Marked for Jiří Floder
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market28 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 The request is on a desk at Odd, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad28 Jan 2036
A row about effort at Odd
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giorgos Charalampoglou was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad28 Jan 2036
Magnus Mehl 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 Odd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout28 Jan 2036
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Stefan Melentijević, and the manager let it.
Boardroom28 Jan 2036
Odd have to sell first
The manager has a list and the board has a condition attached to it. That is not a crisis — half of football works this way — but it decides which of the two of them gets his way in August.
The dugout28 Jan 2036
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.
Market28 Jan 2036
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Odd, another week without a signature from Raúl Dacosta.
The dugout28 Jan 2036
Jiří Floder 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 Odd, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market28 Jan 2036
Still no signature from Jiří Floder
1 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Odd could get for him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market10 Dec 2035
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Stefan Melentijević will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Odd the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout10 Dec 2035
“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.
Squad10 Dec 2035
A move Georg Kaspersen 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. Georg Kaspersen is living that version at Odd, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad10 Dec 2035
A row about effort at Odd
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stefan Melentijević was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad10 Dec 2035
A falling-out at Odd
Isaac Frimpong and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout10 Dec 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Stefan Melentijević, and the manager let it.
Squad10 Dec 2035
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Odd can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Market10 Dec 2035
Odd and Josias Furaha are talking past each other
“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.
Market10 Dec 2035
2 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Odd money.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces29 Oct 2035
Supporters organise against the Odd 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.
Market29 Oct 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Odd is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout29 Oct 2035
Jiří Floder says Odd went back on their word
“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.
Squad29 Oct 2035
A row about effort at Odd
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Samuel Skree Skjeldal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad29 Oct 2035
Tempers go at Odd
Isaac Frimpong 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.
Looking ahead29 Oct 2035
Both clubs in the mire, one fixture between them, and a ground that will be louder and more frightened than at any point in the season. Odd know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.
The dugout29 Oct 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Enoch Dzeble, and the manager let it.
The dugout29 Oct 2035
Half-satisfied: Interim Coach on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Market29 Oct 2035
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Mathias Meling has his answer from Odd; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad16 Jul 2035
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad16 Jul 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 Odd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Jul 2035
Stefan Melentijević 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.
Match14 Jul 2035
A bad afternoon for Odd against Viking
0‑1 to Viking, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Match16 Jul 2035
Odd at the halfway mark
Half the programme played, position 16, 8 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Market16 Jul 2035
Odd and Karan Gurung are talking past each other
“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.
The dugout16 Jul 2035
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad16 Jul 2035
6 new faces, and Odd are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Boardroom16 Jul 2035
Nobody arrives at Odd until somebody leaves
The club is not barred from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every name linked with Odd this window arrives with a name leaving in the same sentence.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Jul 2035
Mathias Olsen 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. Mathias Olsen has, at Odd, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Player ratings9 Jul 2035
Einar Iversen pops up at the right end — 7.55
7.55, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Squad9 Jul 2035
A falling-out at Odd
Stefan Melentijević and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad9 Jul 2035
Time is catching up with Raúl Dacosta
Everybody at Odd saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 33 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 dugout9 Jul 2035
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Odd told Richard Ferrington something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout9 Jul 2035
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad9 Jul 2035
The formation has left Mathias Olsen behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Odd will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The dugout9 Jul 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jiří Floder, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match2 Jun 2035
Odd taken apart
0‑4 to Brann, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Match4 Jun 2035
Every point is an argument now for Odd
Position 16 and 4 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad4 Jun 2035
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match2 Jun 2035
No end in sight to Odd's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Odd has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad4 Jun 2035
Words exchanged at Odd
Tommaso Benvenuti 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.
Squad4 Jun 2035
Words at Odd training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuel Skree Skjeldal 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 dugout4 Jun 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Einar Iversen, and the manager let it.
Boardroom4 Jun 2035
Wages swallow 109% of the Odd income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Boardroom4 Jun 2035
Nobody left the Odd dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 May 2035
11 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Market21 May 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Odd is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad21 May 2035
Words exchanged at Odd
Stefan Melentijević 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 May 2035
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.
Match19 May 2035
A bad afternoon for Odd against Valerenga
0‑2 to Valerenga, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout21 May 2035
“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 May 2035
Odd are still strangers to each other
8 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 dugout21 May 2035
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Boardroom21 May 2035
Odd can only buy what they sell
Nobody has barred the club from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every incoming name comes with an outgoing one attached.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market23 Apr 2035
Only the photograph left for Isaac Lufuiku
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Isaac Lufuiku will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Odd the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad23 Apr 2035
A one-man rearguard from Jiří Floder
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad23 Apr 2035
A row about effort at Odd
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Samuel Skree Skjeldal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad23 Apr 2035
A falling-out at Odd
Isaac Frimpong and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match21 Apr 2035
Odd get the job done against Molde
A 2‑0 win over Molde, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings23 Apr 2035
A defender's afternoon for Magnus Mehl
Defensive actions: 20. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings23 Apr 2035
Marked 8.38. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Odd.
The dugout23 Apr 2035
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Interim Coach, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Player ratings23 Apr 2035
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 15 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Mar 2035
The knee: Denys Palii out for 38 days
38 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Odd lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad5 Mar 2035
Javi Vázquez breaks a bone — 90 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 90 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market5 Mar 2035
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Giorgos Charalampoglou will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Odd the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets5 Mar 2035
The deal with Valerenga 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.
Squad5 Mar 2035
Tempers go at Odd
Stefan Melentijević 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.
The dugout5 Mar 2035
The manager makes an example of Isaac Lufuiku
“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.
Market5 Mar 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.
Squad5 Mar 2035
8 new faces, and Odd are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Transfer targets5 Mar 2035
Molde have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.