Marked for Jacob Hanstad
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match5 Sep 2026
The wait goes on for Stabaek
8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Market7 Sep 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Magnus Lankhof Dahlby will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Stabaek the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Magnus Lankhof Dahlby has agreed terms with Bodo/Glimt for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Stabaek training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jacob Hanstad 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.
Squad7 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 Stabaek this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match5 Sep 2026
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Jacob Hanstad had Stabaek level again within 3 minutes, and Aalesund never got to play with a lead at all.
Market7 Sep 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Stabaek, another week without a signature from Magnus Lankhof Dahlby.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match29 Aug 2026
No end in sight to Stabaek's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Stabaek has to find a result from somewhere.
Market31 Aug 2026
Alagie Sanyang has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Stabaek they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Jacob Hanstad 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.
Boardroom31 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.
Squad31 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 Stabaek this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Kristian Onsrud
“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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
7 new faces, and Stabaek 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 11. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Aug 2026
Marius Ulla decides it from twelve yards
3 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Lucas Myklebust 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 Aug 2026
Stabaek through in the cup
A 1‑1 win over Haugesund, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match15 Aug 2026
Beaten 1‑5 by Sarpsborg 08, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 6 of the 24 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Match15 Aug 2026
4 matches without a win for Stabaek
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Stabaek are no longer polite ones.
Squad17 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 Stabaek this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
In brief
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Squad
Jacob Hanstad falls out with a teammate over standards
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The terraces
The crowd has taken to William Wendt
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Boardroom
Nobody left the Stabaek dressing room in a hurry
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Aug 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Lucas Myklebust
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Stabaek lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Jacob Hanstad commits to Stabaek for another 4 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 Stabaek this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market10 Aug 2026
Stromsgodset pay $150.0K, 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Marius Ulla
“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.
Market10 Aug 2026
“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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match8 Aug 2026
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Haugesund came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
Market10 Aug 2026
5 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Stabaek could get for him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 33. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market3 Aug 2026
Alagie Sanyang has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Stabaek they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom3 Aug 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Alagie Sanyang has agreed terms with Valerenga for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Marius Lundemo and Stabaek agree another 2 years.
Squad3 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 Stabaek this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Stabaek training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marius Lundemo 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 terraces3 Aug 2026
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Stabaek, another week without a signature from Magnus Lankhof Dahlby.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A mark of 7.02, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.