Marked for August Risbråthe
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Loan watch28 Jun 2027
24 goals in 43 games at Notts County — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Sarpsborg 08 updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Mamour N'Diaye is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Match26 Jun 2027
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Sarpsborg 08 have 3 straight wins of it.
Market28 Jun 2027
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Sarpsborg 08 will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Match26 Jun 2027
IK Start made Sarpsborg 08 work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
The manager makes an example of Lasse Qvigstad
“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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
August Risbråthe 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 ratings28 Jun 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.42 on the card, and the Sarpsborg 08 support went home talking about one name.
The dugout28 Jun 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.” Morten Elyounoussi, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Jun 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Martin Bakkenget is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Sarpsborg 08 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Victor Halvorsen 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 Jun 2027
Tromso made Sarpsborg 08 work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad21 Jun 2027
August Risbråthe and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings21 Jun 2027
Marked 7.82 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Sarpsborg 08 had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Morten Elyounoussi could afford to be generous.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
“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 Jun 2027
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market21 Jun 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sarpsborg 08 know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Loan watch15 Mar 2027
38 appearances at Notts County and the goals keep coming. Sarpsborg 08 are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Market15 Mar 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sarpsborg 08 can pretend not to have heard.
Market15 Mar 2027
Noa Williams has left for Sandefjord in a $2.2M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad15 Mar 2027
“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; Sarpsborg 08 are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Transfer targets15 Mar 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. CSKA Moscow have kept their man, and Sarpsborg 08 go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad15 Mar 2027
37 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Andreas Nibe
“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.
Transfer targets15 Mar 2027
A loan enquiry to Remo Stars: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.