Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Niilo Martikainen did not need any: 7.76, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sogndal can pretend not to have heard.
Jakob Vester 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.
At 22 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.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Lyn were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jacob Blixt Flaten was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
Player ratingsNobody on the pitch touched Taha Usman
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Tom Neveu is living that version at Sogndal, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jacob Blixt Flaten was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Jakob Vester’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Sogndal needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“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 The request is on a desk at Sogndal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Even Hovland 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.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Jakob Vester 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.
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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Sogndal are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
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.” Henrik Strandberg kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sogndal have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sogndal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bodo/Glimt have kept their man, and Sogndal go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Hakon Daehli 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Jonas Ajer 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. Lars Lien 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.
Valerenga asked and Leicester City said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Viking waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Valerenga is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Valerenga, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer went to Viking 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.
Molde paid $550.0K and Valerenga took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
9 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.
Tiago Silva 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Valerenga can pretend not to have heard.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Taha Usman had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The phone has started ringing about Lorents Apold-Aasen again, and this time the name on the line is Molde. Valerenga are listening politely and promising nothing.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Olympiacos keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
$130.0K was the most the club would pay and Ranheim 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Henrik Skogvold 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. Bryne have kept their man, and Valerenga go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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 Valerenga, and it is not being withdrawn.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $151.5K — a club that wants Tage Haukeberg enough to be asked twice.
Everything agreed with Olympiacos, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
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.
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. Sogndal have kept their man, and Valerenga go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Taha Usman 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.
Nobody at Valerenga 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.
“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 Valerenga, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. IK Start have kept their man, and Valerenga go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Valerenga offered $120.0K; Mjondalen 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Henrik Skogvold was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Cassander Dreyer 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Taha Usman has his answer from Valerenga; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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 Kolbeinn Birgir Finnsson is on it.
“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 Valerenga, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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 Valerenga hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $180.0K has been paid because Iver Fossum is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Cassander Dreyer has just signed for Valerenga, and for once the answer mattered.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Words at Valerenga training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Henrik Skogvold 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.
$9.4M settles it between the clubs for Noah Sahsah
Ranheim have accepted the money. What Valerenga 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 Valerenga can pretend not to have heard.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $143.1K — a club that wants Artan Memedov enough to be asked twice.
The offer went to Moss 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.
$130.0K was the most the club would pay and Ranheim 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Henrik Skogvold was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Words at Valerenga training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Henrik Skogvold 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valerenga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Valerenga 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Valerenga know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Valerenga heard it as anything else.
Henrik Skogvold 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; Valerenga are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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 Brice Ambina is on it.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Amin Cosic 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.
“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 Valerenga, and it is not being withdrawn.
Taha Usman 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Valerenga told Mathias Grundetjern something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Haniel Samson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Sebastian Jensen has just signed for Valerenga, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Words at Valerenga training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Henrik Skogvold 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Magnus King 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. Mathias 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Alexander Pedersen 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Thomas Elyounoussi 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.
Petter Strand 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 not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Valerenga told Mohamed Ofkir something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Valerenga can pretend not to have heard.
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.
$760.0K on the table at Rosenborg. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Half the programme played, position 4, 24 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Level with 87 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Valerenga had all but put away. Stromsgodset will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
3‑0, and Mohamed Ofkir took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Valerenga tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings10 Jul 2028
A brace, and Mohamed Ofkir takes the afternoon — 8.45
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mohamed Ofkir provided it, and the 8.45 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 Valerenga, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at Valerenga training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ghayas Zahid 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 will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Fabian André Jakobsen has pre-agreed a move to Valerenga, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valerenga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Valerenga, 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 Valerenga 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 Ghayas Zahid was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Taha Usman is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
Words at Valerenga training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ghayas Zahid 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.
Nobody at Valerenga 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.
The dugout19 Jun 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Ole Bohinen was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Valerenga dressing room was either.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Kristiansund in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.13 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Valerenga have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ghayas Zahid was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Taha Usman 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.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Valerenga, another week without a signature from Dennis Gjengaar.
The dugout29 May 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.” Ole Bohinen kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
There were 7 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.
Squad22 May 2028
Ghayas Zahid 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Henrik Skogvold 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 2‑0, Ole Bohinen could afford to be generous.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ghayas Zahid was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A mark of 7.73, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout1 May 2028
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Ole Bohinen, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“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 Valerenga, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 5 arrived, 8 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Valerenga had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Hammarby, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Taha Usman 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.
Nobody at Valerenga 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Valerenga, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Valerenga can pretend not to have heard.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
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 Eskil Edh is on it.
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 Taha Usman has written the date down.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Valerenga can pretend not to have heard.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Valerenga heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valerenga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Mohamed Ofkir signs something — a contract at Valerenga or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Amin Cosic 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 Valerenga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Valerenga 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.
Position 4, 47 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
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 Valerenga would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
29 games, 0 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Valerenga now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
Elias Hagen 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 board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Squad3 Jan 2028
5 new faces, and Valerenga 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.
Nobody at Valerenga 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Valerenga are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“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 Valerenga will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
In brief
The dugoutElias Hagen asks for a word with the manager
Qualification is secured, and next season the big floodlit nights are continental ones. For the players it is a stage; for the accounts it is a lifeline; for the supporters it is passports.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Valerenga heard it as anything else.
Taha Usman 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Taha Usman is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
In brief
The dugoutEskil Edh has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutPetter Strand knocks on the manager’s door
There were 88 minutes on the clock and Esbjerg had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Middelfart did not stop to explain themselves.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
A brace, and Taha Usman takes the afternoon — 8.48
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Taha Usman provided it, and the 8.48 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
1 for Oliver Kjærgaard, marked 7.69, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Middelfart this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It finished 3‑2, and it was Taha Usman’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Middelfart.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Erik Marxen 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Taha Usman 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Middelfart pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Elias Hagen 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 not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Valerenga told Mohamed Ofkir something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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 Dennis Gjengaar is on it.
3 goals in 27 games at Trelleborg — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Valerenga updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“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 Valerenga, and it is not being withdrawn.
Torjus Engebakken 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 Brice Ambina is on it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Rosenborg in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mathias Grundetjern signs something — a contract at Valerenga or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
MatchContinental football is in reach for Valerenga
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Middelfart lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Middelfart, and it is not being withdrawn.
The terraces8 Nov 2027
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 6 of the 28 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Taha Usman did not need any: 7.61, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Middelfart and Viborg, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
2‑4 to Viborg, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Middelfart training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erik Marxen 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.
Elias Hagen 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.
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.
KFUM Oslo next, and one man in the Valerenga dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
40 points from position 4. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
8 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Middelfart have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Middelfart this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Erik Marxen 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. Kaizer Chiefs have kept their man, and Middelfart go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Middelfart is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 11 actions, 6.84, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
“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 Valerenga, and 7 appearances in 33 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
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 Brice Ambina is on it.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Middelfart can pretend not to have heard.
Mathias Jørgensen 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Erik Marxen 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Middelfart have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Mathias Jørgensen and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Erik Marxen 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.
Middelfart asked and Politehnica Iași said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A point taken on 85 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.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Jerailly Wielzen'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.
“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 Valerenga, and it is not being withdrawn.
The chase for Amin Cosic ended with $450.0K changing hands and Viking out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valerenga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Valerenga, and 4 appearances in 29 say he has earned the hearing.