Marked for Marton Bese
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match4 Sep 2032
Nobody wins at Molde
29 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Match4 Sep 2032
Whatever happens, Molde do not lose
16 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Match6 Sep 2032
Molde up to position 2
45 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad6 Sep 2032
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad6 Sep 2032
Marton Bese: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Molde have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad6 Sep 2032
443 appearances across 11 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Molde know what they have.
Market6 Sep 2032
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Molde they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match4 Sep 2032
No end in sight to Molde's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Molde has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad6 Sep 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Molde this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match14 Aug 2032
Whatever happens, Molde do not lose
13 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Market16 Aug 2032
Marton Bese 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 Molde can pretend not to have heard.
Market16 Aug 2032
Only the photograph left for Isak Määttä
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Isak Määttä will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Molde the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings16 Aug 2032
Up for the corner, and Brice Ambina delivers — 7.88
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Brice Ambina scored, was marked 7.88, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Player ratings16 Aug 2032
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad16 Aug 2032
Tempers go at Molde
Vladislav Blănuţă 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.
Market16 Aug 2032
The name of Rasmus Wiedesheim-Paul has come up in conversations Molde were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Market16 Aug 2032
Stromsgodset are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Molde will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad16 Aug 2032
Words at Molde training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Birk Risa 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match17 Jul 2032
The run at home goes on for Molde
26 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Match14 Jul 2032
Cup progress for Molde
A 1‑0 win over Haugesund, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match14 Jul 2032
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Molde scored in the 105th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Player ratings19 Jul 2032
A brace, and Samukele Kabini takes the afternoon — 8.41
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Samukele Kabini provided it, and the 8.41 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market19 Jul 2032
Only the photograph left for Isak Määttä
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Isak Määttä will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Molde the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market19 Jul 2032
Molde say no — this time
The offer from Stromsgodset for Markus Wæhler was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market19 Jul 2032
Add another name to the list: Odd have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Noah Sahsah. The answer from Molde has not changed — yet.
Match17 Jul 2032
Still nobody has beaten Molde
The unbeaten run reaches 9. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Player ratings19 Jul 2032
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
In brief
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Squad
Tempers go at Molde
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Squad
Words at Molde training over how hard people work
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Match
Molde see off Tromso
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match12 Jul 2032
Molde are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 31 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market12 Jul 2032
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Molde is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market12 Jul 2032
“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.
Squad12 Jul 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Molde this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match10 Jul 2032
Whatever happens, Molde do not lose
7 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad12 Jul 2032
Birk Risa 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.
Squad12 Jul 2032
“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.
Squad12 Jul 2032
“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 Molde know it.
Player ratings12 Jul 2032
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market28 Jun 2032
“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.
Match26 Jun 2032
Molde win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 93th minute. Lillestrom will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Match26 Jun 2032
Molde make it 5 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Molde have 5 straight wins of it.
Market28 Jun 2032
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jasper Torkildsen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Molde the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad28 Jun 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Molde this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Jun 2032
Birk Risa 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.
Match26 Jun 2032
It finished 2‑1, and it was Noah Sahsah’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Molde.
Match26 Jun 2032
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Molde. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Squad28 Jun 2032
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Halldor Stenevik, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market30 Dec 2030
“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.
Squad30 Dec 2030
Zsolt Varga 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.
Squad30 Dec 2030
Words at Haladas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gábor Szalai 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.
Boardroom30 Dec 2030
Wages eat 85% of everything Haladas earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad30 Dec 2030
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.
Squad30 Dec 2030
Marton Nagy knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Haladas, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market25 Nov 2030
“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 Haladas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market25 Nov 2030
Hernán Taborda has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Haladas they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match23 Nov 2030
Nobody wins at Haladas
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad25 Nov 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Haladas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Nov 2030
Gábor Szalai 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.
Player ratings25 Nov 2030
Dominik Sallai was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.07. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Match23 Nov 2030
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad25 Nov 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Attila Szoboszlai and Haladas agree another 3 years.
Squad25 Nov 2030
Marton Nagy left out for the big one
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Marton Nagy will call it something else in private.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match16 Nov 2030
Haladas win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 92th minute. Diosgyor will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Market18 Nov 2030
Only the photograph left for Istvan Szalai
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Istvan Szalai will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Haladas the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market18 Nov 2030
“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 Haladas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match16 Nov 2030
Haladas cannot stop winning
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.
Squad18 Nov 2030
Norbert Fiola 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.
Squad18 Nov 2030
Words at Haladas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gábor Szalai 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.
Match16 Nov 2030
It finished 2‑1, and it was Marton Bese’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Haladas.
The terraces18 Nov 2030
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings18 Nov 2030
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market4 Nov 2030
“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.
Squad4 Nov 2030
A one-man rearguard from Laszlo Orban
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad4 Nov 2030
Dávid Csalogány: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Haladas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad4 Nov 2030
Norbert Fiola 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.
Squad4 Nov 2030
Words at Haladas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gábor Szalai 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 Nov 2030
Three points for Haladas, 2‑1 the final word against Ferencvaros in a contest settled by the finer margins.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market28 Oct 2030
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Haladas can pretend not to have heard.
Market28 Oct 2030
Hernán Taborda has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Haladas they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad28 Oct 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Haladas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Oct 2030
Gábor Szalai 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.
Match26 Oct 2030
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad28 Oct 2030
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Squad28 Oct 2030
The manager makes an example of Alejo Miro
“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 ratings28 Oct 2030
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market28 Oct 2030
The Marton Bese talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Haladas know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.