37 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Aalesund lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Philip Storås is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Janus Seehusen 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Aalesund will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Aalesund, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at Aalesund 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 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.
The fee is $300.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Moss drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Aalesund can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Aalesund asked and Silkeborg said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Janus Seehusen 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 words a physio says slowly. 20 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Moss can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
$3.2M was the most the club would pay and Sandefjord were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Aalesund paid $300.0K and Moss took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Moss can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The words a physio says slowly. 28 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.
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Transfer targets1 Mar 2027
$3.2M settles it between the clubs for Robin Dzabić
Sandefjord have accepted the money. What Moss do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“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 Moss, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Moss they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Moss have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Sigurd Grønli 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.
36 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Moss lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Moss, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everything agreed with KFUM Oslo, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Moss this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Momodou Njie was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
44 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Moss lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Moss people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Oscar Aga was one of the reasons people came, and $2.1M does not replace that by itself.
Moss had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at HamKam, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Mathias Enger Eriksen 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Momodou Njie was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Moss asked and Vikingur 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
The dugoutSigurd Grønli asks for a word with the manager
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Artan Memedov
The dugoutWilliam Kvale has become a man the manager trusts
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Moss have lost him in all but the paperwork.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Moss can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Moss have done the hard part with HamKam, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sigurd Grønli 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.
Moss asked and Stromsgodset said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Kristian Strande's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Moss, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Momodou Njie 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Moss has been clear about where Kristoffer Lassen Harrison stands, which is more than many ever get.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Kristian Strande was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mathias Enger Eriksen signs something — a contract at Moss or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Moss would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Sigurd Grønli 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Momodou Njie 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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Moss, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Moss can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sigurd Grønli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Moss know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Nobody at Moss 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Momodou Njie has, at Moss, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Momodou Njie is a Moss player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Mathias Enger Eriksen 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Momodou Njie was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Henrik Normann is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Lars Elyounoussi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Jens Linnes is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Nobody at Moss 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Moss have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Moss this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Sigurd Grønli 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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Moss are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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 Robert Marcus is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Moss know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Moss will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sigurd Grønli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
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.
18 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Moss lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Markus Welinder will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Moss the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Sigurd Grønli 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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mikkel Lassen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Moss, and both men came out saying it was fine.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Moss can tell you which week it ends in.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sigurd Grønli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Moss told Thomas Klemetsen Jakobsen something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Egersund? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
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.
Mathias Enger Eriksen 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mikkel Lassen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Stefan Hauge to a room that had heard them before.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Martin Palumbo signs something — a contract at Moss or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nobody at Moss is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
In brief
The dugoutWilliam Kvale knocks on the manager’s door
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sigurd Grønli 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Moss this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Moss will not keep him by pretending otherwise.