Marked for Emil Norman
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match23 Jun 2029
4‑1, and Abduljeleel Abdulateef took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Lyn tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Squad25 Jun 2029
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
The dugout25 Jun 2029
Emil Norman: 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.” Lyn have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Words exchanged at Lyn
Anders Bjørntvedt Olsen 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.
Player ratings25 Jun 2029
Marked 9.42 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad25 Jun 2029
A row about effort at Lyn
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Steve Mvoué was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces25 Jun 2029
He is 23 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.
Match23 Jun 2029
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Abduljeleel Abdulateef in the middle of it, and Egersund unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Player ratings25 Jun 2029
Mame Alassane Niang was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.25. 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market25 Dec 2028
Only the photograph left for Alfred Scriven
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alfred Scriven will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lyn the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad25 Dec 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lyn this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom25 Dec 2028
The numbers do not look good at Lyn
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Words at Lyn training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Isaac Barnett 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 dugout25 Dec 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Noah Jenssen Riise, and the manager let it.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Market25 Dec 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Lyn know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
Craig Farquhar 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 Lyn, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
The manager makes Emil Norman a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Lyn. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Dec 2028
Words exchanged at Lyn
Mame Alassane Niang 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 dugout11 Dec 2028
“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 dugout11 Dec 2028
Alfred Scriven 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 Alfred Scriven trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Words at Lyn training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Isaac Monglo 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 dugout11 Dec 2028
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Sander Amble Haugen is on it.
The dugout11 Dec 2028
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Market11 Dec 2028
The clock does Alfred Scriven’s negotiating for him
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Lyn could ask drops and the wages Alfred Scriven can ask rise.
Market11 Dec 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with William Sell’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Isaac Barnett has seen what the next man earns
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Lyn that is a harder question to answer.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout16 Oct 2028
“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.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Words exchanged at Lyn
William Sell 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 Oct 2028
Words at Lyn training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mads Orrhaug Larsen 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.
Market16 Oct 2028
“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 dugout16 Oct 2028
Nobody at Lyn 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.
Looking ahead16 Oct 2028
Hødd next, and one man in the Lyn dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The dugout16 Oct 2028
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Lyn, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market16 Oct 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Herman Solberg Nilsen’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market16 Oct 2028
Lyn have made Jacob Dicko Eng available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Oct 2028
Words exchanged at Lyn
Anders Bjørntvedt Olsen 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.
Match7 Oct 2028
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Vegard Strandberg to a room that had heard them before.
Market9 Oct 2028
“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 Oct 2028
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Mathias Johansen is on it.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
The manager makes an example of Emil Norman
“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 dugout9 Oct 2028
Ebrima Sawaneh dropped after a run of poor form
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.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 12. 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.
Market9 Oct 2028
The William Sell story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until William Sell signs something — a contract at Lyn or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout5 Jun 2028
This is not rotation. Brage Hylen has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Lyn is pretending otherwise.
Squad5 Jun 2028
A falling-out at Lyn
Anders Bjørntvedt Olsen and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match3 Jun 2028
Lyn get the job done against Raufoss
A 1‑0 win over Raufoss, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Boardroom5 Jun 2028
Wages swallow 117% of the Lyn income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Squad5 Jun 2028
“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; Lyn are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout5 Jun 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Isak Aron Sjong'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.
Squad5 Jun 2028
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 Jun 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.” Vegard Strandberg kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Market5 Jun 2028
“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.