Marked for Romano Postema
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market22 Feb 2027
“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.
Match18 Feb 2027
Viking come up short in Europe
1‑2 away to the standard of Feyenoord. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
Squad22 Feb 2027
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.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Viking may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market22 Feb 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Viking have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Match18 Feb 2027
No end in sight to Viking's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Viking has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad22 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Viking this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Erik Botheim
15 goals and a season average of 7.26 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Market22 Feb 2027
Lyn pay $470.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 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 Viking this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Dec 2026
The step up is real for Ola Visted
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad28 Dec 2026
17 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
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.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Martin Ove Roseth trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market28 Dec 2026
The Joe Bell talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Viking know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad30 Nov 2026
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Ľubomír Belko: 3 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
Viking book their European place
Done, and with games to spare. Next season has floodlit nights against clubs from other countries in it, and the accounts have a line they did not have last year.
Match26 Nov 2026
1‑1 against Neftchi, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Henrik Bjørdal was at the centre of the description.
Match29 Nov 2026
The small margins put Viking out
Out, 1‑1 to Brann, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Viking
Joe Bell 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.
Match29 Nov 2026
Still nobody has beaten Viking
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Henrik Bjørdal was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.08. 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.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
No place for Zlatko Tripic on the big day
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Viking pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Chances created: 13. Nothing on the scoresheet and everything in the match: the pass before the pass, over and over, until the defence stopped guessing right.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Viking
Joe Bell 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Romano Postema and Viking agree another 3 years.
Boardroom12 Oct 2026
KFUM Oslo will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Teodor Haltvik has pre-agreed a move to Viking, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Viking are still strangers to each other
6 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 dugout12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jakob Segadal Hansen, and the manager let it.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
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.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Joe Bell 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 Joe Bell trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market12 Oct 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Viking know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Sarpsborg 08 in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Sep 2026
Chastening afternoon for Heracles
A 0‑3 beating by PSV was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Market14 Sep 2026
“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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Tjark Scheller 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 targets14 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. FC Copenhagen have kept their man, and Heracles go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“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.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Tjark Scheller 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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑3 Cody De Vrij left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match12 Aug 2026
Cup progress for Viking
A 2‑0 win over Hødd, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Market17 Aug 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Viking people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market17 Aug 2026
So close: Joe Bell’s move dies late
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. HamKam moved on, Joe Bell reports back to Viking, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Market17 Aug 2026
Esbjerg come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Viking did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Niklas Fuglestad at 20 — 8.09
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Niklas Fuglestad did not need any: 8.09, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The offer went to CSKA Sofia 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Viking 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$1.6M was the most the club would pay and Fredrikstad 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match1 Aug 2026
4‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Market3 Aug 2026
Viking say no — this time
The offer from OB for Peter Christiansen was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.12, and nobody on the pitch better.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.28 for the rest of it.
Market3 Aug 2026
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Zlatko Tripic and Viking agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Viking
Henrik Bjørdal 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Viljar Vevatne again, and this time the name on the line is Bryne. Viking are listening politely and promising nothing.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
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.