Marked for Liam Grimshaw
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom21 May 2029
the manager takes the Valerenga job
“I have watched this squad. There is more in it than the table says.” First press conference, first promise — the manager made the one every new manager makes, and now comes the part where it gets checked.
Match19 May 2029
It had gone 14 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Squad21 May 2029
6 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.
Squad21 May 2029
Words exchanged at Valerenga
Ghayas Zahid 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 2029
Cosimo Basile gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Cosimo Basile has just signed for Valerenga, and for once the answer mattered.
Match19 May 2029
It finished 1‑0, and it was Ghayas Zahid’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Valerenga.
Squad21 May 2029
200 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Looking ahead21 May 2029
The neighbours are next for Valerenga
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. Lillestrom on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
Player ratings21 May 2029
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
In brief
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The dugout
A clean slate for Ole Sæter
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
Liam Grimshaw gets it from the manager
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 May 2029
No end in sight to Valerenga's wait for a win
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Valerenga has to find a result from somewhere.
Market7 May 2029
Dennis Gjengaar wants to know where this is going
“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 Valerenga hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad7 May 2029
Ole Sæter 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.
The dugout7 May 2029
The manager makes an example of Oscar Hedvall
“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.
Match5 May 2029
0‑2 to Sogndal, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad7 May 2029
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 34 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Valerenga is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Boardroom7 May 2029
Wages swallow 109% of the Valerenga 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.
Loan watch7 May 2029
“Every summer it is another club, another set of team-mates, another manager to convince. I have done all that. Now I want a pre-season at Valerenga and a proper look at me.” He remains Viborg’s player until the spell runs out — but the argument is with the club that owns him.
The dugout7 May 2029
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom9 Apr 2029
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
Match7 Apr 2029
8 matches without a win for Valerenga
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Valerenga are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom9 Apr 2029
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Thomas Bohinen recited it perfectly.
Squad9 Apr 2029
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.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
Rasmus Ahlgren: 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.” Valerenga have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad9 Apr 2029
A move Espen Krogedal 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. Espen Krogedal is living that version at Valerenga, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Ole Sæter 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.
Market9 Apr 2029
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Market9 Apr 2029
The shirt still fits. Aristide Cornelis is back at Valerenga, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom24 Jul 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Newport County
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market24 Jul 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Newport County is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Transfer targets24 Jul 2028
The offer went to Leeds United this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets24 Jul 2028
No deal for Osman Kamara at that price
Newport County offered $1.9M; Blackburn Rovers said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Transfer targets24 Jul 2028
The offer went to Bolton Wanderers this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets24 Jul 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Newcastle United have kept their man, and Newport County go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Liam Grimshaw and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout24 Jul 2028
“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.
Squad24 Jul 2028
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Newport County will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market17 Apr 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Newport County is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Newport County have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings17 Apr 2028
Jordan Graham, 33, rolls back the years — 7.91
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.91 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match15 Apr 2028
A 2‑1 win over Cheltenham Town, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Liam Grimshaw 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.
Player ratings17 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
Aaron Nemane 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.
Match15 Apr 2028
Newport County settle it inside twenty minutes
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Cheltenham Town spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Nathan Clarke could afford to be generous.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market3 Apr 2028
Chris Long 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 Newport County can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Newport County is running low.
Squad3 Apr 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Luke Brattan and Newport County agree another 1 years.
Squad3 Apr 2028
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Newport County can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Luke Brattan 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.
Match1 Apr 2028
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
Matt Smith 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.
Market3 Apr 2028
“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.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match26 Feb 2028
10 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.
Market28 Feb 2028
Harry McKirdy 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 Newport County can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets28 Feb 2028
No deal for Harvey Vale at that price
Newport County offered $1.2M; Queens Park Rangers said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Boardroom28 Feb 2028
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Ilmari Niskanen has agreed terms with Chesterfield for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Player ratings28 Feb 2028
Jordan Graham ran the middle of the pitch — 6.80
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 13 combined actions and a mark of 6.80, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Liam Grimshaw 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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
200 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Player ratings28 Feb 2028
Marked 6.55 on 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
“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
Uneasy
Match19 Feb 2028
No end in sight to Newport County's wait for a win
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Newport County has to find a result from somewhere.
Market21 Feb 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Newport County is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Juan David Cabezas 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.
Transfer targets21 Feb 2028
The window shuts on the Lucas Thomas deal
Newport County ran out of time with Luton Town. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Market21 Feb 2028
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Harry McKirdy has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Newport County.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Ruben Curley 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.
Match19 Feb 2028
A 1‑1 draw with Northampton Town leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
The manager makes an example of Benji Wetshi
“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.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
Half-satisfied: Nathan Clarke on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Jan 2028
“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.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
$1.2M on the table at Queens Park Rangers. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Player ratings24 Jan 2028
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.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
Bournemouth wanted more than $76.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
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.
Match18 Jan 2028
Walsall left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
“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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Cole Jarvis 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 targets24 Jan 2028
A loan enquiry to Wrexham: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match8 Jan 2028
No end in sight to Newport County's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Newport County has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings10 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Newport County have done the hard part with Blackburn Rovers, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Market10 Jan 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Newport County can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
$34.0K on the table at Cardiff City. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad10 Jan 2028
A muscle injury and 14 days out for Luke Brattan
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Newport County will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
Newport County asked and Luton Town said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match8 Jan 2028
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Newport County can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Liam Grimshaw and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match1 Jan 2028
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Newport County are no longer polite ones.
Market3 Jan 2028
Ruben Curley 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 Newport County can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets3 Jan 2028
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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Newport County this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout3 Jan 2028
“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.
Match1 Jan 2028
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Match28 Dec 2027
0‑1 to Barnet, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
Market3 Jan 2028
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Liam Grimshaw has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Newport County.