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 Erik Botheim is on it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Viking, another week without a signature from Jakob Segadal Hansen.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Viking know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Anders Bærtelsen has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
Ruben Alte 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.
29 games, 8 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Viking now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Jakob Segadal Hansen is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
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.
7 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.
Nobody at Viking 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Viking this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
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 needed Amin Chiakha to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Tromso, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Martin Singh was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Viking dressing room was either.
Ruben Alte 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Viking is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Valerenga scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
“I watch every Viking game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Kongsvinger runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad6 Nov 2028
A place in the month's best eleven for Erik Botheim
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Erik Botheim has come out of that comparison in the side, and Viking have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
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 needed Simen Kvia-Egeskog to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Valerenga, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
5 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Viking this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
Erik Botheim was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.10. 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.
“I did not go to Kongsvinger to sit and watch. I want to come back to Viking and fight for my place.” 9 appearances in 29 matches say the rest.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 Martin Singh left the room before anybody could ask which.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Igor Gosik will call it something else in private.
“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 Viking, and it is not being withdrawn.
Ruben Alte 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amin Chiakha was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Kristoffer Askildsen is on it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Viking, another week without a signature from Igor Gosik.
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.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mame Alassane Niang. 1‑0 against Ranheim, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Vegard Strandberg on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Craig Farquhar
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Alexander Pedersen's mistake
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lyn lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Egersund will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Lyn were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Boardroom21 Aug 2028
Lyn close the window on a squad of their own making
14 in and 8 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
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.
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.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
Mads Bomholt was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.33. 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.
Marked 8.27 — 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lyn can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Stabaek will make the call about Isaac Barnett this week. Lyn have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
The dugout31 Jul 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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Vegard Strandberg to a room that had heard them before.
Something was said to Brage Hylen and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“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 Lyn, 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 Lyn this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 22 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Vegard Strandberg on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Something was said to Jacob Dicko Eng and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Alexander Pedersen's mistake
SquadWords at Lyn training over how hard people work
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lyn they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
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.
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.
Anders Bjørntvedt Olsen 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alfred Scriven 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 makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Lyn will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Alfred Scriven’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Lyn needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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.
“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.
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.
Mame Alassane Niang 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 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 22 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.
8.13. 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.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Vegard Strandberg after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Lyn told Janus Seehusen something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. William Da Rocha 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.
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.
“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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lyn can pretend not to have heard.
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.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Niklas Fuglestad. 2‑1 against Kongsvinger, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
“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 Viking, and it is not being withdrawn.
Zlatko Tripic 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Viking, and 3 appearances in 11 say he has earned the hearing.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Martin Singh on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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 is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Viking told Viljar Vevatne something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lyn lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“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 dugout17 Apr 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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Vegard Strandberg to a room that had heard them before.
He is going to Malmo FF, the club has $6.4M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Zlatko Tripic 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. Viking told Henrik Bjørdal something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“I watch every Viking game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Lyn runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
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 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.
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 Aron Bjonbäck is on it.
Words at FF Jaro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ville Vuorinen 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.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at FF Jaro has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Nobody at FF Jaro 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Emmanuel Mendy signs something — a contract at FF Jaro or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“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 FF Jaro, and it is not being withdrawn.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Emmanuel Obuobi has just signed for FF Jaro, and for once the answer mattered.
Giacomo Pavanello is 20, and FF Jaro have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Aron Bjonbäck 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 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.
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.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” FF Jaro have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
“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 FF Jaro, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” FF Jaro have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Emmanuel Mendy trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at FF Jaro the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Gustav Broman’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FF Jaro can pretend not to have heard.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Luton Town have kept their man, and FF Jaro go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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. FF Jaro will try very hard not to make too much of it.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Rudi Vikström has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
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 Fabian Østigård Ness 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 FF Jaro, and it is not being withdrawn.
Aron Bjonbäck 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.
Haka left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at FF Jaro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michael Ogungbaro 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Niklas Fuglestad'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.
Niklas Fuglestad, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.29
A mark of 8.29 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Mouhamed Guèye scored, was marked 7.48, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 8 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
FF Jaro had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Magdeburg, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
A season average of 7.03 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. FF Jaro know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
FF Jaro asked and Sturm Graz said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.91, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
A brace, and Calvin Kabuye takes the afternoon — 8.63
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Calvin Kabuye provided it, and the 8.63 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The deal with Magdeburg is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
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.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and IF Gnistan were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FF Jaro can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kaius Hardén will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FF Jaro the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Kaius Hardén has agreed terms with HJK for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“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 FF Jaro, and 4 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
In brief
Player ratingsMats Pedersen was on a different afternoon to everybody else
SquadNiklas Fuglestad is the division's best young player this month
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Niklas Fuglestad did not need any: 8.45, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
7.93, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Player ratings14 Jun 2027
Up for the corner, and Mats Pedersen delivers — 7.85
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Mats Pedersen scored, was marked 7.85, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
He is 22 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. FF Jaro told Niklas Fuglestad something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 4‑1, Atte Kamara could afford to be generous.
In brief
Player ratings3 assists and not a goal for Emmanuel Mendy
The dugoutGustav Broman knocks on the manager’s door
1 for Mouhamed Guèye, marked 7.77, 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jesper Svenungsen Skau and FF Jaro agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Mats Pedersen 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jim Myrevik, and the manager let it.
The dugout24 May 2027
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.” Atte Kamara, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at FF Jaro, another week without a signature from Gustav Broman.
The dugout3 May 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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Atte Kamara to a room that had heard them before.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and FF Jaro will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at FF Jaro, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
10 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.” FF Jaro have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Level with 87 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon FF Jaro had all but put away. VPS will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.82 for the rest of it.
The goal that put Inter Turku ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when FF Jaro equalised, 1 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
The dugout19 Apr 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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Atte Kamara to a room that had heard them before.
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.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, FF Jaro have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
“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 FF Jaro, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 2 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Mouhamed Guèye 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.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and FF Jaro know it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Arzignano have kept their man, and FF Jaro go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at FF Jaro, another week without a signature from Kaius Hardén.
“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.
Boardroom5 Apr 2027
Viking close the window on a squad of their own making
8 in and 7 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Zlatko Tripic 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Fylkir will make the call about Abduljeleel Abdulateef this week. Viking have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
“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 Viking, and it is not being withdrawn.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Nobody at Viking 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. Viking know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jakob Segadal Hansen trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Martin Ove Roseth plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Viking can pretend not to have heard.
Position 2, 31 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Fylkir waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Viking is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Viking 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.
Viking offered $85.0K; Rosenborg 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.
“I watch every Viking game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Vikingur runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Viking know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Viking, another week without a signature from Jakob Segadal Hansen.
6 goals in 21 games at Brisbane Roar — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Viking updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Abduljeleel Abdulateef had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Viking offered $76.0K; Hødd 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.
The phone has started ringing about Niklas Fuglestad again, and this time the name on the line is Fylkir. Viking are listening politely and promising nothing.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Henrik Heggheim trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Viking has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Viking will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Add another name to the list: IFK Värnamo have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Niklas Jensen Wassberg. The answer from Viking has not changed — yet.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Niklas Jensen Wassberg from Brann for $2.6M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ole Svensson 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Viking can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Viking will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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.
He is going to KFUM Oslo, the club has $2.9M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Sandefjord did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $2.2M for Evangelos Patoulidis, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
The offer went to Odd 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.
Viking have gone to Odd 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.
Zlatko Tripic 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.
Viking offered $65.0K; Tromso 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.