The dugout24 May 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Valur may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings24 May 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.98 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match22 May 2027
Valur make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Valur have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad24 May 2027
A falling-out at Valur
Jónatan Ingi Jónsson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 May 2027
A row about effort at Valur
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tryggvi Hrafn Haraldsson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings24 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout24 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hólmar Örn Eyjólfsson, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad17 May 2027
Adam Ægir Pálsson damages knee ligaments — 115 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 115 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.
Match15 May 2027
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑0 against Fjolnir, and it could have been more.
The dugout17 May 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Valur may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings17 May 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.91, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings17 May 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.33 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad17 May 2027
Words exchanged at Valur
Alfred Johannsson 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 ratings17 May 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.
The terraces17 May 2027
He is 23 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.
The dugout17 May 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad10 May 2027
Adam Ægir Pálsson damages knee ligaments — 123 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 123 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.
Player ratings10 May 2027
Two goals and a mark of 9.18 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings10 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 31. 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.
Squad10 May 2027
Tempers go at Valur
Samukele Kabini 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.
Match8 May 2027
Three points for Valur, 2‑1 the final word against IA in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad10 May 2027
A row about effort at Valur
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bjarni Mark Duffield was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Loan watch10 May 2027
“I did not go to Fjolnir to sit and watch. I want to come back to Valur and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
The dugout10 May 2027
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Jon Fridjonsson could afford to be generous.
The dugout10 May 2027
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings3 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 34. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings3 May 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.48, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match1 May 2027
6 goals as Valur and IBV go for it
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Valur and IBV, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Match1 May 2027
IBV take the points off Valur
Beaten 2‑4, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
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.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Valur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bjarni Mark Duffield 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.
Loan watch3 May 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Valur, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout3 May 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 2‑4 Jon Fridjonsson left the room before anybody could ask which.
Boardroom3 May 2027
No investment in the facilities at Valur
Nothing about this will be in a press release. A plan went upstairs, came back rejected, and the version of the club that would have existed in three years' time just quietly stopped being possible.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Apr 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Aron Jóhannsson
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Valur lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad26 Apr 2027
A falling-out at Valur
Samukele Kabini and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Jakob Franz 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 dugout26 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kristinn Freyr Sigurðsson, and the manager let it.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Valur told Facundo Quintana something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Market26 Apr 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Valur know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Apr 2027
Aron Jóhannsson damages knee ligaments — 22 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 22 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
A falling-out at Valur
Samukele Kabini and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Valur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bjarni Mark Duffield 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
7 new faces, and Valur are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Loan watch19 Apr 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Valur, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
Aron Jóhannsson has become a man the manager trusts
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Apr 2027
Aron Jóhannsson damages knee ligaments — 29 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 29 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.
Match12 Apr 2027
Valur up to position 2
20 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
The dugout12 Apr 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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words exchanged at Valur
Jónatan Ingi Jónsson 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.
Market12 Apr 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Birkir Johannsson is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad12 Apr 2027
A row about effort at Valur
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jakob Franz Pálsson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Loan watch12 Apr 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Valur, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Market12 Apr 2027
He is 20, and nobody at Valur signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sigurjón Mogensen, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Apr 2027
37 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Valur lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom5 Apr 2027
Valur close the window on a squad of their own making
8 in and 7 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Transfer targets5 Apr 2027
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Tempers go at Valur
Jónatan Ingi Jónsson 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.
Transfer targets5 Apr 2027
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.
Loan watch5 Apr 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Valur, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Mar 2027
Aron Jóhannsson damages knee ligaments — 44 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 44 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.
Market29 Mar 2027
Valur say no — this time
The offer from IA for Orri Sigurður Ómarsson 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Facundo Quintana is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Transfer targets29 Mar 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Yenisey have kept their man, and Valur go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Bjarni Mark Duffield 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.
Market29 Mar 2027
At 35, he has seen every situation this season can produce, twice. The legs will be managed; the head is the purchase.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Mar 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Aron Jóhannsson
52 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Valur lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Transfer targets22 Mar 2027
The offer went to Stjarnan 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 targets22 Mar 2027
Valur asked and Union Magdalena said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Bjarni Mark Duffield 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 dugout22 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Albin Skoglund, and the manager let it.
Squad22 Mar 2027
5 new faces, and Valur are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
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
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Valur know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad22 Mar 2027
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Valur would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Mar 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Aron Jóhannsson
59 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Valur lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad15 Mar 2027
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Valur will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match15 Mar 2027
Valur up to position 2
20 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market15 Mar 2027
Breidablik pay $1.2M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Transfer targets15 Mar 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Shakhtar have kept their man, and Valur go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout15 Mar 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.
Loan watch15 Mar 2027
“I did not go to Fjolnir to sit and watch. I want to come back to Valur and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
Transfer targets15 Mar 2027
A loan enquiry to Defensa y Justicia: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
A promise honoured at Valur
Something was said to Sigurður Arnar Magnússon and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Mar 2027
66 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Valur lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 22 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market8 Mar 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Breidablik waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Valur is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market8 Mar 2027
Valur say no — this time
The offer from FH for Ingimar Torbjörnsson Støle 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.
Transfer targets8 Mar 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Bahia is saying, and nobody at Valur is enjoying the guessing.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Patrick Pedersen and Valur agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Tempers go at Valur
Samukele Kabini 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.
Transfer targets8 Mar 2027
Valur asked and Defensa y Justicia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets8 Mar 2027
Shakhtar 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
Steady
Squad1 Mar 2027
Aron Jóhannsson damages knee ligaments — 73 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 73 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 30 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market1 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 Valur, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market1 Mar 2027
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Leiknir had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Transfer targets1 Mar 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Valur have done the hard part with Bahia, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad1 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 Valur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets1 Mar 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. CSKA Moscow have kept their man, and Valur go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market1 Mar 2027
The name of Ingimar Torbjörnsson Støle has come up in conversations Valur were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad1 Mar 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Feb 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Aron Jóhannsson
81 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Valur lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Valur will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market22 Feb 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Valur people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market22 Feb 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 Valur, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout22 Feb 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
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.
Transfer targets22 Feb 2027
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.
Transfer targets22 Feb 2027
CSKA Moscow 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.
Transfer targets22 Feb 2027
Molde 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
Steady
Squad15 Feb 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Aron Jóhannsson
88 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Valur lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 44 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market15 Feb 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Valur people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Match15 Feb 2027
Valur up to position 2
20 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad15 Feb 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 Valur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets15 Feb 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Panathinaikos have kept their man, and Valur go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Valur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bjarni Mark Duffield 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 targets15 Feb 2027
IA 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.
Transfer targets15 Feb 2027
A loan enquiry to FC Copenhagen: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Feb 2027
Aron Jóhannsson damages knee ligaments — 95 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 95 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Valur will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market8 Feb 2027
The name of Hörður Ingi Gunnarsson has come up in conversations Valur were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Market8 Feb 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Emil Gunnarsson 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.
Market8 Feb 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Vidar Gunnarsson 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 Feb 2027
Words at Valur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bjarni Mark Duffield 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.
Market8 Feb 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Adam Ægir Pálsson has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Valur.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
Valur have made the call to Vikingur. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
A loan enquiry to Vikingur: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Feb 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Aron Jóhannsson
103 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Valur lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Valur will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Valur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Albin Skoglund 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.
Market1 Feb 2027
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Valur has been clear about where Orri Sigurður Ómarsson stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Albin Skoglund
“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 dugout1 Feb 2027
Gísli Laxdal gets picked when it counts
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 Gísli Laxdal is on it.
Market1 Feb 2027
Valur have let the market know Lúkas Logi Heimisson can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Aron Jóhannsson trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market1 Feb 2027
The name of Patrick Pedersen keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Valur say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad25 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Aron Jóhannsson
110 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Valur lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 66 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Valur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bjarni Mark Duffield 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 dugout25 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lúkas Logi Heimisson, and the manager let it.
Squad25 Jan 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 Valur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
Aron Jóhannsson has become a man the manager trusts
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Jan 2027
14 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Valur lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad18 Jan 2027
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Valur will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match18 Jan 2027
Valur refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 20 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad18 Jan 2027
A row about effort at Valur
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bjarni Mark Duffield was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Tempers go at Valur
Ingimar Torbjörnsson Støle 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.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
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 Birkir Heimisson is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Jan 2027
The words a physio says slowly. 22 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Valur will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad11 Jan 2027
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.
Market11 Jan 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Bjorn Gudmundsson has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The dugout11 Jan 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.
Market11 Jan 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Tryggvi Hrafn Haraldsson signs something — a contract at Valur or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Jan 2027
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Valur lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Valur will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Valur
Tryggvi Hrafn Haraldsson 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
A row about effort at Valur
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bjarni Mark Duffield was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout4 Jan 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.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
Gísli Laxdal gets picked when it counts
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 Gísli Laxdal is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Dec 2026
The words a physio says slowly. 37 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Valur will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad28 Dec 2026
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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Jakob Franz 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 dugout28 Dec 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.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Aron Jóhannsson has become a man the manager trusts
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Dec 2026
The words a physio says slowly. 44 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 49 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match21 Dec 2026
Valur refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 20 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad21 Dec 2026
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Markus Nakkim, and the manager let it.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Albin Skoglund 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
Squad14 Dec 2026
The words a physio says slowly. 51 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.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Albin Skoglund: 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.” Valur have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Valur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Albin Skoglund 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 dugout14 Dec 2026
Markus Nakkim knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Markus Nakkim trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout14 Dec 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.
Market14 Dec 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Tryggvi Hrafn Haraldsson signs something — a contract at Valur or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Valur have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad7 Dec 2026
He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday. The order of those three tells you everything about what a football club actually values.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Valur
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bjarni Mark Duffield was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout7 Dec 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Voices raised on the Valur training ground
Two players, one bad tackle and a session that had to be stopped. It was over in a minute; it was outside the gates in an hour.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Gísli Laxdal has become a man the manager trusts
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout30 Nov 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.
Squad30 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 Valur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Aron Jóhannsson has become a man the manager trusts
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match23 Nov 2026
Valur are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 20 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Valur may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad23 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 Valur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Otto Rosengren 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 Nov 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Hörður Ingi Gunnarsson and Valur agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout23 Nov 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 dugout23 Nov 2026
“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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Birkir Heimisson has become a man the manager trusts
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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A new face in his position, and Samúel Kári Friðjónsson suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Valur have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Valur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Otto Rosengren 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.
Market16 Nov 2026
Allan Purisevic is 20, and Valur have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Squad16 Nov 2026
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Valur are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“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.
Market16 Nov 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Tryggvi Hrafn Haraldsson signs something — a contract at Valur or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Valur
Tryggvi Hrafn Haraldsson 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.
Market9 Nov 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Birkir Saevarsson has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market9 Nov 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Runar Hermannsson 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
Gísli Laxdal has become a man the manager trusts
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.
Market9 Nov 2026
The name of Patrick Pedersen keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Valur say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Valur
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Otto Rosengren was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Markus Nakkim
“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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
$2.8M 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
The captaincy has been taken off Samúel Kári Friðjónsson. Valur will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
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.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Gísli Laxdal moves up the pecking order
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Valur than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A strip of cloth that decides nothing on the pitch and tells the dressing room whose opinion counts. The manager has made a statement without making one.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
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
Steady
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Valur may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match26 Oct 2026
Valur refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 20 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Valur
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Otto Rosengren was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Albin Skoglund, and the manager let it.
Squad26 Oct 2026
7 new faces, and Valur are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Birkir Heimisson has become a man the manager trusts
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Valur
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Otto Rosengren was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Birkir Heimisson and Valur agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market19 Oct 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Lúkas Logi Heimisson has his answer from Valur; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Valur
Ingimar Torbjörnsson Støle 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 Oct 2026
A promise honoured at Valur
Something was said to Shkelzen Veseli and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“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
Steady
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Valur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Otto Rosengren 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.
Squad12 Oct 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 Valur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market12 Oct 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Hordur Adalsteinsson has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market12 Oct 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Andri Bjarnason is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“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.
Market12 Oct 2026
The name of Patrick Pedersen keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Valur say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Gísli Laxdal gets picked when it counts
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 Gísli Laxdal is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Valur are in Europe
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
Squad5 Oct 2026
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Otto Rosengren 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 dugout5 Oct 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
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 Aron Jóhannsson is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match28 Sep 2026
Valur up to position 2
20 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
Squad28 Sep 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 Valur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Valur
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Otto Rosengren was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Marked 7.77 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Valur had the best player on the pitch.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at Valur
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Match26 Sep 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Stjarnan leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad28 Sep 2026
No place for Amin Cosic in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Valur are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Jon Fridjonsson was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Valur dressing room was either.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match19 Sep 2026
Chastening afternoon for Valur
A 3‑6 beating by Vikingur was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The match ball belongs to Tryggvi Hrafn Haraldsson, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad21 Sep 2026
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.
Match19 Sep 2026
9 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Valur and Vikingur in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Otto Rosengren 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.34, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Boardroom21 Sep 2026
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Marko Zivkovic has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Valur have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match12 Sep 2026
5‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.20 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market14 Sep 2026
“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 Sep 2026
The view from the top for Valur
19 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Aron Jóhannsson, 35, rolls back the years — 8.37
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.37 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match12 Sep 2026
Valur cannot stop winning
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Valur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Otto Rosengren 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Valur are at home on the road
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Valur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Otto Rosengren 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 ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Markus Nakkim
“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.
Match5 Sep 2026
Valur get the job done against FH
A 1‑0 win over FH, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Valur know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
A mark of 7.98, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The award goes to Patrick Pedersen, and nobody around here is inclined to argue with the choice.
Squad7 Sep 2026
International break empties Valur
4 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
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.” Jon Fridjonsson, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad31 Aug 2026
4 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Match26 Aug 2026
The small margins put Valur out
Out, 0‑1 to IA, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Patrick Pedersen, 34, rolls back the years — 10.00
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 10.00 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market31 Aug 2026
“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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match29 Aug 2026
Patrick Pedersen among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Patrick Pedersen on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Valur and Keflavik.
Match29 Aug 2026
A 4‑2 win over Keflavik, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Sigurður Arnar Magnússon has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Valur have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
The dugout31 Aug 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.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Valur training over how hard people work
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Squad
Alfred Johannsson signs on for more
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 35. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match19 Aug 2026
Cup progress for Valur
A 2‑1 win over Keflavik, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Market24 Aug 2026
“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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.46 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The deal with Malmo FF is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Panathinaikos keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Kristján Oddur Haagensen has agreed terms with KR for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Breidablik have kept their man, and Valur go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Valur
Hólmar Örn Eyjólfsson 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad17 Aug 2026
8 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.11, and nobody on the pitch better.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Window shuts: 14 in, 0 out at Valur
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 14 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Valur
Tryggvi Hrafn Haraldsson 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.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Valur asked and IBV said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Valur
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jakob Franz Pálsson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match15 Aug 2026
Valur caught on 94 minutes
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Breidablik scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Panathinaikos 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
Triumph
Match8 Aug 2026
5‑0, and Patrick Pedersen took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Valur tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.70, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.43 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Valur had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at La Equidad, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Samúel Kári Friðjónsson commits to Valur for another 3 years.
Squad10 Aug 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 Valur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
FH will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Allan Purisevic has pre-agreed a move to Valur, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Valur asked and Breidablik said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Mikael Hermannsson 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
Triumph
Match1 Aug 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Fjolnir, and it could have been more.
Squad3 Aug 2026
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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Patrick Pedersen and Valur agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
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 ratings3 Aug 2026
Marked 9.74 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Shakhtar have kept their man, and Valur go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Valur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bjarni Mark Duffield 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.