Marked for Brinder Singh
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces25 Jan 2027
The mood at Mjondalen has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Match25 Jan 2027
Mjondalen are in real trouble now
Position 16, 6 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad25 Jan 2027
David Hickson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom25 Jan 2027
Wages swallow 125% of the Mjondalen 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.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
Tobias Flem 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.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Erik Kristiansen, and the manager let it.
Market25 Jan 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Tobias Flem’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
The manager makes Brinder Singh a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Mjondalen. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Oliver Midtgård plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
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.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
“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.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
“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; Morten Lien recited it perfectly.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Peder Klausen 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.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
The bill for the sacking has arrived. Jonas Elyounoussi leaves with $15.1K for the time left on his deal, and that money buys the club nothing it can put on the pitch.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
A fresh start for Thomas Grøgaard under the new man
Nothing resets a career like somebody arriving who did not pick the side last season. Thomas Grøgaard has taken the hint, and Mjondalen are getting a version of him the previous regime had stopped seeing.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Brinder Singh, and the manager let it.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
Peder Klausen 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 Mjondalen, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market4 Jan 2027
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Mathias Bringaker leaves Mjondalen the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Dec 2026
David Hickson 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 dugout14 Dec 2026
Tobias Flem 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 Mjondalen, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market14 Dec 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Mjondalen know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
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 Ware Peter Natana is on it.
Squad14 Dec 2026
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Mjondalen will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
The scrutiny sharpens at Mjondalen
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Mjondalen is running low.
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Jonas Elyounoussi has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market7 Dec 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Mjondalen is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad7 Dec 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mjondalen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Mjondalen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tobias Bjørnebye 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 dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Nickolay Årsbog
“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 dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager's exit leaves Thomas Grøgaard exposed
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Thomas Grøgaard is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
Squad7 Dec 2026
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Keerat Singh Mann is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Tobias Flem 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
Uneasy
Match30 Nov 2026
Mjondalen are in real trouble now
Position 16, 6 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
The terraces30 Nov 2026
Supporters organise against the Mjondalen 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.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mjondalen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
Wages eat 146% of everything Mjondalen earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Brinder Singh, and the manager let it.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Mjondalen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tobias Bjørnebye 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 dugout30 Nov 2026
Ridouan Essaeh 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 Ridouan Essaeh trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Thomas Grøgaard has seen what the next man earns
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Mjondalen that is a harder question to answer.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces2 Nov 2026
Anger at Mjondalen spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Match2 Nov 2026
Mjondalen sink to position 15
6 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages swallow 146% of the Mjondalen 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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 10 actions, 6.62, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Kweku Kekeli and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Kweku Kekeli slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Kweku Kekeli is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Brinder Singh
“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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match24 Oct 2026
11 matches without a win, and then this, against Hødd. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Mjondalen may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Mjondalen
David Hickson 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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match24 Oct 2026
Hødd made Mjondalen work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Mjondalen
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kweku Kekeli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Jonas Elyounoussi on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Erik Kristiansen, and the manager let it.