Marked for Patrick Pedersen
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad25 Aug 2036
25 days out for Mathias Haaland after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Lyn will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings25 Aug 2036
No sign of nerves from Patrick Pedersen at 21 — 8.45
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Patrick Pedersen did not need any: 8.45, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market25 Aug 2036
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lyn is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout25 Aug 2036
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Lyn may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom25 Aug 2036
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Markus Welinder has agreed terms with KFUM Oslo for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad25 Aug 2036
A season average of 7.15 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Lyn know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Match23 Aug 2036
Still nobody has beaten Lyn
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad25 Aug 2036
A falling-out at Lyn
Mame Alassane Niang and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces25 Aug 2036
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Patrick Pedersen 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad18 Aug 2036
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Transfer targets18 Aug 2036
$310.0K settles it between the clubs for Chibuike Ohaegbulam
Haugesund have accepted the money. What Lyn do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Player ratings18 Aug 2036
Bright Simon, 21, steals the show — 7.63
Marked 7.63 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
The dugout18 Aug 2036
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Boardroom18 Aug 2036
Lyn close the window on a squad of their own making
24 in and 27 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Match16 Aug 2036
Nobody wants to play Lyn 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 Lyn
Mame Alassane Niang 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
At 21, Bright Simon is already the best thing here
An average of 7.00 in a first team he is several years too young for. Lyn have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad18 Aug 2036
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Lyn can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad11 Aug 2036
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 39 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match11 Aug 2036
Lyn refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 35 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Market11 Aug 2036
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lyn is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings11 Aug 2036
Marked 8.01 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Transfer targets11 Aug 2036
Everything agreed with Brann, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad11 Aug 2036
Tempers go at Lyn
Mame Alassane Niang 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.
Transfer targets11 Aug 2036
$13.0K was the most the club would pay and IK Start were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Transfer targets11 Aug 2036
Lyn asked and Sogndal said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match9 Aug 2036
It finished 2‑0, and it was Tobias Jensen’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Lyn.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad4 Aug 2036
A fracture rules Mathias Haaland out for 46 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lyn will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings4 Aug 2036
Two goals and a mark of 8.75 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings4 Aug 2036
Patrick Pedersen, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.11
A mark of 8.11 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The dugout4 Aug 2036
Charles Le Roux: 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.” Lyn have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad4 Aug 2036
A falling-out at Lyn
Tobias Jensen and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets4 Aug 2036
$13.0K on the table at IK Start. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Boardroom4 Aug 2036
Lyn counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Lyn now.
Transfer targets4 Aug 2036
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Match2 Aug 2036
Lyn find a way past Odd
Odd made Lyn work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Jul 2036
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 53 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings28 Jul 2036
Patrick Pedersen, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.23
A mark of 8.23 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The dugout28 Jul 2036
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings28 Jul 2036
Successful dribbles: 24. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad28 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 Lyn this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Jul 2036
He is 21, he is averaging 7.00, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Transfer targets28 Jul 2036
Lyn asked and Haugesund said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad28 Jul 2036
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Jens Henriksen commits to Lyn for another 4 years.
Looking ahead28 Jul 2036
The big one: Odd come into view
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Lyn will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Jul 2036
60 days out for Mathias Haaland after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Lyn will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings21 Jul 2036
Two goals and a mark of 8.88 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings21 Jul 2036
Patrick Pedersen, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.06
A mark of 8.06 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market21 Jul 2036
Erik Németh 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 Lyn can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets21 Jul 2036
Everything agreed with HamKam, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad21 Jul 2036
Words exchanged at Lyn
Mame Alassane Niang 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.
The terraces21 Jul 2036
Lyn supporters have found a favourite in Bright Simon
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Bright Simon 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.
The dugout21 Jul 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.
Squad21 Jul 2036
Sander Heggestad 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.
In brief
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Match
Late, late show earns Lyn a point
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Squad
Too much change too quickly at Lyn
-
Match
Bright Simon rescues a point for Lyn
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The terraces9 Jun 2036
Supporters organise against the Lyn board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Match7 Jun 2036
4‑0, and Lars Sorloth took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Lyn tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Squad9 Jun 2036
A fracture rules Bernardo Antunes out for 86 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lyn will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad9 Jun 2036
Lars Sorloth takes the match ball home
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Market9 Jun 2036
Only the photograph left for Haakon Norda
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Haakon Norda will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lyn the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad9 Jun 2036
A falling-out at Lyn
Tobias Jensen and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings9 Jun 2036
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Player ratings9 Jun 2036
Marked 8.14 — 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.
Squad9 Jun 2036
At 35, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
In brief
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Market
Still no ink between Lyn and Haakon Norda
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The dugout
A promise honoured at Lyn
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 May 2036
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Lyn will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings26 May 2036
Successful dribbles: 27. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad26 May 2036
A falling-out at Lyn
Mame Alassane Niang and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 May 2036
Thom Veenbergen 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.
Squad26 May 2036
Lyn are still strangers to each other
12 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.
The dugout26 May 2036
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Interim Coach after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout26 May 2036
Somebody else is better right now than Bright Simon
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The terraces26 May 2036
The spotlight tightens on Haakon Norda
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Market26 May 2036
The clock does Haakon Norda’s negotiating for him
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Lyn could ask drops and the wages Haakon Norda can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Apr 2036
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 55 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match26 Apr 2036
It had gone 11 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Player ratings28 Apr 2036
Marked 8.20 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad28 Apr 2036
Jens Henriksen gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Jens Henriksen has just signed for Lyn, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad28 Apr 2036
Tempers go at Lyn
Haakon Norda 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.
Squad28 Apr 2036
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jens Henriksen and Lyn agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The terraces28 Apr 2036
He is 20 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.
Match26 Apr 2036
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Patrick Pedersen. 2‑0 against Mjondalen, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Market28 Apr 2036
He is 20, and nobody at Lyn signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Apr 2036
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lyn will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match19 Apr 2036
11 matches without a win for Lyn
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Lyn are no longer polite ones.
Match19 Apr 2036
Lyn cannot find the net
10 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad21 Apr 2036
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings21 Apr 2036
The game went through Lars Sorloth — 6.61
Marked 6.61 on 16 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Squad21 Apr 2036
Words exchanged at Lyn
Haakon Norda 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.
Squad21 Apr 2036
A move Victory Iboro would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Victory Iboro is living that version at Lyn, and it tends to show in the first month.
The dugout21 Apr 2036
Toni Hajdić 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 dugout21 Apr 2036
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces14 Apr 2036
Supporters organise against the Lyn board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Squad14 Apr 2036
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Lyn will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match12 Apr 2036
No end in sight to Lyn's wait for a win
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Lyn has to find a result from somewhere.
Match12 Apr 2036
Chastening afternoon for Lyn
A 0‑3 beating by Sandefjord was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match12 Apr 2036
The goals have deserted Lyn
9 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Lyn can tell you which week it ends in.
Market14 Apr 2036
Only the photograph left for Haakon Norda
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Haakon Norda will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lyn the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad14 Apr 2036
A move Sander Heggestad would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Sander Heggestad is living that version at Lyn, and it tends to show in the first month.
Player ratings14 Apr 2036
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Apr 2036
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lars Sorloth and Lyn agree another 4 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match5 Apr 2036
The wait goes on for Lyn
9 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Boardroom7 Apr 2036
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Lyn can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Squad7 Apr 2036
A fracture rules Mathias Haaland out for 27 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lyn will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout7 Apr 2036
Patrick Pedersen: 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.” Lyn have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom7 Apr 2036
Crisis meeting at Lyn
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Match5 Apr 2036
The goals have deserted Lyn
8 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Lyn can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad7 Apr 2036
Lars Sorloth 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. Lars Sorloth has, at Lyn, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Boardroom7 Apr 2036
The numbers do not look good at Lyn
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.
Market7 Apr 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 Mar 2036
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Lyn will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom10 Mar 2036
The scrutiny sharpens at Lyn
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Lyn is running low.
Market10 Mar 2036
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lyn can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom10 Mar 2036
Lyn counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Lyn now.
Transfer targets10 Mar 2036
Everything agreed with Molde, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets10 Mar 2036
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Brann have kept their man, and Lyn go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad10 Mar 2036
A row about effort at Lyn
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marcus Reed was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad10 Mar 2036
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Sander King commits to Lyn for another 4 years.
Squad10 Mar 2036
“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 Lyn know it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad11 Feb 2036
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Lyn will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom11 Feb 2036
Pressure builds in the Lyn boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market11 Feb 2036
“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 Lyn, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom11 Feb 2036
Lyn counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Lyn now.
Transfer targets11 Feb 2036
The deal with Molde is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad11 Feb 2036
Haakon Norda 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 Lyn this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Feb 2036
Words at Lyn training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcus Reed 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.
Squad11 Feb 2036
Everybody at Lyn saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
The dugout11 Feb 2036
Sigurd Dystland is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom14 Jan 2036
The scrutiny sharpens at Lyn
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Lyn is running low.
Market14 Jan 2036
“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 Lyn, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market14 Jan 2036
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lyn is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom14 Jan 2036
Lyn counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Lyn now.
Boardroom14 Jan 2036
Haakon Norda has agreed to leave Lyn for nothing
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad14 Jan 2036
Words exchanged at Lyn
Mame Alassane Niang 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.
Squad14 Jan 2036
A row about effort at Lyn
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Patrick Pedersen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout14 Jan 2036
The manager has not finished forgetting Sigurd Dystland'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.
The dugout14 Jan 2036
Sigurd Dystland 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom3 Dec 2035
It is over: Lyn are relegated
The arithmetic ran out, and everybody could see it coming from a distance. The hard summer starts now, and next season's fixtures will be full of unfamiliar names.
Boardroom3 Dec 2035
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market3 Dec 2035
“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 Lyn, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad3 Dec 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lyn this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Dec 2035
A row about effort at Lyn
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marcus Reed was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market3 Dec 2035
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Lyn, another week without a signature from Artan Memedov.
Squad3 Dec 2035
A place in the month's best eleven for Patrick Pedersen
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Patrick Pedersen has come out of that comparison in the side, and Lyn have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Squad3 Dec 2035
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Sander Amble Haugen has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
The dugout3 Dec 2035
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Lyn, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom19 Nov 2035
Pressure builds in the Lyn boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market19 Nov 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lyn is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom19 Nov 2035
Belts tighten at Lyn
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.
Squad19 Nov 2035
Words exchanged at Lyn
Mame Alassane Niang 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.
Squad19 Nov 2035
Marcus Reed 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 dugout19 Nov 2035
The manager has not finished forgetting Sigurd Dystland'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.
Market19 Nov 2035
“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.
Market19 Nov 2035
The clock does Artan Memedov’s negotiating for him
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Lyn could ask drops and the wages Artan Memedov can ask rise.
The dugout19 Nov 2035
The manager makes an example of Nikolaj Skov
“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.