Marked for Bertil Grønkjær
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match21 Nov 2026
Chastening afternoon for HB Køge
A 0‑4 beating by Esbjerg was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
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 HB Køge this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom23 Nov 2026
Nobody left the HB Køge dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
The dugout23 Nov 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 0‑4 defeat, delivered by Lasse Vestergaard to a room that had heard them before.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Nicolai Clausen 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 will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mattias Jakobsen, and the manager let it.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match16 Nov 2026
First, on 32 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Aalborg may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Mathijs Tielemans 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Aalborg
Rody de Boer 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 dugout16 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mathias Kubel, and the manager let it.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Mathias Kubel gets picked when it counts
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 Mathias Kubel is on it.
Market16 Nov 2026
The name of Conrad Wallem keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Aalborg say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“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.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
11 starts and a season average of 6.24. The loan is doing exactly what it was arranged to do.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match16 Nov 2026
HB Køge sink to position 11
8 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A falling-out at HB Køge
Abdoulaye Camara and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A row about effort at HB Køge
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alagie Saine was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market16 Nov 2026
Dulat Talyspaev is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at HB Køge has been clear about where Dulat Talyspaev stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Market16 Nov 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Emiliano Marcondes signs something — a contract at HB Køge or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Mike Jensen has been promised minutes
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 Mike Jensen has written the date down.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at HB Køge, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad16 Nov 2026
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match7 Nov 2026
1‑5 to Hvidovre, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Match7 Nov 2026
Viljar Stavø among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Viljar Stavø on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of HB Køge and Hvidovre.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Alagie Saine in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at HB Køge this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Abdul Moro, and the manager let it.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A row about effort at HB Køge
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marc Rochester was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom9 Nov 2026
Nobody left the HB Køge dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nicolai Boilesen and HB Køge agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Lasse Vestergaard after 1‑5, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Beaten 5 times, 2 saves, and an afternoon that will go on his record whether it was his fault or the defence’s. It is the quiet unfairness of the position.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match24 Oct 2026
8 matches without a win for HB Køge
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around HB Køge are no longer polite ones.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A falling-out at HB Køge
Bertil Grønkjær and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match24 Oct 2026
HB Køge leaking at the back
4 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Match24 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Malthe Boesen
“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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A row about effort at HB Køge
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alagie Saine was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Looking ahead26 Oct 2026
A six-pointer for HB Køge
Kolding IF next, and both sides can do the sum. Win and the table looks different; lose and it looks the way everybody has been fearing.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Match26 Oct 2026
HB Køge at the halfway mark
Half the programme played, position 12, 5 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Mathijs Tielemans 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.
Market12 Oct 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Andres Jasson has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Aalborg.
The dugout12 Oct 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The division's best last weekend was a Aalborg man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Kelvin John was the best thing in any of them.
Market12 Oct 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Aalborg know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Aalborg, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
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
Crisis
Match26 Sep 2026
5 matches without a win for HB Køge
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around HB Køge are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad28 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 HB Køge this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match26 Sep 2026
0‑2 to Hillerød, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout28 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“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; HB Køge are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A row about effort at HB Køge
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marc Rochester was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Lasse Vestergaard left the room before anybody could ask which.
Looking ahead28 Sep 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against B.93 in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match21 Sep 2026
HB Køge sink to position 10
5 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad21 Sep 2026
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” HB Køge may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match19 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for HB Køge
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around HB Køge are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Alagie Saine 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 terraces21 Sep 2026
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match19 Sep 2026
A bad afternoon for HB Køge against Lyngby
0‑1 to Lyngby, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Amar Diagne, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Sep 2026
“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 HB Køge, and it is not being withdrawn.
The terraces7 Sep 2026
HB Køge sell a favourite for $650.0K
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Basem Alkhoudari was one of the reasons people came, and $650.0K does not replace that by itself.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 22 in, 34 out at HB Køge
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 22 arrived, 34 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
No thanks: John Kitolano rejects the move
HB Køge had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at IK Start, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The clock did what Valerenga would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
Market7 Sep 2026
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Hobro moved on, Noah Sømmergaard reports back to HB Køge, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Abdoulaye Camara 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
Basem Alkhoudari has left for Hvidovre in a $650.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
$26.0K was the most the club would pay and Lyngby 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
HB Køge and Valerenga have settled on $2.5M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Market31 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Marcel Rømer pops up at the right end — 7.63
7.63, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A muscle injury and 19 days out for Mike Jensen
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. HB Køge will quote 19 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at HB Køge
Marc Rochester 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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Hobro wanted more than $130.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Market31 Aug 2026
OB pay $360.0K, 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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Marcel Rømer scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Middelfart, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Aug 2026
HB Køge march on in the cup
SonderjyskE are out and HB Køge go through, 1‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match22 Aug 2026
Chastening afternoon for HB Køge
A 0‑6 beating by Aalborg was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match19 Aug 2026
HB Køge win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 112th minute. SonderjyskE will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Squad24 Aug 2026
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what HB Køge can pretend not to have heard.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Silkeborg wanted more than $1.6M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $25.3K — a club that wants Mathias Kaarsbo enough to be asked twice.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad3 Aug 2026
John Guidetti gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. John Guidetti has just signed for Aalborg, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Edison Flores and Aalborg agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Benjamin Tiedemann Hansen 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 targets3 Aug 2026
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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Mathijs Tielemans 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 terraces3 Aug 2026
Aalborg supporters have found a favourite in Kelvin John
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Kelvin John has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Match1 Aug 2026
Lyngby made Aalborg work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Market3 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Aalborg have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Tobias Thomsen, 33, rolls back the years — 8.02
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.02 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Marc Rochester and HB Køge agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A falling-out at HB Køge
Marc Rochester and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Berkant Bayrak 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 terraces3 Aug 2026
At 20 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
A 1‑0 win over Kolding IF, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad3 Aug 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Market3 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Aalborg: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.