Marked for Linus Alperud
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market25 Jan 2027
Brondby come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Molde did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
Samukele Kabini 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.
Market25 Jan 2027
The name of Jalal Abdullai keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Molde say nothing, which says plenty.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Marked 7.97 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Molde had the best player on the pitch.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Molde are still strangers to each other
11 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 dugout26 Oct 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 dugout26 Oct 2026
A promise honoured at Molde
Something was said to João Pinto and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Linus Alperud
“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.
Match24 Oct 2026
It needed Caleb Zady Sery to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Valerenga, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
A mark of 5.20 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.25, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market14 Sep 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Molde is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match12 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Emil Breivik. 3‑1 against Stromsgodset, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces14 Sep 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Caleb Zady Sery was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.32. 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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
A promise honoured at Molde
Something was said to Mats Møller Dæhli and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Sander Sorloth on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Kristian Lonebu
“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.
Market14 Sep 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
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.
Market24 Aug 2026
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Martin Linnes reports back to Molde with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Molde asked and Viking said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match22 Aug 2026
Haugesund left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad24 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.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
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 Halldor Stenevik is on it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
At 20 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match8 Aug 2026
3‑0, and Caleb Zady Sery took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Molde tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Market10 Aug 2026
Molde say no — this time
The offer from Viking for Kristian Eriksen 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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Marked 8.47 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
$490.0K settles it between the clubs for Linus Alperud
Lillestrom have accepted the money. What Molde do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Boardroom10 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jalal Abdullai and Molde agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 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 Molde this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Shakhtar have kept their man, and Molde go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Jalal Abdullai 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.