“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; Haugesund are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nana Boakye was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Haugesund this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Ole Ajer chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Amund Wichne trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Axel Rouquette 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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words at Haugesund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nana Boakye 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.
Jakob Swift is 20, and Haugesund have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Haugesund have made the call to BK Hacken. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Haugesund have made the call to IFK Goteborg. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Haugesund are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The chase for Nana Boakye ended with $1.5M changing hands and Brann out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Izer Aliu has just signed for Haugesund, and for once the answer mattered.
Haugesund have gone to Odd with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Nana Boakye was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $1.5M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Izer Aliu 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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Nana Boakye 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mattias Lamhauge trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
The dugoutVegard Solheim has become a man the manager trusts
71 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Aarau lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Aarau can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Aarau have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Ravenna keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aarau this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
102 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Aarau lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Aarau can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aarau this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Aarau can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
7 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Aarau can pretend not to have heard.
Arne Sicker 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ibrahima Cissé 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.
Neuchâtel Xamax will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Altin Azemi has pre-agreed a move to Aarau, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Aarau asked and Lugano said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 23 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Aarau, and it is not being withdrawn.
Kaly Sène 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 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Aarau will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ibrahima Cissé 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Aarau. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
In brief
The dugoutIzer Aliu asks for a word with the manager
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aarau this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
Arne Sicker 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Izer Aliu 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.
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Mamadou Fofana was the best thing in any of them.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Simon Zalokar has his answer from Aarau; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aarau this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Aarau, another week without a signature from Arne Sicker.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Mamadou Fofana has come out of that comparison in the side, and Aarau have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Serge Müller 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 dugout2 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Haris Zakaria chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
“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 Aarau, and it is not being withdrawn.
$3.2M on the table at IK Sirius. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 22 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Aarau until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aarau this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Shkëlqim Vladi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Aarau asked and Udinese said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Dorian Derbaci is the division's best young player this month
At 20 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Aarau will try very hard not to make too much of it.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Ibrahima Cissé is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.