Marked for Eirik Brekke
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Nov 2036
A knee injury of the worst kind for Stian Sjøvold
76 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sandefjord lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The terraces24 Nov 2036
The mood at Sandefjord 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.
Market24 Nov 2036
Only the photograph left for Elscha Furaha
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Elscha Furaha will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sandefjord the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom28 Jul 2036
Pressure builds in the Sandefjord boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Match26 Jul 2036
The wait goes on for Sandefjord
8 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.
Match28 Jul 2036
Every point is an argument now for Sandefjord
Position 14 and 12 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market28 Jul 2036
“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.
Player ratings28 Jul 2036
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Jul 2036
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sandefjord this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Jul 2036
Words at Sandefjord training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakob Dunsby 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.
Squad28 Jul 2036
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jakob Dunsby, and the manager let it.
Match26 Jul 2036
Molde left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Mar 2036
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sandefjord will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market24 Mar 2036
Add another name to the list: IK Start have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Stian Sjøvold. The answer from Sandefjord has not changed — yet.
Squad24 Mar 2036
Vetle Walle Egeli 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.
Squad24 Mar 2036
Jakob Dunsby 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.
Squad24 Mar 2036
Magnus Holte 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
Market25 Feb 2036
“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.
Squad25 Feb 2036
40 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad25 Feb 2036
Vetle Walle Egeli 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.
Squad25 Feb 2036
Jakob Dunsby 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.
Squad25 Feb 2036
“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.
Market25 Feb 2036
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sandefjord know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Jan 2036
Elias Hadaya breaks a bone — 27 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 27 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom7 Jan 2036
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Boardroom7 Jan 2036
The Sandefjord board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Squad7 Jan 2036
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Sandefjord may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market7 Jan 2036
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Neo Drugge Hysén will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sandefjord the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad7 Jan 2036
“The easiest signature of my career.” Elias Hadaya and Sandefjord agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom26 Mar 2035
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Sandefjord
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market26 Mar 2035
Only the photograph left for Stian Sjøvold
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Stian Sjøvold will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sandefjord the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad26 Mar 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sandefjord this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Mar 2035
Nikolai Skuseth 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.
Squad26 Mar 2035
Elscha Furaha 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 Sandefjord, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad26 Mar 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Neo Drugge Hysén, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom26 Feb 2035
The scrutiny sharpens at Sandefjord
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Sandefjord is running low.
Market26 Feb 2035
Ângelo Campos 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 Sandefjord can pretend not to have heard.
Squad26 Feb 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sandefjord this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Feb 2035
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Sandefjord are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Market26 Feb 2035
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Sandefjord will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad26 Feb 2035
Nikolai Skuseth 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.