Marked for Ware Peter Natana
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market29 Jan 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mjondalen can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout29 Jan 2029
“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.
The dugout29 Jan 2029
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Squad29 Jan 2029
Philip Sørlie Bro and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout29 Jan 2029
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.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Yassine Mohamed 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom8 Jan 2029
Bjorn Bjorkan has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Mjondalen can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom8 Jan 2029
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
The dugout8 Jan 2029
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Squad8 Jan 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Benjamin Sundo commits to Mjondalen for another 4 years.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Christian Mork Breivik 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.
The dugout8 Jan 2029
Tobias Flem gets it from the manager
“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 dugout8 Jan 2029
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Julian Faye Lund trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Words at Mjondalen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yassine Mohamed 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.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Mjondalen have no good answer.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market1 Jan 2029
“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 Mjondalen, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Words exchanged at Mjondalen
Markus Ottesen 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 dugout1 Jan 2029
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Squad1 Jan 2029
A row about effort at Mjondalen
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oliver Midtgård was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market1 Jan 2029
“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 dugout1 Jan 2029
Julian Faye Lund has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Mjondalen 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.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Christopher Kjensteberg, and the manager let it.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
Oliver Henriksen 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout11 Dec 2028
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad11 Dec 2028
Oliver Midtgård 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 dugout11 Dec 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tobias Flem, and the manager let it.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Words exchanged at Mjondalen
Philip Sørlie Bro 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.
Squad11 Dec 2028
A wage question at Mjondalen
Julian Faye Lund has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
Market11 Dec 2028
Mjondalen have made Ware Peter Natana available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market13 Nov 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mjondalen can pretend not to have heard.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Markus Ottesen and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
The dugout13 Nov 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Keerat Singh Mann, and the manager let it.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
Julian Faye Lund 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.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Words at Mjondalen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yassine Mohamed 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.
Squad13 Nov 2028
The table has started to be checked before the results are in, and that is always the tell. Nobody at Mjondalen says the word out loud, and everybody in the building is thinking it.
Boardroom13 Nov 2028
The Mjondalen production line keeps running
28 graduates out of an academy now rated 9 out of 20. Clubs this size survive on exactly that, and the town knows every name.
Squad13 Nov 2028
The language is coming and there is somebody to talk to in the dressing room. A footballer who feels at home plays like one, and it never shows up in a scouting report.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match14 Oct 2028
17 matches without a win for Mjondalen
The run now stands at 17, and the questions being asked around Mjondalen are no longer polite ones.
Match14 Oct 2028
0‑3 to Haugesund, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad16 Oct 2028
8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Market16 Oct 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mjondalen can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout16 Oct 2028
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad16 Oct 2028
Roy Warholm 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 dugout16 Oct 2028
Roy Warholm gets it from the manager
“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.
Boardroom16 Oct 2028
Nobody left the Mjondalen dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout16 Oct 2028
John Kitolano is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match16 Sep 2028
13 matches without a win for Mjondalen
The run now stands at 13, and the questions being asked around Mjondalen are no longer polite ones.
Market18 Sep 2028
“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 Mjondalen, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad18 Sep 2028
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Olav Veum in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mjondalen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout18 Sep 2028
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Match16 Sep 2028
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Looking ahead18 Sep 2028
Both clubs in the mire, one fixture between them, and a ground that will be louder and more frightened than at any point in the season. Mjondalen know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.
The dugout18 Sep 2028
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Oliver Henriksen will call it something else in private.
The dugout18 Sep 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Bjorn Bjorkan left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Aug 2028
9 matches without a win for Mjondalen
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Mjondalen are no longer polite ones.
Market21 Aug 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mjondalen can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets21 Aug 2028
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Mjondalen have done the hard part with Bodo/Glimt, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
A defender's goal wins it for Mjondalen — 7.71
1 for Benjamin Sundo, marked 7.71, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Boardroom21 Aug 2028
Deadline passes with 12 signed and 10 gone
That is the business done at Mjondalen until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Olav Veum and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout21 Aug 2028
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Transfer targets21 Aug 2028
Mjondalen asked and Rosenborg said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match19 Aug 2028
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.