Marked for Abdinasir Abdullahi
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Oct 2027
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Aalborg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Aalborg may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market11 Oct 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad11 Oct 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Aalborg know it.
Squad11 Oct 2027
A row about effort at Aalborg
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mathijs Tielemans was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words exchanged at Aalborg
Marc Nielsen 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.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Alexander Håpnes'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.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
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.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
Matteo Dagasso 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad4 Oct 2027
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Aalborg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market4 Oct 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
“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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Benjamin Tiedemann Hansen and Aalborg agree another 2 years.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Aalborg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pedro Ganchas 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.
Match2 Oct 2027
AGF take the points off Aalborg
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Valdemar Møller 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.
Match4 Oct 2027
The half-term report on Aalborg
Position 9, 10 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad27 Sep 2027
The words a physio says slowly. 37 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.
Market27 Sep 2027
Joacim Holtan 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 Aalborg can pretend not to have heard.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Pedro Ganchas 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
A row about effort at Aalborg
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alex Timossi Andersson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match25 Sep 2027
1‑2 to FC Copenhagen, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
“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 dugout27 Sep 2027
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Erik Norgaard to a room that had heard them before.
Looking ahead27 Sep 2027
A test against the best for Aalborg
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against AGF.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
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.