Marked for Jesper Gregersen
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Jun 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sarpsborg 08 will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings28 Jun 2027
Michael Opoku, 21, steals the show — 8.39
Marked 8.39 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Daniel Karlsbakk
18 goals and a season average of 7.41 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Market28 Jun 2027
Anders Hiim has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sarpsborg 08 they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout28 Jun 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.
Match26 Jun 2027
A 2‑0 win over Sandefjord, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings28 Jun 2027
Marked 8.44 — 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.
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
Henrik Ajer: “That is the standard”
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑0, already talking about the next one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market5 Apr 2027
FF Jaro come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Sarpsborg 08 did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market5 Apr 2027
Only the photograph left for Anders Hiim
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Anders Hiim will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sarpsborg 08 the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout5 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.
Boardroom5 Apr 2027
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Sarpsborg 08 until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Mamour N'Diaye 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.
Market5 Apr 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Sarpsborg 08, another week without a signature from Mamour N'Diaye.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Camil Mmaee
“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 dugout5 Apr 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Daniel Karlsbakk trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad5 Apr 2027
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Mansour Gueye has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market8 Mar 2027
Viking come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Sarpsborg 08 did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market8 Mar 2027
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Market8 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 Sarpsborg 08, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Sarpsborg 08 may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market8 Mar 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Sarpsborg 08 have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mansour Gueye and Sarpsborg 08 agree another 2 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Claus Niyukuri 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 dugout8 Mar 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 dugout8 Mar 2027
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Sander Christiansen has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market15 Feb 2027
Mjondalen come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Sarpsborg 08 did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Mamour N'Diaye 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 targets15 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.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mansour Gueye, and the manager let it.
Market15 Feb 2027
The Aimar Sher talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sarpsborg 08 know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
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 Sarpsborg 08 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout25 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.
Market25 Jan 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Andreas Nibe’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market23 Nov 2026
Eirik Wichne has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sarpsborg 08 they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad23 Nov 2026
He is 19, he is averaging 7.18, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
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 Sarpsborg 08 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Mansour Gueye 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 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Jesper Gregersen commits to Sarpsborg 08 for another 4 years.