From a poster on ynwa who has asked for this to be posted here. Sounds legit, nothing earth-shattering. (Any problems, mods, pm me and I'll delete.):-
Im going to use my "ITK" status for the only time in my life i think Im from Iceland, and Gylfi´s brother is a good friend of mine (play quite alot of golf together). Even if its pritty much a public knowledge by now i can confirm that he is going to LFC and that has been nailed on ever since Rodgers left Swansea. They have remained in contact and this was always going to happend - what ever mr Rodgers says in the media about Gylfi talking to Swansea. Its just to be polite on the covers, this has been a certainty for a few weeks now.
And since i cant register on RAWK, where there have been quite alot of questions regarding Gylfi and why Hoffenheim is selling him since he is "so good"/"got so much potential". Gylfi scored 20 goals for reading the season before he was signed by Hoffenheim and was voted player of the year by Reading. The following season Gylfi was great as well for Hoffenheim, voted fans player of the year and scoring 10 goals in 32 games during his debut season in Germany. In the following season he got injured in the pre-season and was playing catch up @ the start of the season. With a manager who either benched him or played abit out of his favorite posistion. He asked for a loan move which he eventually got.
In the summer of 2011 he, almost single handedledy, got Iceland to the EURO 2011 U21 in a playoff vs Scotland. First time in Iceland history (men´s) they had a soccer team in the finals of a major tournament. (
http://www.youtube.c...h?v=INbv6LOGZ0Q Gylfi´s first goal vs scotland.
http://www.youtube.c...h?v=xyBuvdIigjs Gylfi´s 2nd goal vs Scotland).
You all know how well he did @ Swansea - and Hoffenheim´s owners & fans were outrage by that decicion by the management to sell him (the manager then got sacked, ofc not related to this but because of poor season).
You all prop. know Eiður Smári Guðjónsson, Icelandics most famous footballer in recent years (Chelsea players for many years ofc). The main difference between them is that Gylfi has been aiming to be a great footballer all his life (while other boys worked during the summer, like is custom here in Iceland, he trained. His brother even got paid by their father to train his younger brother, both capped @ youth national teams.). He really has his head straight and is a model professional. While Eiður, for an example, has been in the news alot regarding his late hours, troubles at home and freq. using every opertunity to hit to bars.
His main strenght is his vision, passing and shooting range/accuracy along with some great crosses . He can shoot with left or right and has scored >10 goals as a midfielder for some years now - which is hard to find. His weaknesses is maby lack of pace, not slow but not fast either. Apart from that i think Liverpool FC is doing a great pice of buisness. At the age of 22 he still is some way of topping as a footballer and he is a sort of player that works really really hard. He has done that all his life and will cont. to do so to be success in Liverpool.
Im not biased because im icelandic. I´ve been a Liverpool follower since i was born (thanks dad) and will be one until the day i die. Gylfi is the most gifted playert to come through the ranks in iceland since Eiður came. And with his characteristics i can see him beeing a much better player.
And yes, he did score that penalty against us.
If someone could quote this post to the transfer forum 2012 in RAWK undir Gylfi´s thread, that would be great <3
