Marked for Lars Singh
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market18 Aug 2036
“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.
Market18 Aug 2036
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Valerenga people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Match16 Aug 2036
13 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The dugout18 Aug 2036
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Valerenga may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom18 Aug 2036
Deadline passes with 23 signed and 27 gone
That is the business done at Valerenga until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Market18 Aug 2036
Vegard Riise has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Valerenga they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match16 Aug 2036
Nobody wants to play Valerenga right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad18 Aug 2036
Words exchanged at Valerenga
Matyáš Šilhavý 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.
Squad18 Aug 2036
A row about effort at Valerenga
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Michel Ayvazyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match5 Jul 2036
Whatever happens, Valerenga do not lose
15 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.
Match5 Jul 2036
Sogndal will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Valerenga were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings7 Jul 2036
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alexander Ingi Arnarsson provided it, and the 8.75 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market7 Jul 2036
Lars Singh has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Valerenga they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match5 Jul 2036
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Player ratings7 Jul 2036
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 Jul 2036
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.
Squad7 Jul 2036
A row about effort at Valerenga
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Krešimir Radoš was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces7 Jul 2036
At 23 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match7 Jun 2036
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 10 matches without defeat is a foundation Valerenga did not have in the autumn.
Market9 Jun 2036
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Valerenga is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad9 Jun 2036
Mirza Mulac and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad9 Jun 2036
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jonas Mayer and Valerenga agree another 3 years.
Squad9 Jun 2036
A row about effort at Valerenga
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Steven Dixon was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout9 Jun 2036
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Matyáš Šilhavý, and the manager let it.
Match7 Jun 2036
A goal on 89 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.
Market9 Jun 2036
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Valerenga, another week without a signature from Matyáš Šilhavý.
Player ratings9 Jun 2036
Marked 7.39 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Valerenga had the best player on the pitch.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match26 Apr 2036
4‑0, and Steven Dixon took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Valerenga tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings28 Apr 2036
Two goals and a mark of 8.68 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings28 Apr 2036
A brace, and Krešimir Radoš takes the afternoon — 8.24
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Krešimir Radoš provided it, and the 8.24 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market28 Apr 2036
Lars Singh has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Valerenga they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match26 Apr 2036
Nobody wants to play Valerenga right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad28 Apr 2036
Mirza Mulac in a row with a teammate
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.
Squad28 Apr 2036
500 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Squad28 Apr 2036
Steven Dixon 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 terraces28 Apr 2036
At 23 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.
In brief
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Match
Kristiansund blown away early
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Player ratings
Ninety minutes of Jonas Mayer at his very best
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match12 Apr 2036
Valerenga strike at the death to beat Bryne
There were 86 minutes on the clock and Bryne had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Valerenga did not stop to explain themselves.
Market14 Apr 2036
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Valerenga have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market14 Apr 2036
Only the photograph left for Neo Jönsson
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Neo Jönsson will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Valerenga the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad14 Apr 2036
Matyáš Šilhavý 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.
Squad14 Apr 2036
A row about effort at Valerenga
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Krešimir Radoš was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match12 Apr 2036
Bryne made Valerenga work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The dugout14 Apr 2036
“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.
Market14 Apr 2036
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Valerenga have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Player ratings14 Apr 2036
Elliot Myles was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.00. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Apr 2036
Terms done: Lars Singh is going
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Lyn waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Valerenga is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The dugout7 Apr 2036
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Valerenga may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom7 Apr 2036
Window shuts: 23 in, 20 out at Valerenga
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 23 arrived, 20 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Market7 Apr 2036
Vegard Riise has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Valerenga they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom7 Apr 2036
Valerenga moved before anybody else could: a new deal for Innokentiy Shatov, agreed quietly and announced loudly. Boards extend managers for many reasons; the good one is the one this looks like.
Market7 Apr 2036
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Molde moved on, Marcus Haaland reports back to Valerenga, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad7 Apr 2036
Mirza Mulac 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.
Boardroom7 Apr 2036
13 academy players handed senior numbers at Valerenga
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad7 Apr 2036
Words at Valerenga training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Steven Dixon 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Mar 2036
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Valerenga have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market24 Mar 2036
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yuri Palitsevich will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Valerenga the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad24 Mar 2036
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.
Squad24 Mar 2036
A row about effort at Valerenga
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Krešimir Radoš was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets24 Mar 2036
Valerenga asked and Zurich said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market24 Mar 2036
The name of Martin Odegaard has come up in conversations Valerenga were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Market24 Mar 2036
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Valerenga will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
The dugout24 Mar 2036
Elliot Myles knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Valerenga, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout24 Mar 2036
The manager makes an example of Morten Ryerson
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Mar 2036
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Stabaek waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Valerenga is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market3 Mar 2036
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Mjondalen had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market3 Mar 2036
Neo Jönsson hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Valerenga can pretend not to have heard.
Squad3 Mar 2036
Paolo Gozzi arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Paolo Gozzi has, at Valerenga, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad3 Mar 2036
Matyáš Šilhavý and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market3 Mar 2036
Lucas Batbedat has left for Brann in a $550.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad3 Mar 2036
Krešimir Radoš 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.
Squad3 Mar 2036
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Michel Ayvazyan is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The dugout3 Mar 2036
Mirza Mulac 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 Mirza Mulac trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market18 Feb 2036
Terms done: Lars Singh is going
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Lyn waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Valerenga is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market18 Feb 2036
“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.
Squad18 Feb 2036
Lucas Batbedat and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Feb 2036
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Killian Prouchet has just signed for Valerenga, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad18 Feb 2036
Krešimir Radoš 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.
Boardroom18 Feb 2036
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
The dugout18 Feb 2036
“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.
Market18 Feb 2036
“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.
Squad18 Feb 2036
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Valerenga will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 Dec 2035
Thom Veenbergen damages knee ligaments — 43 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 43 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market31 Dec 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Valerenga is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout31 Dec 2035
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Valerenga have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad31 Dec 2035
Words exchanged at Valerenga
Lucas Batbedat 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.
Squad31 Dec 2035
Words at Valerenga training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Krešimir Radoš 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 dugout31 Dec 2035
Lucas Batbedat 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 Lucas Batbedat trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout31 Dec 2035
A promise honoured for Marko Ilić
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Valerenga told Marko Ilić something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout31 Dec 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hayden Ford, and the manager let it.
Squad31 Dec 2035
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Valerenga would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match9 May 2035
Valerenga march on in the cup
Hødd are out and Valerenga go through, 4‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match12 May 2035
The run at home goes on for Valerenga
16 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Player ratings14 May 2035
What a way to start for Lars Singh — 7.49
0 on the scoresheet on his first appearance and a mark of 7.49 beside it. Most debuts are got through; this one was enjoyed, by him and by everybody watching it.
The dugout14 May 2035
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Valerenga may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings14 May 2035
A hand in 3 of them from Mostapha Rached — 7.96
Marked 7.96. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
Match12 May 2035
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.
Squad14 May 2035
Emil Hillestad 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.
Squad14 May 2035
William Osnes-Ringen and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces14 May 2035
He is 18 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.