Marked for Anders Sønderskov
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout20 Dec 2027
Julius Lucena: 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.” Esbjerg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words exchanged at Esbjerg
Jens Martin Gammelby 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.
Match18 Dec 2027
Lyngby left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Oscar Buur, and the manager let it.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Muamer Brajanac's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout20 Dec 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 0‑2 Frederik Wind left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at Esbjerg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anders Sønderskov 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.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
Marked 4.93. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Market20 Dec 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Muamer Brajanac’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match11 Oct 2027
Esbjerg up to position 2
21 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad11 Oct 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 Esbjerg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch11 Oct 2027
“I did not go to HB Køge to sit and watch. I want to come back to Esbjerg and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
Lasse Vigen knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lasse Vigen trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Looking ahead11 Oct 2027
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Lucas From’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Esbjerg needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Market11 Oct 2027
The name of Muamer Brajanac keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Esbjerg say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout11 Oct 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
A wage question at Esbjerg
Benjamin Hvidt has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
Squad11 Oct 2027
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Esbjerg will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad11 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Esbjerg
Abdoulaye Camara and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Anders Sønderskov is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Esbjerg asked and Brondby said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad11 Jan 2027
At 26 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Patrick Tjørnelund 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.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
A loan move for Isak Määttä is in the works
Esbjerg have made the call to Bodo/Glimt. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
A loan move for Kjell Peersman is in the works
Esbjerg have made the call to KAA Gent. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
A loan enquiry to Malmo FF: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
Oskar Boesen gets it from the manager
“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.