Marked for Noa Williams
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match10 Jul 2028
Toluca refuse to drop out of the race
Position 1, 72 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Market10 Jul 2028
Raúl Torres has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Toluca they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Alexis Vega 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 Toluca this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Jul 2028
The manager makes an example of Valentino Acuña
“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.
Squad10 Jul 2028
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Toluca know it.
Market10 Jul 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jesús Ricardo Angulo signs something — a contract at Toluca or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
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Squad
Matías Pérez asks for a word with the manager
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Boardroom
The Toluca board choose calm
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match15 May 2028
Toluca up to position 1
72 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad15 May 2028
Alexis Vega 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 Toluca this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 May 2028
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Toluca know it.
Squad15 May 2028
Edgar López 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.
Loan watch15 May 2028
The goals keep arriving from Oswaldo Virgen’s exile
7 goals in 8 games at New York City — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Toluca updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Market15 May 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Federico Pereira’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad13 Mar 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Sarpsborg 08 may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Aimar Sher 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.
Market13 Mar 2028
Håkon Finstad-Vogt has left for Aalesund in a $63.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market27 Dec 2027
“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 Sarpsborg 08, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad27 Dec 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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sarpsborg 08 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market29 Nov 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.
Loan watch29 Nov 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Sarpsborg 08, and 2 appearances in 39 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Noa Williams 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Oct 2027
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad11 Oct 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 Oct 2027
Eirik Wichne 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 ratings11 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match9 Oct 2027
Sandefjord left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad11 Oct 2027
The team sheet said everything about Christos Gravius
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Christos Gravius.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad13 Sep 2027
Peter Reinhardsen 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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
The manager makes an example of Eirik Wichne
“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 ratings13 Sep 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.19, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.15, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad13 Sep 2027
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
Loan watch13 Sep 2027
“I watch every Sarpsborg 08 game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Molde runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Match11 Sep 2027
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Andreas Nibe 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 Andreas Nibe trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market29 Mar 2027
Noa Williams 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.
Loan watch29 Mar 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Sarpsborg 08, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Matteo Carbone 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Mar 2027
Christos Gravius 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.
Squad22 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.
Market22 Mar 2027
Aimar Sher linked with a move away
The name of Aimar Sher keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Sarpsborg 08 say nothing, which says plenty.
Squad22 Mar 2027
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Sarpsborg 08 that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Eirik Wichne has company in his position
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Eirik Wichne keeps the shirt for now, at Sarpsborg 08's convenience rather than his own.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Mar 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Christos Gravius and Sarpsborg 08 agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market8 Mar 2027
Camil Mmaee has left for Tromso in a $1.0M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Peter Reinhardsen 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Nov 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 Sarpsborg 08 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Nov 2026
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
Crisis
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 37. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match24 Oct 2026
Mjondalen left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad26 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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
5.54 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A new face in his position, and Peter Reinhardsen suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Sarpsborg 08 have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.