From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Vetle Auklend: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Molde have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match10 Oct 2026
Still nobody has beaten Molde
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Molde
Eirik Haugan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
The big one: Bodo/Glimt come into view
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Molde will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Caleb Zady Sery 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Markus Naglestad and Molde agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fredrik Kristensen Dahl, and the manager let it.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Marked 7.11. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Haji Wright beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 35. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match5 Oct 2026
Molde up to position 3
19 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Eirik Haugan in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Molde this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kristian Eriksen, and the manager let it.
Match3 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Caleb Zady Sery. 2‑0 against Aalesund, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.41, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Birk Risa 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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Caleb Zady Sery was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.05. 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 dugout5 Oct 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Magnus Linnes could afford to be generous.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market28 Sep 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Molde is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom28 Sep 2026
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Vebjørn Hoff has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Molde
Albert Posiadała 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mats Møller Dæhli, and the manager let it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Molde
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Birk Risa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at Molde
12 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kristian Eriksen trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 43. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market21 Sep 2026
Only the photograph left for Eirik Haugan
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Eirik Haugan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Molde the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Molde
Mats Møller Dæhli and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Molde training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Caleb Zady Sery 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.
Looking ahead21 Sep 2026
The neighbours are next for Molde
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. Rosenborg on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“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 dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Magnus Linnes chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Sten Grytebust
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Match19 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Stabaek will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 32. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market14 Sep 2026
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Partizan moved on, Albert Posiadała reports back to Molde, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Stromsgodset will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Gustav Valsvik has pre-agreed a move to Molde, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Stromsgodset made Molde work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Molde
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Birk Risa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.16, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Sten Grytebust
“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.
Market14 Sep 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Molde, another week without a signature from Albert Posiadała.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 41. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market7 Sep 2026
Haji Wright wants to know where this is going
“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 Molde hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Market7 Sep 2026
Everyone has stopped pretending: Partizan will make the call about Albert Posiadała this week. Molde have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Molde counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Molde now.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Mathias Bringaker has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Molde have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Molde training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Birk Risa 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Molde, another week without a signature from Kristian Eriksen.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
A mark of 7.30, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Mats Møller Dæhli falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match29 Aug 2026
Sarpsborg 08 left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
Inquest at Molde
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Market31 Aug 2026
Everyone has stopped pretending: Hobro will make the call about Kristian Lonebu this week. Molde have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad31 Aug 2026
13 new faces, and Molde 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.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“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.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
Igor Gosik dropped after a run of poor form
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 63. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market24 Aug 2026
Eirik Haugan has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Molde they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Jalal Abdullai at 21 — 8.16
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Jalal Abdullai did not need any: 8.16, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Molde
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mats Møller Dæhli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Magnus Westergaard has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Molde have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Molde
Eirik Haugan 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Haladas have kept their man, and Molde go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match22 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jalal Abdullai. 1‑0 against Haugesund, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
Igor Gosik gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market17 Aug 2026
$13.0M. No player has ever cost Molde more, and expectation arrives with him.
Squad17 Aug 2026
3 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Match12 Aug 2026
The small margins put Molde out
Out, 0‑0 to Sandefjord, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Market17 Aug 2026
Molde spend $5.3M to raise the standard
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $5.3M has been paid because Fredrik Bjørkan is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Market17 Aug 2026
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Kristian Eriksen reports back to Molde with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Marked 7.99 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Deadline passes with 10 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Molde 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
$5.3M settles it between the clubs for Fredrik Bjørkan
Bodo/Glimt have accepted the money. What Molde do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The offer went to Coventry City 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Cibalia come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Molde did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jalal Abdullai and Molde agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Molde
Albert Posiadała 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Molde training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mats Møller Dæhli 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Business is business: Martin Linnes goes
Tromso paid $110.0K and Molde took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
Rosenborg will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Santeri Väänänen has pre-agreed a move to Molde, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 39. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market3 Aug 2026
Hammarby come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Molde did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
The offer went to Bodo/Glimt 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Molde
Mats Møller Dæhli was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Igor Gosik and Molde agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Molde asked and Viktoria Plzen 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 terraces3 Aug 2026
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.
Match1 Aug 2026
Sandefjord made Molde work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Molde
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Birk Risa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.