Marked for Lukas Gausdal
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market15 Feb 2027
$7.7M from Kristiansund for Sory Diarra. Money is money, but the dressing room has lost the man it looked to.
Squad15 Feb 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Miika Koskela
14 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.
Market15 Feb 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Haugesund, and it is not being withdrawn.
The terraces15 Feb 2027
Haugesund sell a favourite for $7.7M
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Sory Diarra was one of the reasons people came, and $7.7M does not replace that by itself.
Transfer targets15 Feb 2027
The offer went to Sandefjord 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
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.
Transfer targets15 Feb 2027
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.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“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.
Market15 Feb 2027
He is 19, and nobody at Haugesund signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 Feb 2027
Miika Koskela damages knee ligaments — 21 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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.
Boardroom8 Feb 2027
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Marcus Svensson has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market8 Feb 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 Haugesund can pretend not to have heard.
Market8 Feb 2027
Haugesund say no — this time
The offer from Vikingur for Prince Adu Kwabena 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.
Market8 Feb 2027
Bodo/Glimt pay $1.4M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Market8 Feb 2027
Emil Rohd wants to know where this is going
“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.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
Haugesund asked and Stabaek said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
The offer went to IK Start 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A row about effort at Haugesund
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at IK Start
Erlend Dahl Reitan 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 dugout14 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lukas Gausdal, and the manager let it.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Mikael Ugland 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 IK Start, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market14 Dec 2026
The Steve Mvoué story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Steve Mvoué signs something — a contract at IK Start or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A wage question at IK Start
Felix Kutsche Eriksen has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Lukas Gausdal is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A falling-out at IK Start
Mikael Ugland and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Lukas Gausdal
“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 Oct 2026
Johan Meyer knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Johan Meyer trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market12 Oct 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Steve Mvoué’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market12 Oct 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Terry Benjamin may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Jens Husebø has been promised minutes
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 Jens Husebø has written the date down.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.