Marked for Ruben Lien
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets26 Mar 2029
Valerenga asked and Leicester City said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market26 Mar 2029
Terms done: Taha Usman is going
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Viking waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Valerenga is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market26 Mar 2029
“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 The request is on a desk at Valerenga, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets26 Mar 2029
The offer went to Viking this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Market26 Mar 2029
Molde paid $550.0K and Valerenga took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Transfer targets26 Mar 2029
HamKam wanted more than $130.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Valerenga 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.
Loan watch26 Mar 2029
“I did not go to HB Køge to sit and watch. I want to come back to Valerenga and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 11 matches say the rest.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Tiago Silva 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market22 Jan 2029
“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 The request is on a desk at Valerenga, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout22 Jan 2029
This is not rotation. Ghayas Zahid has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Valerenga is pretending otherwise.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Petter Strand 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.
Squad22 Jan 2029
A row about effort at Valerenga
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Haniel Samson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout22 Jan 2029
A promise honoured at Valerenga
Something was said to Petter Strand and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout22 Jan 2029
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Kolbeinn Birgir Finnsson is on it.
The dugout22 Jan 2029
The manager makes an example of Ruben Lien
“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.
Market22 Jan 2029
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Aaron Kiil Olsen signs something — a contract at Valerenga or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market22 Jan 2029
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad20 Nov 2028
Henrik Skogvold and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
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.
Squad20 Nov 2028
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.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
The manager makes an example of Ruben Lien
“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.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
Sebastian Jarl 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.
Market20 Nov 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Mathias Grundetjern’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market20 Nov 2028
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Brice Ambina may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Ruben Lien: “I am not a substitute”
“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 Valerenga will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Boardroom20 Nov 2028
Valerenga keep producing them
14 graduates from an academy now rated 15 out of 20. A club this size does not survive any other way, and every name on that list is known in the town.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Apr 2028
“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.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Valerenga may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match8 Apr 2028
Whatever happens, Valerenga 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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valerenga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom10 Apr 2028
5 academy graduates step up at Valerenga
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Ghayas Zahid 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 targets10 Apr 2028
Valerenga asked and AEK said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market10 Apr 2028
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ruben Lien is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Apr 2028
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Jonas Linnes 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.