Marked for Eirik Saunes
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words exchanged at KFUM Oslo
Daniel Schneider 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.
Match5 Jun 2027
Sarpsborg 08 left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at KFUM Oslo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brage Skaret 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 Jun 2027
Jonas Hjorth 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.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ole Haaland after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Player ratings7 Jun 2027
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
Market7 Jun 2027
“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.
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
KFUM Oslo bank $23.0K from an old deal
The unglamorous genius of a well-written contract. David Hickson is somebody else's player now, and $23.0K has arrived because the people who sold him thought further ahead than the transfer window.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
Brage Skaret 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 KFUM Oslo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match1 May 2027
The wait goes on for KFUM Oslo
13 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.
The dugout3 May 2027
Blerton Isufi: 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.” KFUM Oslo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match1 May 2027
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 8 matches without defeat is a foundation KFUM Oslo did not have in the autumn.
Boardroom3 May 2027
The numbers do not look good at KFUM Oslo
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad3 May 2027
Oliver Braude 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.
Squad3 May 2027
Daniel Schneider 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 dugout3 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Brage Skaret
“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 ratings3 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market3 May 2027
Robin Rasch told to find a new club
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Robin Rasch has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at KFUM Oslo.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets29 Mar 2027
KFUM Oslo had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at PAOK, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad29 Mar 2027
The step up is real for Magnus Mehl
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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Daniel Schneider and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Martin Vinjor 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Omar Bully has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Loan watch29 Mar 2027
“I watch every KFUM Oslo game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Helsingborg runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Jan 2027
30 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. KFUM Oslo lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market25 Jan 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.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Brage Skaret
“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
Squad28 Dec 2026
66 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KFUM Oslo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market28 Dec 2026
“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 KFUM Oslo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market28 Dec 2026
Only the photograph left for Momodou Njie
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Momodou Njie will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around KFUM Oslo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Magnus Wolff Eikrem and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at KFUM Oslo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brage Skaret 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 dugout28 Dec 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Magnus Wolff Eikrem trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market28 Dec 2026
1 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs KFUM Oslo money.
The dugout28 Dec 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.
Market28 Dec 2026
The name of Eirik Saunes keeps appearing in other people's back pages. KFUM Oslo say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Nov 2026
98 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. KFUM Oslo lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad30 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Sander Sjøkvist out for 26 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason KFUM Oslo will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market30 Nov 2026
Momodou Njie has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around KFUM Oslo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad30 Nov 2026
A muscle injury and 16 days out for Robin Rasch
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. KFUM Oslo will quote 16 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Brage Skaret and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Robin Rasch, and the manager let it.
Market30 Nov 2026
1 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what KFUM Oslo could get for him.
Market30 Nov 2026
The name of Eirik Saunes keeps appearing in other people's back pages. KFUM Oslo say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Brage Skaret has been promised minutes
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Brage Skaret has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Oct 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 KFUM Oslo can pretend not to have heard.
Market12 Oct 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at KFUM Oslo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Eirik Saunes and KFUM Oslo agree another 4 years.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The step up is real for Magnus Mehl
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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
At 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Brage Skaret 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 KFUM Oslo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Robin Rasch
“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 dugout12 Oct 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at KFUM Oslo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Magnus Grødem’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and KFUM Oslo needing him to play as if none of it matters.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Oct 2026
KFUM Oslo are in real trouble now
Position 14, 8 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.
Market5 Oct 2026
Momodou Njie has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around KFUM Oslo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match3 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for KFUM Oslo
4 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Emil Ødegaard 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
0‑1 to Kristiansund, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
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.
The dugout5 Oct 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Brage Skaret 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.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.