Marked for David Katlego
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Apr 2036
Oscar Sjöstrand damages knee ligaments — 78 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 78 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.
Player ratings14 Apr 2036
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Gabriel Fjellstad Olsen scored, was marked 7.17, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Boardroom14 Apr 2036
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Rasmus Eggen Vinge has agreed terms with Sandefjord for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Market14 Apr 2036
Only the photograph left for Rudy Boulais
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rudy Boulais will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sogndal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match12 Apr 2036
Sogndal are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Boardroom14 Apr 2036
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Transfer targets14 Apr 2036
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Valerenga have kept their man, and Sogndal go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match12 Apr 2036
Molde left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Transfer targets14 Apr 2036
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Sogndal will try again when the window opens; Brann may not be selling by then.
In brief
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Market
Frederic Flatz is free to find somewhere else
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The dugout
David Katlego gets it from the manager
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 Mar 2036
Oscar Sjöstrand damages knee ligaments — 92 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 92 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.
Market31 Mar 2036
Only the photograph left for Sabbath Mancha
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sabbath Mancha will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sogndal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market31 Mar 2036
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market31 Mar 2036
“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.
Transfer targets31 Mar 2036
Sogndal had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Molde, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Transfer targets31 Mar 2036
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Brann have kept their man, and Sogndal go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad31 Mar 2036
A row about effort at Sogndal
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Katlego was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market31 Mar 2036
Add another name to the list: Sarpsborg 08 have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Gabriel Kerckaert. The answer from Sogndal has not changed — yet.
Squad31 Mar 2036
Sefa Agyeman 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 Sogndal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Mar 2036
A knee injury of the worst kind for Oscar Sjöstrand
99 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sogndal lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market24 Mar 2036
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Sandefjord had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market24 Mar 2036
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Sogndal have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market24 Mar 2036
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sogndal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets24 Mar 2036
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Sogndal have done the hard part with Molde, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Market24 Mar 2036
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets24 Mar 2036
$72.0K on the table at Haugesund. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad24 Mar 2036
Words exchanged at Sogndal
Yusuf Faghir 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.
Transfer targets24 Mar 2036
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Mar 2036
106 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sogndal lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market17 Mar 2036
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Sogndal have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market17 Mar 2036
Rudy Boulais 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 Sogndal can pretend not to have heard.
Market17 Mar 2036
Sogndal say no — this time
The offer from Kristiansund for Marcus Eskildsen 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.
Market17 Mar 2036
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sogndal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets17 Mar 2036
Sogndal have gone to Brann with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Transfer targets17 Mar 2036
No deal for Luca Høyland at that price
Sogndal offered $320.0K; Brann 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.
Squad17 Mar 2036
Words exchanged at Sogndal
David Katlego 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 Mar 2036
A row about effort at Sogndal
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yusuf Faghir was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Mar 2036
Oscar Sjöstrand damages knee ligaments — 120 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 120 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.
Market3 Mar 2036
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Stabaek waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Sogndal is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market3 Mar 2036
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sogndal is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market3 Mar 2036
“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.
Transfer targets3 Mar 2036
$320.0K on the table at Brann. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Market3 Mar 2036
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Rudy Boulais reports back to Sogndal with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Transfer targets3 Mar 2036
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Brann have kept their man, and Sogndal go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad3 Mar 2036
A row about effort at Sogndal
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Katlego was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad3 Mar 2036
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Patrick Hauge and Sogndal agree another 4 years.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market25 Feb 2036
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Hødd waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Sogndal is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market25 Feb 2036
“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.
Market25 Feb 2036
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market25 Feb 2036
The name of Sverre Fauskanger-Lindberg has come up in conversations Sogndal were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad25 Feb 2036
Words at Sogndal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yusuf Faghir 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.
Transfer targets25 Feb 2036
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Brann have kept their man, and Sogndal go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad25 Feb 2036
Elias Tenden 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 Sogndal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout25 Feb 2036
“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 dugout25 Feb 2036
Morten Bohinen is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market11 Feb 2036
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Sogndal have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market11 Feb 2036
Sandefjord come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Sogndal did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad11 Feb 2036
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sogndal will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market11 Feb 2036
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sogndal is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market11 Feb 2036
“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.
Transfer targets11 Feb 2036
Sogndal have gone to Brann with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad11 Feb 2036
Words at Sogndal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Katlego 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.
Squad11 Feb 2036
A falling-out at Sogndal
Gabriel Kerckaert and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets11 Feb 2036
A loan move for Thom Veenbergen is in the works
Sogndal have made the call to Valerenga. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Feb 2036
Thomas Selnaes damages knee ligaments — 16 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 16 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.
Market4 Feb 2036
“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.
Squad4 Feb 2036
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 27 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market4 Feb 2036
Sabbath Mancha has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sogndal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market4 Feb 2036
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Sogndal people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market4 Feb 2036
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Sogndal have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Boardroom4 Feb 2036
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Sabbath Mancha has agreed terms with Ranheim for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad4 Feb 2036
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.
Transfer targets4 Feb 2036
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. VfL Bochum have kept their man, and Sogndal go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Jan 2036
Thomas Selnaes damages knee ligaments — 23 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
Squad28 Jan 2036
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sogndal will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market28 Jan 2036
Marcel Schmid has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sogndal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad28 Jan 2036
Words exchanged at Sogndal
Yusuf Faghir 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.
Squad28 Jan 2036
A row about effort at Sogndal
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Katlego was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout28 Jan 2036
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jassim Djelloul, and the manager let it.
The dugout28 Jan 2036
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.
Market28 Jan 2036
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Yusuf Faghir’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market28 Jan 2036
The clock does Jassim Djelloul’s negotiating for him
6 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Sogndal could ask drops and the wages Jassim Djelloul can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Jan 2036
A knee injury of the worst kind for Thomas Selnaes
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sogndal lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad21 Jan 2036
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 41 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market21 Jan 2036
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marcus Eskildsen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sogndal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad21 Jan 2036
A falling-out at Sogndal
Yusuf Faghir and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Jan 2036
Words at Sogndal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Katlego 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 dugout21 Jan 2036
“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 dugout21 Jan 2036
David Katlego 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 Sogndal, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout21 Jan 2036
Jan Adžić is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Market21 Jan 2036
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Lūkass Vapne’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
In brief
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Market
The clock does Elias Tenden’s negotiating for him
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Match
Continental football is in reach for Sogndal
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Boardroom
The Sogndal academy earns its keep
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Jan 2036
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sogndal will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market14 Jan 2036
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sogndal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad14 Jan 2036
Words exchanged at Sogndal
Elias Tenden 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.
Squad14 Jan 2036
Vegard Lien pulls a muscle — 14 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
The dugout14 Jan 2036
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Squad14 Jan 2036
A row about effort at Sogndal
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Morgan Corredor was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market14 Jan 2036
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Sogndal, another week without a signature from Sverre Fauskanger-Lindberg.
The dugout14 Jan 2036
David Katlego 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 David Katlego trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout14 Jan 2036
The manager makes an example of Marcel Schmid
“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
Steady
Squad7 Jan 2036
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 55 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market7 Jan 2036
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sogndal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad7 Jan 2036
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Lūkass Vapne commits to Sogndal for another 2 years.
Squad7 Jan 2036
Words at Sogndal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Katlego 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.
Squad7 Jan 2036
Words exchanged at Sogndal
Frederik Norgaard 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 dugout7 Jan 2036
Oscar Sjöstrand has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Sogndal 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.
Market7 Jan 2036
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Sogndal, another week without a signature from Elias Tenden.
Market7 Jan 2036
Experience through the door at Sogndal
Zak Vyner arrives at 38 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
The dugout7 Jan 2036
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lukas Aertbeliën trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 Dec 2035
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 62 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market31 Dec 2035
Only the photograph left for Marcel Schmid
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marcel Schmid will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sogndal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad31 Dec 2035
David Katlego 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.
Squad31 Dec 2035
Gabriel Kerckaert 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 dugout31 Dec 2035
The manager has not finished forgetting Morten Bohinen'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.
Market31 Dec 2035
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Yusuf Faghir’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout31 Dec 2035
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 David Katlego has written the date down.
Market31 Dec 2035
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout31 Dec 2035
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sogndal, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Dec 2035
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 69 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market24 Dec 2035
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marcus Eskildsen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sogndal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad24 Dec 2035
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 34 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Sogndal is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Squad24 Dec 2035
32 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad24 Dec 2035
Elias Tenden 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 dugout24 Dec 2035
The manager has not finished forgetting Jan Adžić'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.
Market24 Dec 2035
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Lūkass Vapne’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout24 Dec 2035
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.
The dugout24 Dec 2035
Thomas Karaberis 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.
In brief
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Market
The clock does Elias Tenden’s negotiating for him
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Boardroom
The Sogndal academy earns its keep
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Dec 2035
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sogndal will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market17 Dec 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sogndal is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad17 Dec 2035
A row about effort at Sogndal
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Katlego was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad17 Dec 2035
A falling-out at Sogndal
Gabriel Kerckaert and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout17 Dec 2035
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.
Market17 Dec 2035
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Christoph Hinteregger has his answer from Sogndal; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Market17 Dec 2035
1 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Sogndal could get for him.
The dugout17 Dec 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marcus Riise, and the manager let it.
Market17 Dec 2035
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Oscar Sjöstrand signs something — a contract at Sogndal or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Dec 2035
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sogndal will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout10 Dec 2035
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Sogndal may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market10 Dec 2035
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rasmus Eggen Vinge will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sogndal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad10 Dec 2035
Yusuf Faghir 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.
Squad10 Dec 2035
A row about effort at Sogndal
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Katlego was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout10 Dec 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sverre Fauskanger-Lindberg, and the manager let it.
Squad10 Dec 2035
24 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout10 Dec 2035
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.
Market10 Dec 2035
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Sogndal, another week without a signature from Uran Bislimi.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Nov 2035
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sogndal will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market26 Nov 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sogndal is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad26 Nov 2035
A falling-out at Sogndal
Yusuf Faghir and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Nov 2035
A row about effort at Sogndal
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Katlego was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad26 Nov 2035
60 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout26 Nov 2035
Sabbath Mancha 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.
The dugout26 Nov 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Morgan Corredor, and the manager let it.
The dugout26 Nov 2035
Jan Adžić is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Market26 Nov 2035
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Lūkass Vapne’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Nov 2035
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 104 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout19 Nov 2035
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Sogndal may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market19 Nov 2035
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sogndal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad19 Nov 2035
Words exchanged at Sogndal
Uran Bislimi 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.
Squad19 Nov 2035
David Katlego 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 dugout19 Nov 2035
The manager makes an example of Jassim Djelloul
“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 dugout19 Nov 2035
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.
The dugout19 Nov 2035
Frederic Flatz 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.
Market19 Nov 2035
1 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Sogndal could get for him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Oct 2035
A knee injury of the worst kind for Birger Strandberg
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sogndal lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market15 Oct 2035
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rasmus Eggen Vinge will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sogndal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad15 Oct 2035
Yusuf Faghir 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.
Squad15 Oct 2035
Oscar Sjöstrand 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 dugout15 Oct 2035
Oscar Sjöstrand has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Sogndal 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 dugout15 Oct 2035
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 dugout15 Oct 2035
David Katlego 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 Sogndal, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market15 Oct 2035
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Marcus Eskildsen has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Sogndal.
The dugout15 Oct 2035
No hiding place for Jan Adžić
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jan Adžić, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Oct 2035
Birger Strandberg damages knee ligaments — 35 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 35 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 dugout1 Oct 2035
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Sogndal may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad1 Oct 2035
A muscle injury sidelines Frederic Flatz for 15 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Sogndal will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Market1 Oct 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sogndal is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad1 Oct 2035
A falling-out at Sogndal
Yusuf Faghir and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match29 Sep 2035
A 3‑1 win over Haugesund, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout1 Oct 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to David Katlego, and the manager let it.
Squad1 Oct 2035
Words at Sogndal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Fjellstad Olsen 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.
Player ratings1 Oct 2035
The afternoon belonged to Sam Forsman
A mark of 7.87, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market13 Aug 2035
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Molde waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Sogndal is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market13 Aug 2035
“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 dugout13 Aug 2035
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Transfer targets13 Aug 2035
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Sogndal have done the hard part with Brann, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Market13 Aug 2035
Hødd come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Sogndal did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets13 Aug 2035
$77.0K on the table at Haugesund. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad13 Aug 2035
Words at Sogndal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oscar Sjöstrand 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.
Transfer targets13 Aug 2035
Sogndal asked and Brann said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Loan watch13 Aug 2035
“I did not go to Moss to sit and watch. I want to come back to Sogndal and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 18 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market9 Jul 2035
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sogndal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad9 Jul 2035
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” David Katlego and Sogndal agree another 4 years.
Squad9 Jul 2035
David Katlego 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.
Squad9 Jul 2035
Uran Bislimi 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 dugout9 Jul 2035
“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.
Player ratings9 Jul 2035
Marked 7.19 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Sogndal had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout9 Jul 2035
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.
Market9 Jul 2035
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout9 Jul 2035
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Interim Coach after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings2 Jul 2035
A brace, and Jassim Djelloul takes the afternoon — 8.99
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jassim Djelloul provided it, and the 8.99 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad2 Jul 2035
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.
Market2 Jul 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sogndal is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad2 Jul 2035
A falling-out at Sogndal
Yusuf Faghir and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Jul 2035
A row about effort at Sogndal
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oscar Sjöstrand was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad2 Jul 2035
“The easiest signature of my career.” David Katlego and Sogndal agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match30 Jun 2035
It finished 2‑0, and it was Jassim Djelloul’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Sogndal.
The dugout2 Jul 2035
“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.
Market2 Jul 2035
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market26 Mar 2035
“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.
Market26 Mar 2035
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Sogndal have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market26 Mar 2035
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sogndal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets26 Mar 2035
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Brann is saying, and nobody at Sogndal is enjoying the guessing.
Transfer targets26 Mar 2035
Brann wanted more than $330.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Transfer targets26 Mar 2035
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.
Squad26 Mar 2035
A row about effort at Sogndal
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yusuf Faghir was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad26 Mar 2035
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.
Transfer targets26 Mar 2035
Valerenga have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market5 Mar 2035
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Sogndal people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market5 Mar 2035
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sogndal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets5 Mar 2035
$320.0K on the table at Brann. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets5 Mar 2035
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Brann have kept their man, and Sogndal go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad5 Mar 2035
Words at Sogndal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yusuf Faghir 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.
Market5 Mar 2035
The name of Gabriel Kerckaert has come up in conversations Sogndal were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The dugout5 Mar 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Uran Bislimi, and the manager let it.
Squad5 Mar 2035
A falling-out at Sogndal
David Katlego and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market5 Mar 2035
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 Jul 2034
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sogndal lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market31 Jul 2034
“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.
Transfer targets31 Jul 2034
Failed medical for Ole Hauge
The deal with Valerenga died in the treatment room. Nobody will say what was found and everybody in the game will find out by Friday.
Market31 Jul 2034
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tomáš Schořovský will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sogndal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets31 Jul 2034
$320.0K was the most the club would pay and Brann 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.
Squad31 Jul 2034
A falling-out at Sogndal
Frederic Flatz and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 Jul 2034
A row about effort at Sogndal
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oscar Sjöstrand was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout31 Jul 2034
The manager has not finished forgetting Lūkass Vapne'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.
Transfer targets31 Jul 2034
A loan move for Emil Hillestad is in the works
Sogndal have made the call to Brann. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Jun 2034
A fracture rules Nemanja Čelić out for 53 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sogndal will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market12 Jun 2034
“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 dugout12 Jun 2034
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad12 Jun 2034
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.
Squad12 Jun 2034
Words at Sogndal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oscar Sjöstrand 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.
Match10 Jun 2034
Yusuf Faghir scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Lillestrom, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Player ratings12 Jun 2034
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad12 Jun 2034
25 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout12 Jun 2034
The manager makes an example of Ognjen Markovic
“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.