The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Degerfors people have started saying his name in the past tense.
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 team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Degerfors have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nahom Girmai Netabay was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Samukele Kabini and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Degerfors can pretend not to have heard.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Degerfors can tell you which week it ends in.
Matvei Igonen 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.
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.
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Degerfors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Degerfors is running low.
Matvei Igonen 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 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 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.
Nobody at Degerfors 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.
Molde have gone to Ranheim 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.
“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 Molde hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Sakarias Opsahl 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.
Add another name to the list: Åsane have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Mads Eikrem Myklebust. The answer from Molde has not changed — yet.
“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 Molde, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
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 words a physio says slowly. 39 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nahom Girmai Netabay was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Molde have kept their man, and Degerfors go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Ziyad Salifu 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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Molde can pretend not to have heard.
Add another name to the list: Västerås SK have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Samukele Kabini. The answer from Molde has not changed — yet.
Sakarias Opsahl 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.
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 Molde, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Molde know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Kristian Lonebu has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Molde have lost him in all but the paperwork.
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 Birk Risa 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 Molde, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Mads Enggård has written the date down.
In brief
SquadEmil Breivik has seen what the next man earns
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Veres keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Add another name to the list: Mjällby have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Oskar Spiten-Nysæter. The answer from Molde has not changed — yet.
“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.
Caleb Zady Sery 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 at Molde 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.
Veres 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Molde can pretend not to have heard.
Molde have gone to Baltika 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.
Add another name to the list: Västerås SK have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Samukele Kabini. The answer from Molde has not changed — yet.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Mads Enggård wants continental football; whether Molde can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Nobody at Molde 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Molde heard it as anything else.
Add another name to the list: Kongsvinger have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Blerton Isufi. The answer from Molde has not changed — yet.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Samukele Kabini has his answer from Molde; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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 Magnus Sjøeng trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Molde have no good answer.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Samukele Kabini had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“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 Molde, 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 Molde this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Molde has been clear about where Birk Risa stands, which is more than many ever get.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kristian Lonebu, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Feb 2028
7 new faces, and Molde 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.
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 Caleb Zady Sery is on it.
Sakarias Opsahl 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 at Molde 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 Ohi Omoijuanfo signs something — a contract at Molde or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Mads Enggård has written the date down.
Emil Breivik 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.
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 Emil Breivik is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Caleb Zady Sery signs something — a contract at Molde 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 Molde that is a harder question to answer.
The words a physio says slowly. 53 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.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Samukele Kabini 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.
“I watch every Molde game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Kristiansund runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.97 for the rest of it.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Samukele Kabini 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑1, Birger Pedersen could afford to be generous.
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.
In brief
SquadA Molde teenager takes the young player award
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of William Viken
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Molde can pretend not to have heard.
Felix Vá 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.
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 Emil Breivik is on it.
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.
“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 Molde will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Samukele Kabini had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Sakarias Opsahl 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.
Add another name to the list: Sandviken have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Sivert Sira Hansen. The answer from Molde has not changed — yet.
Add another name to the list: Aalborg have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Samukele Kabini. The answer from Molde has not changed — yet.
Mats Møller Dæhli 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. KFUM Oslo have kept their man, and Molde go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 11 combined actions and a mark of 7.51, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Molde asked and Kristiansund said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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 Trent Kone-Doherty is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Molde know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Not every move is upward. Magnus Sjøeng has accepted terms at Molde that are worse than the ones he left, and the only question that matters now is whether the football makes up for it.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Molde would admit. It shows 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 Molde can pretend not to have heard.
Felix Vá 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Moscow have kept their man, and Molde go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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 Molde, and both men came out saying it was fine.
46 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Molde lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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 Kristian Lonebu is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Halldor Stenevik trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Ohi Omoijuanfo has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
Successful dribbles: 34. 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lillestrom have kept their man, and Molde go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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 6.98, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Marked 6.93 on 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.