Marked for Rufai Mohammed
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match8 Nov 2027
Full time on the season at Oddevold
Position 12 on 36 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Market8 Nov 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 The request is on a desk at Oddevold, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market8 Nov 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Erik Hedenquist will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Oddevold the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
Filip Järlesand: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Oddevold have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Hugo Engström 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 Nov 2027
A row about effort at Oddevold
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexander Almqvist was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match6 Nov 2027
A 1‑0 win over Varbergs BoIS, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Ninety minutes of Oliver Brynéus at his very best
Marked 8.00. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Oddevold.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
The team sheet said everything about Alexander Almqvist
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Alexander Almqvist.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Oct 2027
A one-man rearguard from Morten Sætra
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.
Squad18 Oct 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 Oddevold this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Alexander Almqvist 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 dugout18 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gustav Forssell, and the manager let it.
Match16 Oct 2027
A 1‑1 draw with Falkenberg leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Carl Larsson after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Squad18 Oct 2027
One booking too many, and a game watched from the stand. Oddevold lose him for the most avoidable reason in the sport.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
York Rafael has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Oddevold 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 dugout18 Oct 2027
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Oct 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Leo Östman and IF Elfsborg agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout11 Oct 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Björn Hedlöf and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
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 dugout11 Oct 2027
Theo Sander asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market11 Oct 2027
The Theo Sander talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. IF Elfsborg know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Leo Östman 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.
Loan watch11 Oct 2027
25 appearances at Falkenberg and the goals keep coming. IF Elfsborg are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Marcus Rohdén has started doing his badges
“I watch sessions differently now. I catch myself thinking about why we are doing the drill.” At 36 that is how nearly every man in a dugout started.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market26 Jul 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. IF Elfsborg have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Player ratings26 Jul 2027
No sign of nerves from Gottfrid Rapp at 21 — 7.87
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Gottfrid Rapp did not need any: 7.87, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad26 Jul 2027
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.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
IF Elfsborg had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Dinamo Zagreb, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Abdoulie Manneh 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
He is 21, he is averaging 7.00, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Transfer targets26 Jul 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.
Match24 Jul 2027
A 2‑1 win over IFK Goteborg, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The terraces26 Jul 2027
At 21 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings26 Jul 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.48 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market26 Jul 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 dugout26 Jul 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Oddevold may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Oddevold have done the hard part with IF Elfsborg, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Halmstad keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad26 Jul 2027
A falling-out at Oddevold
Linus Tornblad and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Jul 2027
A season average of 7.05 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Oddevold know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Match24 Jul 2027
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Oddevold did not have in the autumn.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Oddevold training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexander Almqvist 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match17 Jul 2027
0‑4 to Malmo FF, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Market19 Jul 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 IF Elfsborg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match17 Jul 2027
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 9 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
IF Elfsborg offered $410.0K; Kalmar FF 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.
Market19 Jul 2027
Add another name to the list: IFK Mariehamn have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Rufai Mohammed. The answer from IF Elfsborg has not changed — yet.
Boardroom19 Jul 2027
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Melker Nilsson has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means IF Elfsborg have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sebastian Holmén, and the manager let it.
Boardroom19 Jul 2027
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
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 0‑4 defeat, delivered by Gustav Lindelof to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match10 Jul 2027
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 9 matches without defeat is a foundation IF Elfsborg did not have in the autumn.
Squad12 Jul 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 IF Elfsborg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Jul 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Rufai Mohammed and IF Elfsborg agree another 5 years.
Player ratings12 Jul 2027
Taylor Silverholt was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.23. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings12 Jul 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.05, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Arbër Zeneli, and the manager let it.
Match12 Jul 2027
Half the programme played, position 7, 20 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Match10 Jul 2027
A 2‑2 draw with Västerås SK leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
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 Rasmus Wikström is on it.
In brief
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The dugout
The form table has caught Simon Hedlund
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Looking ahead
IF Elfsborg take on the side everybody is chasing
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Jul 2027
A one-man rearguard from Theo Sander
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.
Match3 Jul 2027
Still nobody has beaten IF Elfsborg
The unbeaten run reaches 8. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Abdoulie Manneh is the division's best young player this month
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. IF Elfsborg will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Rufai Mohammed and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
Intake day at the IF Elfsborg academy
7 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout5 Jul 2027
“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 dugout5 Jul 2027
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The dugout5 Jul 2027
Simon Hedlund has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at IF Elfsborg 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Ciro Sanna has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market7 Jun 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Venezia people have started saying his name in the past tense.
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 Venezia can pretend not to have heard.
Market7 Jun 2027
The phone has started ringing about Akor Adams again, and this time the name on the line is LOSC Lille. Venezia are listening politely and promising nothing.
Market7 Jun 2027
“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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
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.
Squad7 Jun 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 Venezia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets7 Jun 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Antoine Hainaut commits to Venezia for another 4 years.