Nobody at Bodo/Glimt 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Bodo/Glimt know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
6 clean sheets from 19 appearances at Odd. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Bodo/Glimt would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
1‑2 against Feyenoord, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
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.
1 for Sondre Auklend, marked 7.40, 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.
Jens Petter Hauge 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 Magnus Bech Riisnæs was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Bodo/Glimt pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“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 Bodo/Glimt know it.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 72 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
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.
Jens Petter Hauge was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
72 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
0‑1 against Feyenoord. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bodo/Glimt this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Bodo/Glimt can tell you which week it ends in.
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 Haitam Aleesami.
Something was said to Vegard Erlien and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
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.
7 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Bodo/Glimt told Haitam Aleesami something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Nobody at Bodo/Glimt 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Vince Osuji
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.
Molde next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 94th minute. Stabaek will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Successful dribbles: 28. 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.
Sondre Auklend 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.
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bodo/Glimt this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
1‑1 against Young Boys, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
1 for Sondre Auklend, marked 7.82, 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.
Jens Petter Hauge 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: Andreas Helmersen. 1‑0 against Sarpsborg 08, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“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 Bodo/Glimt know it.
7 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.
325 appearances across 16 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Jens Petter Hauge 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 Magnus Bech Riisnæs was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
19 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
54 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Andreas Helmersen provided it, and the 9.38 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for 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 Bodo/Glimt this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $27.9M has been paid because Yacine Adli is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Boardroom23 Aug 2027
Deadline passes with 15 signed and 10 gone
That is the business done at Bodo/Glimt until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bodo/Glimt this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Bodo/Glimt will try again when the window opens; Lillestrom may not be selling by then.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
The clubs have shaken hands with Al-Shabab; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The deal with Lillestrom 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.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Sondre Auklend 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.
Sandefjord made Bodo/Glimt work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Bodo/Glimt training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Magnus Bech Riisnæs 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.
Bodo/Glimt 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bodo/Glimt have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Jens Petter Hauge 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 Magnus Bech Riisnæs was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
Player ratingsJoel Mvuka was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Two goals and a mark of 9.07 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bodo/Glimt have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Vince Osuji has just signed for Bodo/Glimt, and for once the answer mattered.
The shirt still fits. Aleksander van der Spa is back at Bodo/Glimt, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
The fee is $930.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Tromso drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $9.0M has been paid because Vegard Erlien is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Bodo/Glimt and Tromso have settled on $930.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Bodo/Glimt have gone to Stromsgodset with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Vegard Erlien from Tromso for $9.0M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Bodo/Glimt training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sondre Auklend 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 doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Bodo/Glimt will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Bodo/Glimt asked and CSKA Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
16 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Two goals and a mark of 8.81 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Nikita Haikin: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Successful dribbles: 28. 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.
91 minutes played. Andreas Helmersen found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Lillestrom went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Jens Petter Hauge 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 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.
32 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Bodo/Glimt training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sondre Auklend 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 tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Bodo/Glimt can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
7 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Cassander Dreyer has come out of that comparison in the side, and Bodo/Glimt have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
14 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bodo/Glimt this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Molde next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Minute 88, against Rosenborg, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
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.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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 else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Two goals and a mark of 8.96 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Two goals and a mark of 8.38 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Jens Petter Hauge 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 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
8.20. 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.
The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
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.” Aron Daehli kept it short after the 5‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Successful dribbles: 53. 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Sondre Auklend scored, was marked 7.79, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Bodo/Glimt training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sondre Auklend 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 Bodo/Glimt this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Aron Daehli could afford to be generous.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Bodo/Glimt know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
24 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bodo/Glimt this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Bodo/Glimt training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sondre Auklend 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.
At 19 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Bodo/Glimt will try very hard not to make too much of it.
11 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Oskar Spiten-Nysæter scored in the 87th minute, Sarpsborg 08 had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Bodo/Glimt took the lot.
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
He is 22 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.
10 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
11 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Jens Petter Hauge 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 Sondre Auklend was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Stefano Gori, and the manager let it.
The dugout24 May 2027
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.” Aron Daehli, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
The dugoutStefano Gori dropped after a run of poor form
9 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Mjondalen will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Bodo/Glimt were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Match15 May 2027
Another one collected away from home
9 on the bounce on the road for Bodo/Glimt. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Sondre Auklend 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.
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.
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.
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.
8 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
111 minutes played. Oskar Spiten-Nysæter found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Mjondalen went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Oskar Spiten-Nysæter 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.
6 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bodo/Glimt have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Jens Petter Hauge and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Bodo/Glimt training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sondre Auklend 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.
8.38. 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ole-Didrik Blomberg provided it, and the 8.28 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Bodo/Glimt training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sondre Auklend 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 particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Magnus Bech Riisnæs 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.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Jens Petter Hauge 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: Joel Mvuka. 2‑1 against Tromso, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Sondre Auklend 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Bodo/Glimt, and 2 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
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.” Aron Daehli, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
The dugoutJohn Kitolano dropped after a run of poor form
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jens Petter Hauge provided it, and the 8.31 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match10 Apr 2027
Another one collected away from home
6 on the bounce on the road for Bodo/Glimt. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
3 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Bodo/Glimt training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sondre Auklend 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 left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 6 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bodo/Glimt this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sandefjord have kept their man, and Bodo/Glimt go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Magnus Bech Riisnæs’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Bodo/Glimt needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Molde have accepted the money. What Bodo/Glimt do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The phone has started ringing about Magnus Bech Riisnæs again, and this time the name on the line is Lillestrom. Bodo/Glimt are listening politely and promising nothing.
Molde paid $150.0K and Bodo/Glimt took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Sondre Auklend 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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and August Mikkelsen has written the date down.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bodo/Glimt this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Bodo/Glimt training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sondre Auklend 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.
Bodo/Glimt have made the call to Mjondalen. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
In brief
Squad5 new faces, and Bodo/Glimt are still learning each other
35 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Inter Turku had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Molde have kept their man, and Bodo/Glimt go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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. Bodo/Glimt know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Bodo/Glimt has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Magnus Bech Riisnæs has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
In brief
The dugoutGift Sunday asks for a word with the manager
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 21 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. CSKA Moscow have kept their man, and Bodo/Glimt go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Magnus Bech Riisnæs 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 is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Bodo/Glimt know which stage they are at.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and John Kitolano has written the date down.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Jens Petter Hauge’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bodo/Glimt will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Bodo/Glimt have paid $2.2M for Stefano Gori, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
$1.3M was the most the club would pay and Tromso were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Jens Petter Hauge 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 is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Bodo/Glimt training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sondre Auklend 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.
Bodo/Glimt asked and Cagliari said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The shirt still fits. Nikita Haikin is back at Bodo/Glimt, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bodo/Glimt can pretend not to have heard.
The offer went to Union Brescia this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
$2.0M was the most the club would pay and Sarpsborg 08 were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Rosenborg paid $2.7M and Bodo/Glimt took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Jens Petter Hauge 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.
In brief
SquadSondre Auklend falls out with a teammate over standards
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Hazem have kept their man, and Bodo/Glimt go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The deal with Rubin 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.
The chase for German Onugkha ended with $6.3M changing hands and Rodina out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
He is going to Molde, the club has $9.5M 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. German Onugkha is living that version at Bodo/Glimt, and it tends to show in the first month.
The name of Joel Mvuka has come up in conversations Bodo/Glimt were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The offer went to CSKA Moscow this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Bodo/Glimt have gone to Rodina with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Bodo/Glimt have gone to Rubin with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rodina have kept their man, and Bodo/Glimt go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A month in which every rumour is possible and most of them are nonsense. The manager has a list, the board has a number, and neither is telling the other the whole of it.
A season-long look at somebody else’s player: Kimi Løkkevik arrives from Stabaek with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.
Words at Bodo/Glimt training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sondre Brunstad Fet 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Bodo/Glimt has been clear about where Steffen Lie Skålevik stands, which is more than many ever get.
“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 Bodo/Glimt will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
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 Bodo/Glimt that is a harder question to answer.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sondre Brunstad Fet and Bodo/Glimt agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Jens Petter Hauge 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Jakob Larsen 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.
35 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sondre Brunstad Fet was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Magnus Bech Riisnæs 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bodo/Glimt this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sondre Brunstad Fet was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
In brief
The dugoutGift Sunday knocks on the manager's door
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Bodo/Glimt have had the benefit of it.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Gift Sunday is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jakob Larsen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and John Kitolano has written the date down.
In brief
The dugoutGift Sunday asks for a word with the manager
Jens Petter Hauge 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ole-Didrik Blomberg signs something — a contract at Bodo/Glimt or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
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 Bodo/Glimt this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Bodo/Glimt know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Joel Mvuka has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
Haitam Aleesami 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 Jakob Larsen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Bodo/Glimt that is a harder question to answer.
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.
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Bodo/Glimt have had the benefit of it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Sondre Auklend is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bodo/Glimt this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A new partner, a signature and a photograph nobody will remember. It funds a fortnight of wages, which is more than most headlines on this page can say for themselves.
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bodo/Glimt lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bodo/Glimt have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Jens Petter Hauge 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.
24 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Bodo/Glimt lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Jens Petter Hauge and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Jakob Larsen 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bodo/Glimt, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bodo/Glimt this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Bodo/Glimt would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
Jens Petter Hauge 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Bodo/Glimt training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sondre Brunstad Fet 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 is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Bodo/Glimt told John Kitolano something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
Full confidence, expressed in the dull, deliberate language boards reserve for when they mean it. The window that follows will show whether the words came with money attached.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
3 goals inside twenty minutes with Ole-Didrik Blomberg in the middle of it, and Aalesund unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bodo/Glimt this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Haitam Aleesami 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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 Sondre Brunstad Fet was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Villads Nielsen 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.
Something was said to Ulrik Saltnes and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“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.
9 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bodo/Glimt have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Jens Petter Hauge 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.
8 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ola Brynhildsen provided it, and the 9.16 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Isak Aron Sjong is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Jens Petter Hauge 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Bodo/Glimt training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sondre Brunstad Fet 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 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.
7 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Two goals and a mark of 8.65 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
22 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
4 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sondre Brunstad Fet was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Molde will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Vebjørn Hoff has pre-agreed a move to Bodo/Glimt, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bodo/Glimt this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ola Brynhildsen. 2‑0 against Viking, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Aron Daehli could afford to be generous.
In brief
SquadJakob Larsen falls out with a teammate over standards
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Bodo/Glimt hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Bodo/Glimt training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sondre Brunstad Fet 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.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
$27.0M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
Successful dribbles: 48. 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.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. AGF moved on, Andreas Helmersen reports back to Bodo/Glimt, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
He is going to Willem II, the club has $27.0M 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.
1 for Sondre Brunstad Fet, marked 7.86, 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Bodo/Glimt training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sondre Brunstad Fet 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 particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Joel Mvuka 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.
Mjondalen will want this one forgotten quickly: 7‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Bodo/Glimt were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Two goals and a mark of 8.69 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jens Petter Hauge provided it, and the 8.36 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
A mark of 7.73 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
$310.0K was the most the club would pay and Sandefjord were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
7 goals in one match, Jens Petter Hauge on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Bodo/Glimt and Mjondalen.
Everyone has stopped pretending: AGF will make the call about Andreas Helmersen this week. Bodo/Glimt have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
The deal that would have taken Sondre Brunstad Fet to Haugesund has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Bodo/Glimt with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Sporting CP is saying, and nobody at Bodo/Glimt is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bodo/Glimt this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
$410.0K was the most the club would pay and Lillestrom were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
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.
Bodo/Glimt asked and Sarpsborg 08 said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Two goals and a mark of 8.22 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
Supporters turn on the $10.4M sale of Patrick Berg
He is going to Dynamo Kyiv, the club has $10.4M 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.
Molde paid $5.3M and Bodo/Glimt took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Tromso waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Bodo/Glimt is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. John Kitolano has just signed for Bodo/Glimt, and for once the answer mattered.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jens Petter Hauge and Bodo/Glimt agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The offer went to Lillestrom this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
301 appearances across 15 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Add another name to the list: Molde have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Fredrik Bjørkan. The answer from Bodo/Glimt has not changed — yet.
Jens Petter Hauge 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Patrick Berg 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.