Marked for Thomas Ryerson
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets31 Mar 2036
The clubs have shaken hands with HamKam; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Squad31 Mar 2036
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Jens Elyounoussi commits to IK Start for another 4 years.
The dugout31 Mar 2036
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Thomas Ryerson, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces24 Mar 2036
Anger at IK Start spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Market24 Mar 2036
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at IK Start is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Transfer targets24 Mar 2036
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Brann have kept their man, and IK Start go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad24 Mar 2036
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 34 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for IK Start is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Squad24 Mar 2036
A falling-out at IK Start
Ole King and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets24 Mar 2036
Brann have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market11 Feb 2036
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. IK Start have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market11 Feb 2036
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what IK Start can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets11 Feb 2036
Brann have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets11 Feb 2036
A loan move for Lorenzo Carfora is in the works
IK Start have made the call to Molde. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets11 Feb 2036
Sogndal have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout11 Feb 2036
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Thomas Ryerson, and the manager let it.
Market11 Feb 2036
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. IK Start know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market11 Feb 2036
The clock does Benjamin Sundo’s negotiating for him
7 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee IK Start could ask drops and the wages Benjamin Sundo can ask rise.
The dugout11 Feb 2036
Thomas Haaland 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
Uneasy
Market4 Feb 2036
“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 IK Start, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad4 Feb 2036
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Steve Mvoué commits to IK Start for another 2 years.
The dugout4 Feb 2036
Aron King 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.
Market4 Feb 2036
“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.
Market4 Feb 2036
Mjondalen are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. IK Start will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad4 Feb 2036
Ole King 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 IK Start this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets4 Feb 2036
A loan enquiry to Brann: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets4 Feb 2036
A loan move for Marcus Haaland is in the works
IK Start have made the call to Valerenga. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Market4 Feb 2036
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. IK Start know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout17 Dec 2035
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” IK Start may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market17 Dec 2035
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Kristian Linnes 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.
Market17 Dec 2035
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Lars Haaland is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market17 Dec 2035
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Hakon Bohinen 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.
Market17 Dec 2035
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Martin Daehli 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.
Squad17 Dec 2035
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Marcus Singh commits to IK Start for another 3 years.
Squad17 Dec 2035
Ole King 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 dugout17 Dec 2035
Sander Rød 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.
Squad17 Dec 2035
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one IK Start will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Aug 2035
52 days out for Siyabonga Buda after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. IK Start will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match25 Aug 2035
No end in sight to IK Start's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at IK Start has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad27 Aug 2035
Jesber Berg-Hanssen 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.
Transfer targets27 Aug 2035
The clock did what Viking would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
The dugout27 Aug 2035
The manager makes an example of Tobias Meling
“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.
Match25 Aug 2035
A 1‑1 draw with Skeid leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout27 Aug 2035
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Interim Coach was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the IK Start dressing room was either.
Squad27 Aug 2035
One booking too many, and Steve Mvoué sits out. IK Start lose him for the sort of avoidable reason that makes a manager's week longer.
The dugout27 Aug 2035
Somebody else is better right now than Bjorn Pedersen
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 May 2035
Siyabonga Buda breaks a bone — 157 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 157 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match9 May 2035
The small margins put IK Start out
Out, 0‑2 to KFUM Oslo, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Squad14 May 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at IK Start this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 May 2035
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Charlie Carlisle commits to IK Start for another 2 years.
Player ratings14 May 2035
Siyabonga Buda ran the middle of the pitch — 7.03
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 12 combined actions and a mark of 7.03, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Market14 May 2035
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Hakon Henriksen 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.
Market14 May 2035
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Martin King 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.
Market14 May 2035
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Stefan Ryerson 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.
Market14 May 2035
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ole Normann 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.