Marked for Håkon Lorentzen
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 Aug 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
The wait goes on for IK Start
5 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Steve Mvoué 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 IK Start this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Defensive actions: 21. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A defender's afternoon for Steve Mvoué
Defensive actions: 16. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gustav Nyheim, and the manager let it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Angelos Liasos 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 Angelos Liasos trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market31 Aug 2026
Experience through the door at IK Start
Celsinho arrives at 38 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market24 Aug 2026
The Molde deal is off
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Håkon Lorentzen reports back to IK Start with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match22 Aug 2026
No end in sight to IK Start's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at IK Start has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad24 Aug 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 IK Start this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match22 Aug 2026
A bad afternoon for IK Start against Tromso
0‑2 to Tromso, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Johan Meyer 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Shots: 6, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Shots: 4, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Every debut is a small story about the future: Marius Nordal, 19 years old, off the academy pitches and into the first team. The parents in the stand will keep the programme.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The terraces10 Aug 2026
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 5 of the 25 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” John Olav Norheim commits to IK Start for another 3 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Eirik Schulze 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Erlend Dahl Reitan, and the manager let it.
Market10 Aug 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. IK Start will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Match8 Aug 2026
0‑1 to Bodo/Glimt, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market10 Aug 2026
Still no offer on the table, and Eirik Schulze’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and John Olav Norheim trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market3 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what IK Start can pretend not to have heard.
Market3 Aug 2026
The name of Håkon Lorentzen has come up in conversations IK Start were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Steve Mvoué and IK Start agree another 4 years.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Defensive actions: 23. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad3 Aug 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 IK Start this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Marked 8.79 — 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.
Squad3 Aug 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
Three points for IK Start, 1‑0 the final word against Lillestrom in a contest settled by the finer margins.