Marked for Patrick Berge
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market16 Aug 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Åsane, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad16 Aug 2027
A fracture rules Patrick Berge out for 14 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Åsane will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match14 Aug 2027
The wait goes on for Åsane
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Match14 Aug 2027
The goals have deserted Åsane
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Åsane can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Filip Oprea 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.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kristoffer Barmen, and the manager let it.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
IK Brage 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 dugout16 Aug 2027
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Aug 2027
A fracture rules Patrick Berge out for 22 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Åsane will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad9 Aug 2027
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.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
Johannes Kvammen: 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.” Åsane have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match7 Aug 2027
The goals have deserted Åsane
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Åsane can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Filip Oprea 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.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
Åsane asked and Al Gaish said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad9 Aug 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Åsane this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
“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.
Player ratings9 Aug 2027
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
Uneasy
Market2 Aug 2027
“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 Åsane, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad2 Aug 2027
30 days out for Patrick Berge after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Åsane will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
Everything agreed with Moss, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words exchanged at Åsane
Kristoffer Barmen 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.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market2 Aug 2027
“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.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
Marked 7.50. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Boardroom2 Aug 2027
86% of the income goes out in wages at Åsane
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad2 Aug 2027
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Knut Spangelo Haga is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Åsane may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Transfer targets12 Apr 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad12 Apr 2027
A falling-out at Åsane
Herman Geelmuyden and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom12 Apr 2027
Graduation day at Åsane
4 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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Åsane training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kristoffer Barmen 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.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ylldren Ibrahimaj, and the manager let it.
Market12 Apr 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Patrick Ajer 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.
Market12 Apr 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Patrick Berge 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.
Market12 Apr 2027
One of our own: Birger King joins the Åsane first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Birger King is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.