Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $287.6K of what Haugesund paid for Linus Alperud is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Thomas Johansen recited it perfectly.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Haugesund have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Miika Koskela was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Kristoffer Tønnessen 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.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Haugesund is running low.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Haugesund can pretend not to have heard.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Kongsvinger have kept their man, and Haugesund go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
This is not rotation. Linus Alperud has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Haugesund is pretending otherwise.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Words at Haugesund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Niklas Ødegård 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.
Haugesund have gone to Sarpsborg 08 with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The deal with Moss is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $127.5K — a club that wants Artan Memedov enough to be asked twice.
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.
Kristoffer Tønnessen 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 offer from Wellington Phoenix for Alem Omerinović 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.
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.
Robert Marcus 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.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Niklas Sandberg signs something — a contract at Haugesund or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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 Haugesund, and it is not being withdrawn.
Kristoffer Tønnessen and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Words at Haugesund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Linus Alperud 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 change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Parfait Bizoza's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Haugesund would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Haugesund know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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 Haugesund hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ole Sorloth is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Erling Selnaes 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Tobias Meling 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Parfait Bizoza was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Robert Marcus is on 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 Haugesund, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Position 16 on 19 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
4 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.
Meliga Promise 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 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“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 Haugesund, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Haugesund this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Haugesund, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Brann top the table and they are coming into view. Nothing to lose, which is what every manager says before losing.
The dugout16 Oct 2028
Linus Alperud is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Amund Wichne signs something — a contract at Haugesund or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Haugesund lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Haugesund this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Words at Haugesund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Parfait Bizoza 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.
7 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.
7 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Linus Alperud'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.
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.
60 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Haugesund lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Haugesund are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom21 Aug 2028
Haugesund close the window on a squad of their own making
20 in and 13 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.
Haugesund asked and Brann said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Fredrikstad paid $630.0K and Haugesund took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Haugesund will try again when the window opens; Sogndal may not be selling by then.
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.
Robert Marcus 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 words a physio says slowly. 98 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.
The offer from Viking for Emil Rohd 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Haugesund can pretend not to have heard.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Almar Grindhaug scored, was marked 7.79, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
$830.0K was the most the club would pay and Tromso 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.
The offer went to Ranheim 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.
“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; Haugesund are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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 is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Emil Rohd 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Parfait Bizoza was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
7.85, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Haugesund had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout12 Jun 2028
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.” Stian Linnes kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Linus Alperud's mistake
The mood at Haugesund 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“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; Haugesund are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at Haugesund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emil Rohd 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.
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.
“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 Haugesund, and 5 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
In brief
Player ratingsThe afternoon belonged to Robert Marcus
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Linus Alperud's mistake
The dugoutAmund Wichne has become a man the manager trusts
10 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Håvard Vatland Karlsen and Haugesund agree another 4 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emil Rohd was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Kristoffer Tønnessen 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 mood at Haugesund 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.
7 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Haugesund can pretend not to have heard.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Haugesund can tell you which week it ends in.
12 combined actions and 6.93. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
9 new faces, and Haugesund 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.
“I watch every Haugesund game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sogndal runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The mood at Haugesund 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.
Everything agreed with Hødd, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Miika Koskela 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. IFK Goteborg have kept their man, and Haugesund go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 24 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
$42.0K on the table at HamKam. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Miika Koskela 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 name of Petcho Camara has come up in conversations Haugesund were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Haugesund will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Pyry Hannola 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.
“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; Haugesund are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Parfait Bizoza was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Linus Alperud'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.
Nobody at Haugesund 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Niklas Sandberg signs something — a contract at Haugesund or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Haugesund, another week without a signature from Eirik Viland Andersen.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Haugesund 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 Linus Alperud 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 Pyry Hannola trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
Linus Alperud is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
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 board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Kristoffer Tønnessen 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 Haugesund, another week without a signature from Pyry Hannola.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at Haugesund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Didrik Fredriksen 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Almar Grindhaug has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Pyry Hannola trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Haugesund this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Linus Alperud 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 dugout15 Nov 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Linus Alperud'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.
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.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Haugesund would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Haugesund can pretend not to have heard.
Marked 7.39 on 19 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Both clubs in the mire, one fixture between them, and a ground that will be louder and more frightened than at any point in the season. Haugesund know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Linus Alperud 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 dugout25 Oct 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 Stian Linnes left the room before anybody could ask which.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Miika Koskela was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
Linus Alperud is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
At 19 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.
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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Niklas Sandberg signs something — a contract at Haugesund or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Haugesund that is a harder question to answer.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.58 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Parfait Bizoza 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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Tromso tried to reorganise, Haugesund did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Haugesund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Linus Alperud 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.
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Haugesund lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Parfait Bizoza 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 12 combined actions and a mark of 6.99, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
At 23 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.
“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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at Haugesund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Linus Alperud 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 deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 11 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Haugesund offered $76.0K; Stabaek said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Haugesund asked and Sogndal said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at Haugesund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Linus Alperud 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Fredrikstad is saying, and nobody at Haugesund is enjoying the guessing.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Haugesund can pretend not to have heard.
$2.0M was the most the club would pay and Bryne 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $38.9K — a club that wants Jon Øya enough to be asked twice.
Jonathan Norbye 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 offer went to Stabaek 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Haugesund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Linus Alperud 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.
“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 Haugesund, and it is not being withdrawn.
$2.1M was the most the club would pay and Molde 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.
$990.0K on the table at Valerenga. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Haugesund asked and Fredrikstad said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Haugesund this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Miika Koskela 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.
“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 Haugesund, and 0 appearances in 21 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Haugesund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Linus Alperud 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.
“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.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
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 2‑3 defeat, delivered by Stian Linnes to a room that had heard them before.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jonathan Norbye signs something — a contract at Haugesund or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Position 14 and 10 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.
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.
Bo Hegland 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.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Petcho Camara 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.
“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 dugout21 Jun 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Linus Alperud'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.