Marked for Jacob Middelthon
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings11 Sep 2028
Defensive actions: 34, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Match9 Sep 2028
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Lillestrom, and it could have been more.
Squad11 Sep 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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Tempers go at Viking
Henrik Falchener 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.
Player ratings11 Sep 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.61, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match9 Sep 2028
6 unbeaten for Viking
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Viking did not have in the autumn.
Player ratings11 Sep 2028
Marked 9.18 — 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.
Player ratings11 Sep 2028
Marked 9.00 — 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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
8 goals and a season average of 7.38. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Aug 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad7 Aug 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.
Market7 Aug 2028
Franco Lino 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 Viking can pretend not to have heard.
Squad7 Aug 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 Viking this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings7 Aug 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.12, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad7 Aug 2028
77 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Market7 Aug 2028
The Gustav Nyheim conversation is coming
Everyone has stopped pretending: IA will make the call about Gustav Nyheim this week. Viking have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad7 Aug 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Martin Ove Roseth and Viking agree another 3 years.
Match5 Aug 2028
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market10 Jul 2028
Only the photograph left for Viljar Vevatne
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Viljar Vevatne will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Viking the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad10 Jul 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 Viking this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Jul 2028
The medical room confirms 109 days on the sidelines for Jacob Middelthon, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Match8 Jul 2028
A bad afternoon for Viking against Odd
1‑2 to Odd, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad10 Jul 2028
“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 ratings10 Jul 2028
Marked 8.55 — 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.
The terraces10 Jul 2028
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Player ratings10 Jul 2028
Shots: 6, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
Player ratings10 Jul 2028
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.