Marked for Benjamin Phillips
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings19 Jun 2034
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.41, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
The dugout19 Jun 2034
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Aalesund may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad19 Jun 2034
Words exchanged at Aalesund
Hlynur Freyr Karlsson 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.
Match17 Jun 2034
Whatever happens, Aalesund do not lose
6 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.
Match17 Jun 2034
It finished 3‑1, and it was Oliver Eliassen Aske’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Aalesund.
The terraces19 Jun 2034
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match17 Jun 2034
Aalesund settle it inside twenty minutes
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Mjondalen spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Player ratings19 Jun 2034
Marked 8.20 — 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.
Squad19 Jun 2034
The medical room confirms 59 days on the sidelines for Jens Linnes, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout14 Nov 2033
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Aalesund may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad14 Nov 2033
Words exchanged at Aalesund
Attila Szalai 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.
Boardroom14 Nov 2033
The numbers do not look good at Aalesund
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad14 Nov 2033
Tomas Totland 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.
Market14 Nov 2033
The clock does Andres Sfaiţ’s negotiating for him
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Aalesund could ask drops and the wages Andres Sfaiţ can ask rise.
Market14 Nov 2033
Caleb Asante is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Aalesund has been clear about where Caleb Asante stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout14 Nov 2033
Cheick Kone 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.
The dugout14 Nov 2033
Eetu Grönlund knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Eetu Grönlund trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market14 Nov 2033
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Martin Poulsen’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Mar 2033
Sander Kartum breaks a bone — 67 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 67 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market28 Mar 2033
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Tromso waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Aalesund is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad28 Mar 2033
A falling-out at Aalesund
Andres Sfaiţ and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Mar 2033
Tomas Totland 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.
The dugout28 Mar 2033
Gabriel Dbouk knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gabriel Dbouk trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout28 Mar 2033
“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.
Market28 Mar 2033
The name of Martin Poulsen keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Aalesund say nothing, which says plenty.
Squad28 Mar 2033
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Aalesund will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
Market28 Mar 2033
5 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Aalesund could get for him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The terraces20 Dec 2032
The mood at Aalesund has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Boardroom20 Dec 2032
The scrutiny sharpens at Aalesund
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Aalesund is running low.
Market20 Dec 2032
Only the photograph left for Mattia Suppa
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mattia Suppa will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Aalesund the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad20 Dec 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 Aalesund this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout20 Dec 2032
This is not rotation. Sander Kartum has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Aalesund is pretending otherwise.
Boardroom20 Dec 2032
Belts tighten at Aalesund
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Squad20 Dec 2032
Valentin Ferstl 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.
Market20 Dec 2032
“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.
Market20 Dec 2032
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Martin Poulsen’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout13 Dec 2032
Diego Puttolu: 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.” Aalesund have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad13 Dec 2032
A falling-out at Aalesund
Attila Szalai and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 Dec 2032
Valentin Ferstl 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.
Market13 Dec 2032
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Valentin Ferstl has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Aalesund.
Squad13 Dec 2032
No place for Henrik Thorsby in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Aalesund are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Market13 Dec 2032
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad13 Dec 2032
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Tomas Totland commits to Aalesund for another 3 years.
Market13 Dec 2032
At 33, he has seen every situation this season can produce, twice. The legs will be managed; the head is the purchase.
The dugout13 Dec 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.