Marked for Luis Murillo
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market22 May 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Esbjerg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad22 May 2028
Ante Rebić 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 Esbjerg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 May 2028
Lasse Vigen 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Apr 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Esbjerg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Ante Rebić 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 Esbjerg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Apr 2028
The medical room confirms 48 days on the sidelines for Jákup Poulsen, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
In brief
-
Squad
Mads Nielsen falls out with a teammate over standards
-
Squad
7 new faces, and Esbjerg are still learning each other
-
Market
Still no signature from Luis Murillo
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces3 Apr 2028
Anger at Esbjerg spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
The scrutiny sharpens at Esbjerg
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Esbjerg is running low.
Market3 Apr 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Esbjerg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Éder Munive has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Ante Rebić 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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
41 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market27 Mar 2028
Luis Murillo has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Esbjerg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market27 Mar 2028
Marcus Hansen 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 Esbjerg can pretend not to have heard.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Ante Rebić 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 Esbjerg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match20 Mar 2028
Esbjerg sink to position 12
10 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Ante Rebić 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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Esbjerg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lasse Vigen 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces6 Mar 2028
Anger at Esbjerg spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
Pressure builds in the Esbjerg boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad6 Mar 2028
74 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lasse Vigen and Esbjerg agree another 2 years.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Ante Rebić 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.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Birger Meling 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market28 Feb 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Esbjerg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market28 Feb 2028
“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 Esbjerg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom28 Feb 2028
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Luis Murillo has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Ante Rebić 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 Esbjerg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words at Esbjerg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Birger Meling 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 Feb 2028
Too much change too quickly at Esbjerg
12 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.