Marked for Daniel Golovatic
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom1 Sep 2036
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Orebro
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market1 Sep 2036
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Orebro can pretend not to have heard.
Squad1 Sep 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 Orebro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets1 Sep 2036
Orebro asked and Malmo FF said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad1 Sep 2036
A row about effort at Orebro
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alvin Didriksson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market1 Sep 2036
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Orebro has been clear about where Daniel Golovatic stands, which is more than many ever get.
Squad1 Sep 2036
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Orebro will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The dugout1 Sep 2036
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Interim Coach was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Orebro dressing room was either.
Market1 Sep 2036
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market21 Jul 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 The request is on a desk at Orebro, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets21 Jul 2036
Everything agreed with Malmo FF, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad21 Jul 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 Orebro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets21 Jul 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.
Squad21 Jul 2036
Words at Orebro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alvin Didriksson 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.
Match19 Jul 2036
Three points for Orebro, 1‑0 the final word against IK Brage in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Market21 Jul 2036
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Vilhelm Gunnarsson has his answer from Orebro; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout21 Jul 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.
Player ratings21 Jul 2036
Marked 7.87 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Orebro had the best player on the pitch.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match24 May 2036
At last: Orebro win one
13 matches without a win, and then this, against Oddevold. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Market26 May 2036
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Orebro can pretend not to have heard.
Squad26 May 2036
Words at Orebro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alvin Didriksson 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.
Match24 May 2036
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Daniel Golovatic. 1‑0 against Oddevold, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout26 May 2036
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vilhelm Gunnarsson, and the manager let it.
Player ratings26 May 2036
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad26 May 2036
8 new faces, and Orebro are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Squad26 May 2036
Words exchanged at Orebro
Yosuke Endo 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 ratings26 May 2036
Marked 7.51 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Orebro had the best player on the pitch.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market24 Mar 2036
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Orebro can pretend not to have heard.
Market24 Mar 2036
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Orebro is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Squad24 Mar 2036
Words exchanged at Orebro
Eric Oteng 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.
Squad24 Mar 2036
Adam Paakkari 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.
Boardroom24 Mar 2036
Orebro are $25.6M in the red
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Transfer targets24 Mar 2036
A loan enquiry to Hammarby: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Market24 Mar 2036
“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.
Market24 Mar 2036
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Samuel Wikman signs something — a contract at Orebro or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market3 Dec 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Orebro is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad3 Dec 2035
A falling-out at Orebro
Tafiq Biao and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom3 Dec 2035
$648.1K of the owner's money at Orebro
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Squad3 Dec 2035
Alvin Didriksson 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.
Boardroom3 Dec 2035
The Orebro debt reaches $26.8M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Boardroom3 Dec 2035
Wages eat 108% of everything Orebro earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Market3 Dec 2035
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Orebro, another week without a signature from Jakob Rønningen.
Squad3 Dec 2035
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Daniel Golovatic has moved up it.
Squad3 Dec 2035
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom26 Nov 2035
Pressure builds in the Orebro boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market26 Nov 2035
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Orebro can pretend not to have heard.
Squad26 Nov 2035
Words exchanged at Orebro
Alvin Didriksson 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.
Boardroom26 Nov 2035
Orebro cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Squad26 Nov 2035
Jakob Rønningen 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 dugout26 Nov 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Connor Yedlin, and the manager let it.
Market26 Nov 2035
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Samuel Wikman’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout26 Nov 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.
Squad26 Nov 2035
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Orebro would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market19 Nov 2035
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jakob Rønningen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Orebro the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad19 Nov 2035
A move Daniel Golovatic would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Daniel Golovatic is living that version at Orebro, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market19 Nov 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 Orebro, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom19 Nov 2035
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Jakob Rønningen has agreed terms with IFK Goteborg for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad19 Nov 2035
Tempers go at Orebro
Tafiq Biao 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.
Squad19 Nov 2035
Words at Orebro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adam Paakkari 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.
Squad19 Nov 2035
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Market19 Nov 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.
The dugout19 Nov 2035
Gustav Rörstrand 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Jun 2035
A knee injury of the worst kind for Anton Lindelof
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Västerås SK lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market18 Jun 2035
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Viktor Svanberg will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Västerås SK the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad18 Jun 2035
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Västerås SK is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Squad18 Jun 2035
Words at Västerås SK training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Owen Eames 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.
Match16 Jun 2035
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout18 Jun 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.
Squad18 Jun 2035
Too much change too quickly at Västerås SK
8 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.
The dugout18 Jun 2035
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 Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
Player ratings18 Jun 2035
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad16 Apr 2035
A knee injury of the worst kind for Emil Lindelof
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Västerås SK lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market16 Apr 2035
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Västerås SK they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad16 Apr 2035
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Owen Eames was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad16 Apr 2035
Tex Jeppsson Bergqvist and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets16 Apr 2035
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Västerås SK will try again when the window opens; Brommapojkarna may not be selling by then.
Match14 Apr 2035
IF Elfsborg left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad16 Apr 2035
14 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout16 Apr 2035
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 Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout16 Apr 2035
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Västerås SK told Emmanuel Mensah something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom5 Mar 2035
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Boardroom5 Mar 2035
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Market5 Mar 2035
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Västerås SK can pretend not to have heard.
Market5 Mar 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Västerås SK is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad5 Mar 2035
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Owen Eames was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets5 Mar 2035
Västerås SK asked and Hammarby said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad5 Mar 2035
Tex Jeppsson Bergqvist 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 dugout5 Mar 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.
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
Uneasy
Squad25 Dec 2034
The knee: Elisha Owusu out for 70 days
70 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Västerås SK lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom25 Dec 2034
Pressure builds in the Västerås SK boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad25 Dec 2034
Albin Sporrong 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.
Squad25 Dec 2034
Words at Västerås SK training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcus Pettersson 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.
Squad25 Dec 2034
15 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout25 Dec 2034
“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 dugout25 Dec 2034
Albin Sporrong 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 Västerås SK, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market25 Dec 2034
Alexander Berge is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Västerås SK has been clear about where Alexander Berge stands, which is more than many ever get.
Market25 Dec 2034
The name of Lucas Sibelius keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Västerås SK say nothing, which says plenty.