From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market20 Sep 2027
Giorgos Naoum 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 Sarpsborg 08 can pretend not to have heard.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Marius Andresen: 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.” Sarpsborg 08 have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match18 Sep 2027
A 1-0 win over Valerenga, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad20 Sep 2027
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Jo Inge Berget will call it something else in private.
Squad20 Sep 2027
The manager makes an example of Anders Hiim
“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 terraces20 Sep 2027
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market3 May 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.
Loan watch3 May 2027
“I did not go to Valerenga to sit and watch. I want to come back to Sarpsborg 08 and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
Squad3 May 2027
“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 May 2027
Beaten 0-1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market3 May 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.
Squad3 May 2027
“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
Market1 Mar 2027
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Sarpsborg 08 will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Jo Inge Berget 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.
Market1 Mar 2027
The name of Eirik Wichne keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Sarpsborg 08 say nothing, which says plenty.
Market1 Mar 2027
A season-long audition: FH still own him, but the shirt and the minutes are Sarpsborg 08's to give. A loan is a bet both clubs believe they are winning.
Squad1 Mar 2027
A new face in his position, and Martin Bakkenget suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Sarpsborg 08 have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market22 Feb 2027
Bodo/Glimt come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Sarpsborg 08 did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad22 Feb 2027
“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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Camil Mmaee commits to Sarpsborg 08 for another 4 years.
Market22 Feb 2027
Valerenga are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Sarpsborg 08 will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Boardroom22 Feb 2027
93% of the income goes out in wages at Sarpsborg 08
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Jo Inge Berget 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 Sarpsborg 08, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market15 Feb 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sarpsborg 08 can pretend not to have heard.
Market15 Feb 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Sarpsborg 08 have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Market15 Feb 2027
Bop Guèye has left for Valerenga in a $91.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad15 Feb 2027
“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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Victor Halvorsen 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
Market1 Feb 2027
Anders Hiim 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 Sarpsborg 08 can pretend not to have heard.
Squad1 Feb 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Martin Bakkenget commits to Sarpsborg 08 for another 4 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Jan 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sarpsborg 08 have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sarpsborg 08, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad11 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Sigurd Rosted
“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
Match31 Oct 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 10 matches without defeat is a foundation Sarpsborg 08 did not have in the autumn.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
191% of the income goes out in wages at Sarpsborg 08
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
Squad2 Nov 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.
Market2 Nov 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad2 Nov 2026
The captaincy has been taken off Bjørn Inge Utvik. Sarpsborg 08 will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
Market2 Nov 2026
2 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Sarpsborg 08 could get for him.
Match31 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Haugesund will be the happier side with the point.
Market2 Nov 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sarpsborg 08 know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad2 Nov 2026
It is a strip of cloth and it decides nothing on a Saturday. It still tells the dressing room exactly whose opinion the manager values, which is the whole point of it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jo Inge Berget and Sarpsborg 08 agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market3 Aug 2026
The name of Noa Williams has come up in conversations Sarpsborg 08 were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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
0-1 to Viking, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Market3 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad3 Aug 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 Sarpsborg 08, and both men came out saying it was fine.