Marked for Patrick Normann
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout28 Jun 2032
Elias Hadaya 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.
Squad28 Jun 2032
200 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Match26 Jun 2032
Sandefjord rescue it on 90 minutes
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 90. KFUM Oslo had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
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 Sandefjord this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Jun 2032
Robin Dzabić is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.20 with 7 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match26 Jun 2032
It needed Milo Dang Nilssen to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against KFUM Oslo, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad28 Jun 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 Sandefjord know it.
The dugout28 Jun 2032
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 2‑2 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Market28 Jun 2032
1 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Sandefjord money.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 May 2032
Mathias Gjerstrøm damages knee ligaments — 33 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 33 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.
Market31 May 2032
“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 The request is on a desk at Sandefjord, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match29 May 2032
5 matches without a win for Sandefjord
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Sandefjord are no longer polite ones.
The dugout31 May 2032
“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.
Squad31 May 2032
Vegard Hagen 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 Sandefjord this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match29 May 2032
Odd left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout31 May 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.
The dugout31 May 2032
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad31 May 2032
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Sandefjord will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 May 2032
Mathias Gjerstrøm damages knee ligaments — 47 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 47 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.
The dugout17 May 2032
The manager makes an example of Elias Hadaya
“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.
Match15 May 2032
A point taken on 91 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Squad17 May 2032
Sandefjord are still strangers to each other
9 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Squad17 May 2032
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Marcus King commits to Sandefjord for another 4 years.
Match15 May 2032
It needed Henry Onyekuru to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Stabaek, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Player ratings17 May 2032
Ten men and a goalkeeper behind him, and it still finished in the net. He knew before anybody told him, and nobody at Sandefjord needed to.
The dugout17 May 2032
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 dugout17 May 2032
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 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Dec 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Olaus Skarsem
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sandefjord lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad9 Dec 2030
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sandefjord will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market9 Dec 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 Sandefjord, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout9 Dec 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Sandefjord may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
The dugout9 Dec 2030
This is not rotation. Ibrahim Figuigui has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Sandefjord is pretending otherwise.
Squad9 Dec 2030
Elias Jandrisevits 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.
Market9 Dec 2030
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Hakon Bohinen 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.
Market9 Dec 2030
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Patrick Normann is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market9 Dec 2030
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Marcus Strandberg 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.