Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sandefjord will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Vegard Hagen 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.
Squad6 Sep 2032
Words at Sandefjord training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikkel Sandsgaard 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.
“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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Sandefjord, another week without a signature from Kostas Kastidis.
“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 dugout6 Sep 2032
The manager has not finished forgetting Hayk Ghukasyan's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
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.
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.
“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.
“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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sandefjord can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Sandefjord people have started saying his name in the past tense.
$410.0K on the table at Brann. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Brann have kept their man, and Sandefjord go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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.
74 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.
Nicolas Gavory 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Sandefjord are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sandefjord have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Igor Gosik 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Lamin Njie has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Marked 8.27 — 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Sandefjord can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Interim Coach could afford to be generous.
The deal that would have taken Lamin Njie to Kristiansund has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Sandefjord with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad25 Aug 2031
Words at Sandefjord training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mihai Popescu 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Birger Johansen has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Sandefjord have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Sandefjord asked and Molde said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.