Marked for Oved Guessou
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad11 Jun 2029
The words a physio says slowly. 25 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 terraces11 Jun 2029
Anger at Åsane spills outside the ground
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.
Market11 Jun 2029
“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 The request is on a desk at Åsane, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad11 Jun 2029
A falling-out at Åsane
Lars Ranger and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match9 Jun 2029
It finished 1‑0, and it was Martin Samuelsen’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Åsane.
Player ratings11 Jun 2029
The game went through Jonas Hjorth — 7.13
Marked 7.13 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Åsane 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.
Player ratings11 Jun 2029
Marked 7.58. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad11 Jun 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Yanis Sahih and Åsane agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad15 Jan 2029
Oscar Aga in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Åsane this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Words at Åsane training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Herman Geelmuyden 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.
Market15 Jan 2029
Oscar Aga linked with a move away
The name of Oscar Aga keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Åsane say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout15 Jan 2029
Oved Guessou has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Åsane 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.
Market15 Jan 2029
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Lars Markmanrud may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Squad15 Jan 2029
The table is being checked before the results are in, which is always the tell. Nobody at Åsane says the word and every senior player in the building is thinking it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market1 Jan 2029
“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 Åsane, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
This is not rotation. Nobel Tesfazgyi Gebrezgi has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Åsane is pretending otherwise.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Words exchanged at Åsane
Oscar Aga 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.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Herman Geelmuyden 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 dugout1 Jan 2029
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 dugout1 Jan 2029
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Åsane, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
Oved Guessou 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.
Squad1 Jan 2029
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Åsane would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Market1 Jan 2029
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Åsane know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad18 Dec 2028
Oscar Aga in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Åsane this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Dec 2028
A row about effort at Åsane
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Herman Geelmuyden was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout18 Dec 2028
A promise honoured at Åsane
Something was said to Jens Husebø and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout18 Dec 2028
Oscar Aga knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Åsane, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market18 Dec 2028
Oscar Aga linked with a move away
The name of Oscar Aga keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Åsane say nothing, which says plenty.
Market18 Dec 2028
Luke Bell joins Åsane to strengthen the squad
Nobody sells a season ticket on a signing like this. Every manager who has been through a bad October wants one anyway, and Åsane have gone and got theirs early.
The dugout18 Dec 2028
Oved Guessou gets picked when it counts
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 Oved Guessou is on it.
The terraces18 Dec 2028
Supporters make their feelings known about Sebastian Selin
The speculation has reached the stands, and the stands have answered. Åsane would like this settled before it becomes the only thing anybody asks about.
Market18 Dec 2028
Åsane have made Lars Markmanrud available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 May 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Julian Lægreid
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Åsane lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad15 May 2028
2 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Match10 May 2028
Cup progress for Åsane
A 1‑1 win over Moss, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
The dugout15 May 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Åsane may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match13 May 2028
The wait goes on for Åsane
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.
Squad15 May 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Åsane this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 May 2028
“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; Åsane are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Match13 May 2028
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout15 May 2028
The manager makes an example of Jens Husebø
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market8 May 2028
Hassou Diaby hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Åsane can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout8 May 2028
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Åsane have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad8 May 2028
Tempers go at Åsane
Sivert Sira Hansen 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.
Squad8 May 2028
Herman Geelmuyden 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.
Match6 May 2028
0‑2 to Bodo/Glimt, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout8 May 2028
“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 dugout8 May 2028
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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Patrick Elyounoussi to a room that had heard them before.
Squad8 May 2028
Oscar Aga makes the team of the month
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Squad8 May 2028
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.