Marked for Emin Softic
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad22 May 2028
Tempers go at OB
Jóhann Berg Guðmundsson 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.
Squad22 May 2028
Words at OB training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rasmus Falk 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.
Market22 May 2028
One of our own: Erik Schmeichel joins the OB first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Erik Schmeichel is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market22 May 2028
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Alexander Vestergaard is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market22 May 2028
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Pierre-Emile Schmeichel is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market22 May 2028
One of our own: Frederik Fischer joins the OB first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Frederik Fischer is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The dugout22 May 2028
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 dugout22 May 2028
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at OB, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout22 May 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Emin Softic, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words exchanged at OB
Ismahila Ouédraogo 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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at OB training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Theo Bergvall 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 dugout17 Apr 2028
Jay-Roy Grot 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 Jay-Roy Grot is on it.
Market17 Apr 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Adam Sørensen’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market17 Apr 2028
OB and Emin Softic are talking past each other
“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.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at OB, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market17 Apr 2028
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee OB could ask drops and the wages Jannik Pohl Holmsgaard can ask rise.
Boardroom17 Apr 2028
OB keep producing them
10 graduates from an academy now rated 11 out of 20. A club this size does not survive any other way, and every name on that list is known in the town.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
The manager plants his flag on Noah Ganaus
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Noah Ganaus’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Mar 2028
A falling-out at OB
Rasmus Falk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at OB training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakob Bonde 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 dugout27 Mar 2028
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 Jóhann Berg Guðmundsson is on it.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ismahila Ouédraogo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market27 Mar 2028
The Jay-Roy Grot question follows OB around
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Jay-Roy Grot’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market27 Mar 2028
Still no signature from Jakob Bonde
4 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what OB could get for him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout27 Dec 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” OB may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings27 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match25 Dec 2027
No end in sight to OB's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at OB has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Tempers go at OB
Rasmus Falk 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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Ismahila Ouédraogo 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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
200 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Match25 Dec 2027
A point taken on 93 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Squad27 Dec 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Christian Brund and OB agree another 3 years.
Player ratings27 Dec 2027
Nobody on the pitch touched Jay-Roy Grot
7.82, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. OB had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match27 Oct 2027
OB out of the cup
AGF ended it 3‑4. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
1 on the scoresheet on his first appearance and a mark of 7.62 beside it. Most debuts are got through; this one was enjoyed, by him and by everybody watching it.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 31. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.61, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad1 Nov 2027
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market1 Nov 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” OB may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Tempers go at OB
Rasmus Falk 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.
Match27 Oct 2027
Aldin Jakupović among the goals in a wild afternoon
7 goals in one match, Aldin Jakupović on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of OB and AGF.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
OB are in Europe
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
Market7 Jun 2027
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Squad7 Jun 2027
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. OB had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Market7 Jun 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what OB can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
Everything agreed with Holstein Kiel, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Rasmus Falk 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 OB this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Leicester City have kept their man, and OB go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
James Gomez 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Time is catching up with Václav Pilař
Everybody at OB saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 38 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
In brief
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Squad
Words at OB training over how hard people work
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Transfer targets
A loan move for Eguinaldo is in the works
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Market
OB buy the years ahead of Emin Softic