Marked for Mason Stevens
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Mar 2035
Elias Mohammad damages knee ligaments — 32 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 32 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.
Boardroom26 Mar 2035
Pressure builds in the Sarpsborg 08 boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad26 Mar 2035
48 days out for Jens Hauge after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sarpsborg 08 will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market26 Mar 2035
Marko Brkić has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sarpsborg 08 they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market26 Mar 2035
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets26 Mar 2035
The deal with Brann 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.
Transfer targets26 Mar 2035
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.
Squad26 Mar 2035
Marius Cassidy 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.
Market26 Mar 2035
The phone has started ringing about César Fernández again, and this time the name on the line is Rosenborg. Sarpsborg 08 are listening politely and promising nothing.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Dec 2034
130 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sarpsborg 08 lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market18 Dec 2034
Michael Okeke 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 Sarpsborg 08 can pretend not to have heard.
Squad18 Dec 2034
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Matteo Gastaldello has just signed for Sarpsborg 08, and for once the answer mattered.
The dugout18 Dec 2034
“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.
Market18 Dec 2034
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sarpsborg 08 they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad18 Dec 2034
60 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad18 Dec 2034
Andreas Nibe 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 dugout18 Dec 2034
The manager has not finished forgetting Brice Seymour'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.
Market18 Dec 2034
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match23 Sep 2034
No end in sight to Sarpsborg 08's wait for a win
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Sarpsborg 08 has to find a result from somewhere.
Market25 Sep 2034
“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 Sarpsborg 08, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout25 Sep 2034
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sarpsborg 08 have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market25 Sep 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sarpsborg 08 is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad25 Sep 2034
William Glindtvad and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Sep 2034
Andreas Nibe 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 dugout25 Sep 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 Sep 2034
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Interim Coach chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout25 Sep 2034
Somebody else is better right now than Brice Seymour
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market11 Sep 2034
Briajan Gjyla has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sarpsborg 08 they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market11 Sep 2034
“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 Sarpsborg 08, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout11 Sep 2034
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Sarpsborg 08 may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad11 Sep 2034
A muscle injury sidelines Marius Cassidy for 14 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Sarpsborg 08 will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Boardroom11 Sep 2034
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Briajan Gjyla has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad11 Sep 2034
William Glindtvad 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.
Squad11 Sep 2034
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andreas Nibe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market11 Sep 2034
“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.
The dugout11 Sep 2034
Andreas Nibe gets picked when it counts
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 Andreas Nibe is on it.