Jens Petter Hauge and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Jan 2032
Oscar Hedvall 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.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jens Petter Hauge signs something — a contract at Bodo/Glimt or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
6 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Bodo/Glimt could ask drops and the wages Jasper Torkildsen can ask rise.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Bodo/Glimt. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Bodo/Glimt hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bodo/Glimt this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Dec 2031
Words at Bodo/Glimt training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oscar Hedvall 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.
Nobody at Bodo/Glimt will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Bodo/Glimt could ask drops and the wages Jamal Jimoh-Aloba can ask rise.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Odin Bjørtuft signs something — a contract at Bodo/Glimt or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bodo/Glimt, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
SquadFrank Stople is not doing himself any favours
Jens Petter Hauge and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Dec 2031
Words at Bodo/Glimt training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joel Mvuka 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.
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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Jesper Grundt has his answer from Bodo/Glimt; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jens Petter Hauge signs something — a contract at Bodo/Glimt or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bodo/Glimt, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bodo/Glimt can pretend not to have heard.
Jens Petter Hauge and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Nov 2031
Words at Bodo/Glimt training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joel Mvuka 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.
Sandefjord will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Damon Mirani has pre-agreed a move to Bodo/Glimt, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Owen Kouassi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
2‑3 against Utrecht. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Bodo/Glimt they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bodo/Glimt can pretend not to have heard.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ola Brynhildsen and Bodo/Glimt agree another 2 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bodo/Glimt this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
13 goals in 23 games at Haugesund — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Bodo/Glimt updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Squad6 Oct 2031
Words at Bodo/Glimt training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bernard Eide 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.
83 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bodo/Glimt lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 103 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Stabaek waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Bodo/Glimt is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bodo/Glimt have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Bodo/Glimt they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Bodo/Glimt can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Jens Petter Hauge and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Mar 2031
Words at Bodo/Glimt training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emil Engqvist 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Villads Nielsen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bodo/Glimt the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Jens Petter Hauge 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.
Squad16 Dec 2030
Owen Kouassi 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.
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 Odin Bjørtuft is on it.