29 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Aalesund lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Aalesund can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
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.
6 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Aalesund have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Aalesund can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom8 Apr 2030
Aalesund close the window on a squad of their own making
8 in and 7 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
36 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Aalesund lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luca Galli will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Aalesund the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Sander Kartum 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.
Squad1 Apr 2030
Emil Engqvist 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sarpsborg 08 have kept their man, and Aalesund go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Aalesund have made the call to Sarpsborg 08. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
In brief
The dugoutPedro Gomes without the man who signed him
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Luka Elsnik
The words a physio says slowly. 44 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Rosenborg 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 Aalesund this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Aalesund asked and Rosenborg said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad25 Mar 2030
Words at Aalesund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tuomas Pippola 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.
Aalesund have made the call to Sarpsborg 08. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The words a physio says slowly. 53 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Aalesund can pretend not to have heard.
Pedro Gomes and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Mar 2030
Emil Engqvist 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. IK Start have kept their man, and Aalesund go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Sarpsborg 08 have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
62 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Aalesund 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 Aalesund can pretend not to have heard.
“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; Aalesund are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Pedro Gomes 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Emil Engqvist was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Fredrikstad have kept their man, and Aalesund go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Sarpsborg 08 have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Nobody has barred the club from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every incoming name comes with an outgoing one attached.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Endre Osenbroch trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The mood at Aalesund 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 70 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Aalesund can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Aalesund is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Pedro Gomes 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mjondalen have kept their man, and Aalesund go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tuomas Pippola was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Aalesund have made the call to Stromsgodset. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
In brief
The dugoutSander Kartum without the man who signed him
The words a physio says slowly. 77 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Rosenborg pay $400.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad25 Feb 2030
Words at Aalesund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emil Engqvist 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Haugesund have kept their man, and Aalesund go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aalesund this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
84 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Aalesund 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 Aalesund 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 Aalesund this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Rosenborg will make the call about Uba Charles this week. Aalesund have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad18 Feb 2030
Words at Aalesund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emil Engqvist 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Stromsgodset have kept their man, and Aalesund go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The words a physio says slowly. 92 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“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 Aalesund, and it is not being withdrawn.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Pedro Gomes 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.
Squad11 Feb 2030
Uba Charles 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.
Aalesund asked and Hødd said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Aalesund can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The manager has a list and the board has a condition attached to it. That is not a crisis — half of football works this way — but it decides which of the two of them gets his way in August.
100 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Aalesund lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
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.
“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 Aalesund, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Aalesund is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Pedro Gomes 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Emil Engqvist was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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; Aalesund are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
108 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Aalesund lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emil Engqvist was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Endre Osenbroch trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Aalesund know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
115 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Aalesund lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aalesund 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 Uba Charles was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Aalesund, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Sander Kartum signs something — a contract at Aalesund or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Aalesund would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Nobody at Aalesund will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
124 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Aalesund lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Pedro Gomes 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Uba Charles was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Aalesund will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The club is not barred from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every name linked with Aalesund this window arrives with a name leaving in the same sentence.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Uba Charles signs something — a contract at Aalesund or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Emiljano Mihana is on it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes Simone Curzi a promise
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Aalesund is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emil Engqvist was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Charlie Vindehall 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.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Sander Kartum is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Aalesund, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Tuomas Pippola has just signed for Aalesund, and for once the answer mattered.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aalesund this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Dec 2029
Words at Aalesund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Uba Charles 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Aalesund are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Aalesund know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Simone Curzi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Aalesund is running low.
Squad24 Dec 2029
Words at Aalesund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Uba Charles 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aalesund this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Sander Kartum signs something — a contract at Aalesund or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nobody at Aalesund will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Aalesund. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Emil Engqvist 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.
Luca Galli 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.
Nobody has barred the club from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every incoming name comes with an outgoing one attached.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Uba Charles signs something — a contract at Aalesund or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Aalesund they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Uba Charles was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Aalesund can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Luca Galli 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Aalesund, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Aalesund can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad3 Dec 2029
Words at Aalesund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Uba Charles 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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Endre Osenbroch trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Aalesund may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Words at Aalesund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emil Engqvist 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Sander Kartum signs something — a contract at Aalesund or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Lorenzo Miconi is on it.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
In brief
BoardroomThe Aalesund production line keeps running
SquadThe training reports on Simon Zalokar are not good
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Luca Galli has agreed terms with Odd for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Uba Charles 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.
Marc Rochester 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.
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
6 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.
“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 Aalesund know it.
The manager has a list and the board has a condition attached to it. That is not a crisis — half of football works this way — but it decides which of the two of them gets his way in August.
Position 13 on 30 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Aalesund 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.” Aalesund have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Aalesund can tell you which week it ends in.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Aalesund is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Uba Charles was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marc Rochester 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Aalesund can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emil Engqvist was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aalesund this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
5 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.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Uba Charles 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.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Marc Rochester and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout29 Oct 2029
The manager has not finished forgetting Emil Engqvist's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
4 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.
Squad22 Oct 2029
Uba Charles 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.
Marc Rochester 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.
8 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Sebastian Heredia-Randen knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Aalesund lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad15 Oct 2029
Words at Aalesund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emil Engqvist 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Aalesund is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
“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 Aalesund know it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Aalesund know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nobody at Aalesund will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Still no offer on the table, and Oliver N'Guessan’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
In brief
The dugoutMarc Rochester asks for a word with the manager
MarketThe clock does Marc Rochester’s negotiating for him
24 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Aalesund lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Aalesund, and it is not being withdrawn.
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Squad8 Oct 2029
Words at Aalesund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Uba Charles 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.
“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 Aalesund know it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aalesund this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout8 Oct 2029
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Miroslav Zolotov to a room that had heard them before.
31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Aalesund lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Oct 2029
Words at Aalesund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Uba Charles 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.
Marked 8.01 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“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 Aalesund know it.
Something was said to Peter Degnes and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Aalesund lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emil Engqvist was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Marc Rochester 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Sebastian Heredia-Randen is on it.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Odd? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
The words a physio says slowly. 46 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Charlie Vindehall is living that version at Aalesund, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Uba Charles was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marc Rochester 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Aalesund pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
The words a physio says slowly. 53 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Uba Charles 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 Aalesund this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Aalesund can pretend not to have heard.
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Aalesund are no longer polite ones.
Squad3 Sep 2029
Words at Aalesund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emil Engqvist 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.
Aalesund asked and IK Start said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Something was said to Sander Kartum and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout3 Sep 2029
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 Miroslav Zolotov left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
Boardroom89% of the income goes out in wages at Aalesund
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Aalesund lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.75 for the rest of it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Uba Charles was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Aalesund asked and Brommapojkarna said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Francesco Simoncelli 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 dugout27 Aug 2029
The manager has not finished forgetting Endre Osenbroch's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Nobody at Aalesund will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Aalesund lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
0‑3 against Brann, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
The terraces20 Aug 2029
A cup hiding at Brann leaves Aalesund explaining themselves
0-3, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 18 arrived, 21 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Uba Charles was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. KFUM Oslo have kept their man, and Aalesund go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The words a physio says slowly. 35 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kristian Agolli will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Aalesund the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Aalesund now.
Squad13 Aug 2029
Emil Engqvist 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Stromsgodset have kept their man, and Aalesund go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Åsane were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
The words a physio says slowly. 42 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“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 Aalesund, and it is not being withdrawn.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
5 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Aalesund is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Words at Aalesund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Uba Charles 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.
Aalesund asked and Brommapojkarna said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
51 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Aalesund lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Aalesund they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Mathias Christensen 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.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Words at Aalesund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Uba Charles 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sarpsborg 08 have kept their man, and Aalesund go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
58 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Aalesund lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emil Engqvist was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mjondalen have kept their man, and Aalesund go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 11 actions, 6.93, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Marc Rochester 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.
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
66 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Aalesund lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Aalesund, and it is not being withdrawn.
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Words at Aalesund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Uba Charles 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.
“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 Aalesund know it.
Position 10, 19 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
74 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Aalesund lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
0‑3 to Egersund, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Aalesund is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Words at Aalesund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Uba Charles 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Miroslav Zolotov after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aalesund this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
In brief
Looking aheadAalesund take on the side everybody is chasing
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Josh Smith
82 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Aalesund lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 85th, and Viking spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Aalesund they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emil Engqvist was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
92 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Aalesund lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Uba Charles was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Sebastian Heredia-Randen has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Marc Rochester 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 dugout25 Jun 2029
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Miroslav Zolotov to a room that had heard them before.
Shots: 7. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
100 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Aalesund lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Uba Charles 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.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Tobias Leikanger. 2‑0 against Mjondalen, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aalesund this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
9 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The words a physio says slowly. 108 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.86 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Aalesund is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emil Engqvist was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Miroslav Zolotov on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Aalesund are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The words a physio says slowly. 116 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kristian Agolli will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Aalesund the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Aalesund are no longer polite ones.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Words at Aalesund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Uba Charles 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.
Marc Rochester 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.
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.
The dugout4 Jun 2029
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Miroslav Zolotov left the room before anybody could ask which.
The words a physio says slowly. 125 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Emiljano Mihana has, at Aalesund, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Uba Charles was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout28 May 2029
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Miroslav Zolotov left the room before anybody could ask which.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kristoffer Nessø trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Aalesund know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
1 for Artem Ponomarchuk, marked 7.53, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emil Engqvist was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Elvis Hansson 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.
Squad21 May 2029
7 new faces, and Aalesund are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Aalesund will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Aalesund is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Uba Charles was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Lorenzo Miconi has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Sandefjord tried to reorganise, Aalesund did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Marc Rochester 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.
“I have supported clubs like this one. I know what a bad Saturday feels like here.” The new man starts with nothing behind him and everything in front of him.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kristian Agolli will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Aalesund the goodbyes have quietly begun.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Uba Charles was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Aalesund is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Adil El Ghaddouri has agreed terms with Moss for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emil Engqvist 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 Aalesund this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
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.” Interim Coach 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 Sebastian Heredia-Randen trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Aalesund have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Aalesund they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Uba Charles 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. KFUM Oslo have kept their man, and Aalesund go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Tobias Leikanger has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
It finished 2‑0, and it was Sunday Williams’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Aalesund.
Player ratings23 Apr 2029
Sunday Williams was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.16. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Marc Rochester 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Frankie Edwards will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Aalesund the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Words at Aalesund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Uba Charles 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.
11 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Marc Rochester 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.
There is nobody left to promote and nobody left to run a session. The board have brought in a name the supporters do not know, and the question of how a club gets here will outlast whoever answers it.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Mathias Christensen scored in the 85th minute, Ranheim had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Aalesund took the lot.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Interim Coach recited it perfectly.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Mathias Christensen scored, was marked 7.44, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Xavi Woudstra will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Aalesund the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Lorenzo Domingues De Matos 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emil Engqvist was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Aalesund, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Bodo/Glimt keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 2 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Aalesund they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Frankie Edwards has agreed terms with Moss for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Uba Charles 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.
Aalesund asked and Haugesund said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 Aalesund, and it is not being withdrawn.
He is going to Stromsgodset, the club has $3.0M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Francesco Di Bartolo has, at Aalesund, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Uba Charles was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. KFUM Oslo have kept their man, and Aalesund go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Marc Rochester 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.
“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 Aalesund, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Aalesund they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Aalesund had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Brann, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Xander Vandenberghe has agreed terms with Raufoss for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emil Engqvist was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Brommapojkarna have kept their man, and Aalesund go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Marius Fagerhaug 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.
Aalesund have made the call to KFUM Oslo. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“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 Aalesund, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Aalesund they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The deal with Brann is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Words at Aalesund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Uba Charles 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Aalesund can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Aalesund they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Words at Aalesund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Uba Charles 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aalesund this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A loan enquiry to Brommapojkarna: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Aalesund now.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Emil Engqvist 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.
Marc Rochester 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Aalesund can pretend not to have heard.
Everything agreed with KFUM Oslo, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Uba Charles was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hødd have kept their man, and Aalesund go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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 Aalesund know it.
Frankie Edwards 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.
Aalesund have made the call to Sarpsborg 08. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Aalesund is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
HamKam paid $200.0K and Aalesund took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Uba Charles 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sogndal have kept their man, and Aalesund go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aalesund this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mario Paura will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Aalesund the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Mario Paura has agreed terms with IK Start for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emil Engqvist was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Aalesund asked and Stromsgodset said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aalesund this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Aalesund has been clear about where Marius Andresen stands, which is more than many ever get.
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Aalesund lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Uba Charles was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Janus Seehusen 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Aalesund, and both men came out saying it was fine.
24 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Aalesund lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Uba Charles 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.
Janus Seehusen 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Elias Myrlid trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Emil Engqvist 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.
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.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Aalesund would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Marc Rochester trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Aalesund will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Marius Andresen and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Uba Charles 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Aalesund know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Aalesund would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Aalesund now.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Words at Aalesund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Uba Charles 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.
Janus Seehusen 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.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
Nobody at Aalesund will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Emil Engqvist 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.
Janus Seehusen 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Aalesund. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Words at Aalesund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Uba Charles 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.
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.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Mathias Christensen may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Aalesund, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Aalesund will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Uba Charles 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 Aalesund 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 Aalesund can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Elias Myrlid trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kristoffer Nessø and Aalesund agree another 2 years.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Emil Engqvist 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.
Janus Seehusen 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Aalesund, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Uba Charles was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Janus Seehusen 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kristoffer Nessø trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Uba Charles was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Aalesund will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
18 graduates, from a department now rated 9 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
Position 7 on 44 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emil Engqvist was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 35 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aalesund this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Aalesund is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Aalesund may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Uba Charles 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.
Janus Seehusen 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Kristoffer Nessø has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Emil Engqvist is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Emil Engqvist 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.
Janus Seehusen 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.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Hødd defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Fallou Sock did not need any: 7.83, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.98 for the rest of it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Aalesund have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Words at Aalesund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emil Engqvist 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.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Aalesund lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Words at Aalesund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Uba Charles 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aalesund this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Kongsvinger in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Aalesund know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Aalesund that is a harder question to answer.
Position 6, 40 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
26 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Aalesund lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.68 for the rest of it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Aalesund have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Sander Kartum commits to Aalesund for another 2 years.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Uba Charles 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.
Janus Seehusen 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.
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 Kristoffer Nessø.
Level with 90 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Aalesund had all but put away. Lyn will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sander Kartum and Aalesund agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Emil Engqvist 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.
Janus Seehusen 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Elias Myrlid. 2‑0 against Mjondalen, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Erling Svensson could afford to be generous.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Aalesund, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Fallou Sock did not need any: 7.67, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Emil Engqvist 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.
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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 2‑2, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Fallou Sock’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Aalesund needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“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.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Emil Engqvist 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aalesund this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Fallou Sock had Aalesund level again within 4 minutes, and Odd never got to play with a lead at all.
Words at Aalesund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emil Engqvist 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.
Janus Seehusen 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.
“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 Aalesund know it.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Aalesund are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Uba Charles signs something — a contract at Aalesund or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sunday Williams trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Aalesund has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Emil Engqvist 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.
Janus Seehusen 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.
“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 dugout4 Sep 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Erling Svensson to a room that had heard them before.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Aalesund told Sunday Williams something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Aalesund, and both men came out saying it was fine.
4 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.
The first defeat in 8 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Sandefjord; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emil Engqvist 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 Aalesund this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Aalesund have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom21 Aug 2028
Aalesund close the window on a squad of their own making
28 in and 12 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emil Engqvist was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Aalesund has been clear about where Marc Rochester stands, which is more than many ever get.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Aalesund are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Erling Svensson after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Uba Charles was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Janus Seehusen 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Aalesund have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emil Engqvist was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Janus Seehusen 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Sander Kartum is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Aalesund can pretend not to have heard.
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Aalesund have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Words at Aalesund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emil Engqvist 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aalesund this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
50 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Erling Svensson could afford to be generous.
Brann paid $210.0K and Aalesund took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Uba Charles was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Elias Myrlid. 1‑0 against Ranheim, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The name of Ulrik Fredriksen has come up in conversations Aalesund were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emil Engqvist was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Elias Myrlid. 3‑1 against Bryne, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Janus Seehusen 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.
Half the programme played, position 7, 23 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
“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 Aalesund know it.
14 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ulrik Fredriksen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Aalesund the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Ulrik Fredriksen has agreed terms with Fredrikstad for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at Aalesund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emil Engqvist 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.
Janus Seehusen 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.
“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; Aalesund are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“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.
The dugout10 Jul 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Erling Svensson was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Aalesund dressing room was either.
7.75, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Words at Aalesund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Uba Charles 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aalesund 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.
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emil Engqvist was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Aalesund told Endre Osenbroch something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Erling Svensson after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Elias Myrlid’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Aalesund needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Words at Aalesund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emil Engqvist 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.
Janus Seehusen 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.
12 combined actions and 6.79. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
16 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout19 Jun 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Erling Svensson to a room that had heard them before.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Uba Charles 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 Aalesund this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout12 Jun 2028
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Erling Svensson, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Elias Myrlid will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Aalesund escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Simon Pavlo is living that version at Aalesund, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Emil Engqvist 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aalesund this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
1 for Emil Engqvist, marked 7.72, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Emil Engqvist 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.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Erling Svensson after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Moss in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Simone Curzi has just signed for Aalesund, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad22 May 2028
Words at Aalesund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Uba Charles 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.
Janus Seehusen 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.
15 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.70 on the card, and the Aalesund support went home talking about one name.
The dugout22 May 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Erling Svensson kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad15 May 2028
Uba Charles 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.
Janus Seehusen 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.
11 combined actions and 6.86. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Erling Svensson after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.