Marked for Simon Walde
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market12 May 2031
Oscar Buur hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AGF can pretend not to have heard.
Market12 May 2031
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alesandro Comita will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AGF the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad12 May 2031
Words exchanged at AGF
Rasmus Carstensen 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.
Squad12 May 2031
Words at AGF training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastian Clemmensen 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 dugout12 May 2031
“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 dugout12 May 2031
Kristian Arnstad has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at AGF 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 dugout12 May 2031
Jakob Kiilerich asks for a word with the manager
“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 May 2031
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Market12 May 2031
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Mikkel Juul Jørgensen has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at AGF.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market14 Apr 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AGF is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout14 Apr 2031
Ryan De Roon: 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.” AGF have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad14 Apr 2031
Words exchanged at AGF
Rasmus Carstensen 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.
Squad14 Apr 2031
A row about effort at AGF
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mikael Anderson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad14 Apr 2031
19 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Market14 Apr 2031
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout14 Apr 2031
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 dugout14 Apr 2031
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sebastian Clemmensen trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market14 Apr 2031
The name of Kristian Arnstad keeps appearing in other people's back pages. AGF say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Mar 2031
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AGF will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market24 Mar 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AGF is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market24 Mar 2031
“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 AGF, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Mar 2031
Tempers go at AGF
Rasmus Carstensen 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 Mar 2031
A row about effort at AGF
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mikael Anderson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout24 Mar 2031
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 Mikael Anderson is on it.
The dugout24 Mar 2031
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jakob Kiilerich trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market24 Mar 2031
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Mikael Anderson’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market24 Mar 2031
5 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs AGF money.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Feb 2031
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. AGF will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market24 Feb 2031
Only the photograph left for Lasse Legolas
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lasse Legolas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AGF the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad24 Feb 2031
Tempers go at AGF
Rasmus Carstensen 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 Feb 2031
August Rytter arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. August Rytter has, at AGF, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad24 Feb 2031
Words at AGF training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikael Anderson 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 Feb 2031
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 dugout24 Feb 2031
“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.
Market24 Feb 2031
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Mikael Anderson’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout24 Feb 2031
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Frederik Tingager trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Oct 2030
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. AGF will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market14 Oct 2030
Noah Salau has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AGF they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match12 Oct 2030
4 matches without a win for AGF
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around AGF are no longer polite ones.
Squad14 Oct 2030
Tempers go at AGF
Rasmus Carstensen 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.
Squad14 Oct 2030
Magnus Knudsen 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 dugout14 Oct 2030
“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.
Match12 Oct 2030
A bad afternoon for AGF against Randers
0‑1 to Randers, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad14 Oct 2030
Too much change too quickly at AGF
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.
The dugout14 Oct 2030
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Sep 2030
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AGF will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings9 Sep 2030
A brace, and Janni Serra takes the afternoon — 9.00
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Janni Serra provided it, and the 9.00 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market9 Sep 2030
So close: Oscar Buur’s move dies late
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. FC Midtjylland moved on, Oscar Buur reports back to AGF, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad9 Sep 2030
A move Simon Walde 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. Simon Walde is living that version at AGF, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market9 Sep 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AGF is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout9 Sep 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” AGF may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom9 Sep 2030
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Jakub Nečas has agreed terms with Viborg for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad9 Sep 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AGF this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Sep 2030
A row about effort at AGF
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sebastian Clemmensen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.