Marked for Erling Odegaard
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad18 May 2037
A fracture rules Erling Odegaard out for 33 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Odd will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad18 May 2037
Antoñín says Odd went back on their word
“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.
Player ratings18 May 2037
Up for the corner, and Casper Glenna delivers — 7.98
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Casper Glenna scored, was marked 7.98, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad18 May 2037
Tempers go at Odd
Zakaria Mugeese 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 May 2037
52 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Match16 May 2037
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings18 May 2037
Marked 8.11 — 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.
The terraces18 May 2037
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Player ratings18 May 2037
Shots: 8. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 May 2037
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match6 May 2037
Odd out of the cup
Stromsgodset ended it 0‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad11 May 2037
A fracture rules Erling Odegaard out for 40 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Odd will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings11 May 2037
Age has not caught Antoñín yet — 8.71
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.71 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad11 May 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Odd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 May 2037
Casper Glenna 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 ratings11 May 2037
Nobody could get near Remo Kobel
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings11 May 2037
Marked 8.87 — 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.
Match9 May 2037
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mads Mikkelsen. 2‑0 against Bodo/Glimt, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom4 May 2037
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Odd can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Match2 May 2037
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Hinrik Harðarson will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Odd escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Boardroom4 May 2037
Crisis meeting at Odd
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.
Squad4 May 2037
A fracture rules Erling Odegaard out for 47 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Odd will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad4 May 2037
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad4 May 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Odd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 May 2037
Words at Odd training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Syver Aas 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.
Player ratings4 May 2037
Ninety minutes of Mads Mikkelsen at his very best
Marked 8.52. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Odd.
Player ratings4 May 2037
A performance of 8.33 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad27 Apr 2037
A knee injury of the worst kind for Vetle Auklend
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Odd lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad27 Apr 2037
A fracture rules Erling Odegaard out for 54 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Odd will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market27 Apr 2037
Hakon Bohinen 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 Odd can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings27 Apr 2037
A defender's goal wins it for Odd — 7.65
1 for Casper Glenna, marked 7.65, 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.
Squad27 Apr 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Odd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match25 Apr 2037
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Odd and Molde in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Match25 Apr 2037
Odd come up short against Molde
Molde left with the points after a 2‑4 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad27 Apr 2037
Syver Aas 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 ratings27 Apr 2037
Hinrik Harðarson was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.32. 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad20 Apr 2037
A knee injury of the worst kind for Vetle Auklend
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Odd lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad20 Apr 2037
A fracture rules Erling Odegaard out for 61 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Odd will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad20 Apr 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Odd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Apr 2037
Words at Odd training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Casper Glenna 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.
Match18 Apr 2037
Rosenborg left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The terraces20 Apr 2037
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad13 Apr 2037
A knee injury of the worst kind for Vetle Auklend
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Odd lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad13 Apr 2037
There were 8 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.
Player ratings13 Apr 2037
A brace, and Casper Glenna takes the afternoon — 9.14
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Casper Glenna provided it, and the 9.14 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad13 Apr 2037
A fracture rules Erling Odegaard out for 68 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Odd will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings13 Apr 2037
Age has not caught Antoñín yet — 8.05
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.05 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad13 Apr 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Odd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match11 Apr 2037
It finished 3‑2, and it was Casper Glenna’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Odd.
Player ratings13 Apr 2037
Ninety minutes of Hinrik Harðarson at his very best
Marked 8.52. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Odd.
Player ratings13 Apr 2037
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
Steady
Squad6 Apr 2037
A knee injury of the worst kind for Vetle Auklend
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Odd lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom6 Apr 2037
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Squad6 Apr 2037
A fracture rules Erling Odegaard out for 75 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Odd will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom6 Apr 2037
Crisis meeting at Odd
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.
Squad6 Apr 2037
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Zakaria Mugeese and Odd agree another 2 years.
Squad6 Apr 2037
Tempers go at Odd
Zakaria Mugeese 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.
Boardroom6 Apr 2037
Graduation day at Odd
12 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Market6 Apr 2037
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Aron Meling has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market6 Apr 2037
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Jens Pedersen has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Mar 2037
A knee injury of the worst kind for Vetle Auklend
46 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Odd lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad30 Mar 2037
A fracture rules Erling Odegaard out for 82 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Odd will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad30 Mar 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Odd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Mar 2037
A knee injury of the worst kind for Vetle Auklend
53 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Odd lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad23 Mar 2037
A fracture rules Erling Odegaard out for 89 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Odd will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market23 Mar 2037
“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.
In brief
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Squad
Tempers go at Odd
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Squad
Words at Odd training over how hard people work
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Market
Vetle Auklend linked with a move away
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom16 Mar 2037
Pressure builds in the Odd boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad16 Mar 2037
Mads Mikkelsen: 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.” Odd have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad16 Mar 2037
A fracture rules Erling Odegaard out for 96 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Odd will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Mar 2037
A fracture rules Erling Odegaard out for 103 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Odd will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad9 Mar 2037
Tempers go at Odd
Zakaria Mugeese 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.
Squad9 Mar 2037
Words at Odd training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Casper Glenna 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
Uneasy
Boardroom2 Mar 2037
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Odd can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Squad2 Mar 2037
A fracture rules Erling Odegaard out for 110 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Odd will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom2 Mar 2037
The Odd board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Squad2 Mar 2037
103 appearances across 10 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Squad2 Mar 2037
Tempers go at Odd
Philip Billing 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.
Squad2 Mar 2037
Syver Aas 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.
In brief
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Market
The Syver Aas question follows Odd around
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Boardroom
Odd pull $273.5K back off the table
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Market
The shop window has Erik Kristiansen in it
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Boardroom
The Odd production line keeps running