The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 10 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Position 14 and 10 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” IK Start have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The deal with Bayern Munich 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.
8 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.
8 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at IK Start can tell you which week it ends in.
“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 The request is on a desk at IK Start, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around IK Start people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Jacob Pryts 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 now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Braga have kept their man, and IK Start go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad29 Jul 2030
Altin Ujkani 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.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Jacob Pryts 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Francesco Ferri after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jakob Berhus was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Magnus Fagervik Antonsen has his answer from IK Start; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
13 combined actions and 6.90. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Not an interim appointment — an institution with an empty coaching office. Somebody unfamiliar will run the sessions this week, and the question of how a club gets into this state is one the board will be asked and will not answer.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around IK Start they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Interim Coach recited it perfectly.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 6 arrived, 9 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
IK Start had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Tottenham, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Mjondalen moved on, Thom Markus Tesdal reports back to IK Start, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at IK Start this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Terry Benjamin will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around IK Start the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Squad1 Apr 2030
Words at IK Start training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Altin Ujkani 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Sandefjord waiting with a shirt. Nobody at IK Start is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 IK Start, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. IK Start have done the hard part with Liverpool, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Eirik Schulze 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.
IK Start asked and Ajax said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Altin Ujkani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Olympique de Marseille have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Nobody at IK Start 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.
In brief
The dugoutGaute Vetti knocks on the manager’s door
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around IK Start people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at IK Start is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at IK Start this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Squad11 Mar 2030
Altin Ujkani 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Sandefjord waiting with a shirt. Nobody at IK Start is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Eirik Schulze 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 now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Paris Saint-Germain have kept their man, and IK Start go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
IK Start have made the call to Young Boys. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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 Steve Mvoué is on it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gaute Vetti 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 Markus Soomets is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Daniel Johan Skaarud signs something — a contract at IK Start or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Thom Markus Tesdal trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Position 11, 30 points, safe from one end and out of reach of the other. The last weeks are about next season now, and the team sheet has started saying so.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at IK Start this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gaute Vetti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Thom Markus Tesdal and IK Start agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Nobody at IK Start 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 Steve Mvoué signs something — a contract at IK Start or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
5 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee IK Start could ask drops and the wages Eirik Schulze can ask rise.
What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. IK Start would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.
“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 IK Start, and it is not being withdrawn.
Eirik Schulze 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” John Olav Norheim and IK Start agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Dec 2029
Gaute Vetti 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.
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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jesper Cornelius signs something — a contract at IK Start or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
23 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. IK Start lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what IK Start can pretend not to have heard.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at IK Start this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Gaute Vetti 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.
Marked 8.24 — 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.