The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Cassander Dreyer did not need any: 7.77, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Stabaek can pretend not to have heard.
Herman Haugen 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.
“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 Ayoub Aleesami.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Player ratings5 Jun 2028
A brace, and Justin Salmon takes the afternoon — 8.35
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Justin Salmon provided it, and the 8.35 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings5 Jun 2028
Cassander Dreyer, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.77
A mark of 7.77 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Marius Lundemo 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Justin Salmon. 3‑2 against Egersund, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Words at Stabaek training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Morten Bjørlo 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Stabaek, and 4 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
Marked 8.10 — 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.
1 for Marius Lundemo, marked 7.70, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
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.
He is 21 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 37 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Stabaek is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
11 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.
1‑5 to Bryne, 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Marius Lundemo scored, was marked 7.25, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Oscar Solnørdal 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.
6 goals in one match, Marius Lundemo on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Stabaek and Bryne.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hillerød have kept their man, and Stabaek go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
Stabaek close the window on a squad of their own making
10 in and 16 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
A season average of 7.04 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Stabaek know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Marius Lundemo 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.
Stabaek asked and Tromso 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 bill for the sacking has arrived. Bjorn Strandberg leaves with $327.6K for the time left on his deal, and that money buys the club nothing it can put on the pitch.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Stabaek will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Stabaek had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Haugesund, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Stabaek have made the call to Kolding IF. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ayoub Aleesami trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Mjondalen waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Tromso is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Ruben Yttergård Jenssen and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Tromso training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lars Olden Larsen 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 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 Tromso, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Tromso. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Gustav Valsvik’s negotiating for him
The mood at Stabaek has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Ayoub Aleesami had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Fillip Jenssen Riise was one of the reasons people came, and $3.1M does not replace that by itself.
Marius Lundemo 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 fee is $110.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Mjondalen drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
HamKam paid $720.0K and Stabaek took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
“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 Tromso, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Tromso people have started saying his name in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tromso 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 Lars Olden Larsen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lars Olden Larsen trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Tromso will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The paperwork is done: Adrian Rogulj joins from Raufoss in a deal worth $320.0K. Now comes the harder part.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at Tromso training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lars Olden Larsen 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.
Nobody at Tromso 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Tromso are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Lars Olden Larsen may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Position 14 and 28 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“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 Tromso, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Tromso hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Ruben Yttergård Jenssen 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.
“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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at Tromso training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustav Valsvik 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.
In brief
Squad11 new faces, and Tromso are still learning each other
The phone has started ringing about Gustav Valsvik again, and this time the name on the line is Aarhus Fremad. Tromso are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sean Nilsen-Modebe trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Tromso can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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 Tromso, and it is not being withdrawn.
29 games, 0 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Tromso now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
Mikkel Wennberg Lindbäck 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.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Tromso will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Torbjørn Kallevåg is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Filip Oprea's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at Tromso training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Elias Hjort-Pedersen 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 have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words at Tromso training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lars Olden Larsen 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 Tromso this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Tromso know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
44 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Tromso lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Ruben Yttergård Jenssen 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at Tromso training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lars Olden Larsen 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.
Nobody at Tromso 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Tromso, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Tromso know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
58 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Tromso lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lars Olden Larsen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tromso this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Casper Øyvann signs something — a contract at Tromso or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Sogndal in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“For the first time in years I am picked because somebody wants me in the team.” Skeid suits him; the awkward conversation belongs to Tromso, and the summer will force it.
29 appearances at IFK Norrkoping and the goals have stopped going in. Tromso lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
86 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Tromso lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
7 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Sarpsborg 08 were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Tromso training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lars Olden Larsen 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.
Elias Hjort-Pedersen 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 dugout18 Oct 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Stefan Henriksen, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ieltsin Camões trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The words a physio says slowly. 114 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.
5 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Sebastian Mihai Asan is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tromso this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
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 0‑1 Stefan Henriksen left the room before anybody could ask which.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
Ruben Yttergård Jenssen 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 unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Leo Cornic 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.
He is 23 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.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.52 on the card, and the Tromso support went home talking about one name.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Stefan Henriksen was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Tromso dressing room was either.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Tromso told Cassander Dreyer something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
The offer from B.93 for Gustav Valsvik was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Tromso training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leo Cornic 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.
A point taken on 87 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Cassander Dreyer 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Troy Nyhammer is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Tromso is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Tromso will quote 16 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad31 May 2027
Leo Cornic 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Vegard Erlien signs something — a contract at Tromso or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
There were 89 minutes on the clock and Bryne had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Tromso did not stop to explain themselves.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.86 at 39, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It finished 1‑0, and it was Ieltsin Camões’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Tromso.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
Ieltsin Camões was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.38. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Adrian Evensen-Jensen 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 dugout26 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Stefan Henriksen kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Tromso people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Ruben Yttergård Jenssen 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.
Tromso asked and Vejle said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Magnus Bohinen is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Martin Johansen has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Marcus Normann has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leo Cornic was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Sander Innvær was one of the reasons people came, and $1.7M does not replace that by itself.
The offer from Mjondalen for Vince Osuji was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. CSKA Moscow have kept their man, and Tromso go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Tromso can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Tromso, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Tromso have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 Tromso, and it is not being withdrawn.
Abderrahmane Sarr 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Daniel Braut trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Mjondalen waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Tromso is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer went to Rostov this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tromso this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Tromso will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mathias Tønnessen trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Tromso would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Ruben Yttergård Jenssen 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.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Tromso will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Tromso know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Tromso would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Tromso. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Tromso, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Edvard Bjerkaas 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ieltsin Camões trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Tromso than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Tromso know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Tromso told Adrian Evensen-Jensen 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 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Lars Olden Larsen’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Tromso needing him to play as if none of it matters.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Viktor Ekblom signs something — a contract at Tromso or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Tromso can pretend not to have heard.
8.17. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Abderrahmane Sarr 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Stefan Henriksen could afford to be generous.
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.
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.
“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 Tromso, and it is not being withdrawn.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Cassander Dreyer has just signed for Tromso, and for once the answer mattered.
Ruben Yttergård Jenssen 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
13 new faces, and Tromso 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.