Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Orebro is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Orebro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Squad8 Sep 2031
Adem Sarajlić 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.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
Nobody at Orebro 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.
1‑4 to Falkenberg, 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.
Marked 8.05 — 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.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Buster Runheim is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Antonio Yakoub provided it, and the 8.97 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Orebro ran out of time with Malmo FF. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Antonio Yakoub 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 12 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Malmo FF have accepted the money. What Orebro do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Orebro have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom18 Aug 2031
Orebro close the window on a squad of their own making
9 in and 13 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.
Antonio Yakoub 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 won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 13 combined actions and a mark of 6.62, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Malmo FF have accepted the money. What Orebro do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Orebro is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Sampdoria is saying, and nobody at Orebro 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 Orebro 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: Antonio Yakoub. 1‑0 against IF Elfsborg, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Stanislav Shukalovych and Orebro agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Orebro asked and Malmo FF said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A 2‑0 win over IFK Norrkoping, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad4 Aug 2031
Adem Sarajlić 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Orebro have lost him in all but the paperwork.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Orebro will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Orebro can tell you which week it ends in.
Antonio Yakoub 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.
Match26 Jul 2031
Nobody could stop scoring
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Orebro and Malmo FF in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Orebro can pretend not to have heard.
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.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Orebro can tell you which week it ends in.
Antonio Yakoub 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Orebro will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Orebro is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Orebro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
17 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
The dugout14 Jul 2031
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 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Orebro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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 Adem Sarajlić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Interim Coach after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Orebro is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Antonio Yakoub 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.
Halmstad left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout30 Jun 2031
Samuel Wikman is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The dugout30 Jun 2031
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 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
Squad30 Jun 2031
Words at Orebro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anton Andersson 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.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Johan Brattberg
Antonio Yakoub 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: 16. 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.
Marked 7.76. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad23 Jun 2031
Adem Sarajlić 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 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 Buster Runheim is on it.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Orebro they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Johan Brattberg, and the manager let it.
The dugout16 Jun 2031
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 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad16 Jun 2031
Words at Orebro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adem Sarajlić 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 Orebro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Kalmar FF made Orebro work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings9 Jun 2031
Antonio Yakoub was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.65. 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.
Marked 8.14. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Orebro.
The dugout9 Jun 2031
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.” Interim Coach kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“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.
Squad9 Jun 2031
Words at Orebro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anton Andersson 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Orebro they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Antonio Yakoub 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.
6 goals in one match, Antonio Yakoub on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Orebro and Atvidaberg.
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.
20 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Orebro lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Antonio Yakoub 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.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.11, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad26 May 2031
Adem Sarajlić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It is 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.
“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.
27 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Orebro lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Antonio Yakoub provided it, and the 9.24 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Orebro they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 88. Falkenberg had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
It needed Antonio Yakoub to find the net to bring anything home at all: 3‑3 against Falkenberg, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad19 May 2031
Words at Orebro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anton Andersson 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 the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 3‑3 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
34 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Orebro lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Hammarby go through and Orebro go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
7 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Gefle were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by 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 Orebro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings12 May 2031
Antonio Yakoub was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.73. 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.
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. 13 actions, 7.85, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
In brief
Player ratingsGentian Lajqi beats them one at a time
Player ratingsManasse Kusu was on a different afternoon to everybody else
The words a physio says slowly. 41 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Orebro they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Antonio Yakoub 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 afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 13 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Antonio Yakoub 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 Peder Klausen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Anton Andersson will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Orebro the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Adam Wihed commits to Orebro for another 3 years.
Squad21 Apr 2031
Adem Sarajlić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“It is 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.
In brief
The dugoutBuster Runheim asks for a word with the manager
“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 Orebro, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Orebro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match12 Apr 2031
Nobody could stop scoring
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Orebro and Malmo FF in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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.
Orebro asked and AS Roma said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Peder Klausen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Orebro have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Boardroom7 Apr 2031
Deadline passes with 9 signed and 4 gone
That is the business done at Orebro 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Orebro they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Antonio Yakoub 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 morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Martin Jansson has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Mattias Krafth has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Orebro had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Malmo FF, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Antonio Yakoub 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Napoli have kept their man, and Orebro go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Add another name to the list: GIF Sundsvall have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Gonçalo Encarnação. The answer from Orebro has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adem Sarajlić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Buster Runheim is on it.
In brief
The dugoutPeder Klausen knocks on the manager’s door
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: FC Metz keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Anton Andersson 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Porto have kept their man, and Orebro go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad24 Mar 2031
Peder Klausen 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.
FC Midtjylland 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.
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 Buster Runheim has written the date down.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Halmstad waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Orebro is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: OGC Nice 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 Orebro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad17 Mar 2031
Words at Orebro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Peder Klausen 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.
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 Eelis Taskila has written the date down.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Gefle waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Orebro is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from GIF Sundsvall for Gonçalo Encarnação was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Orebro have done the hard part with OGC Nice, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Antonio Yakoub 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.
Orebro asked and Young Boys said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adem Sarajlić 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 Orebro, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Orebro is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Orebro have done the hard part with Napoli, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Orebro had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Stade Brestois, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Antonio Yakoub 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.
Orebro asked and Malmo FF said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Add another name to the list: GIF Sundsvall have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Gonçalo Encarnação. The answer from Orebro has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Peder Klausen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Peder Klausen 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.
“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 Orebro, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Malmo FF keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad24 Feb 2031
Words at Orebro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Peder Klausen 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.
Orebro have made the call to Stade Brestois. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Falkenberg waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Orebro is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Haji Mnoga has gone, the accounts have $1.0M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Orebro have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
IFK Goteborg paid $1.0M and Orebro 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 about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Orebro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Orebro asked and Porto said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad17 Feb 2031
Words at Orebro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adem Sarajlić 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and IFK Goteborg waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Orebro is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Orebro can pretend not to have heard.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Orebro have done the hard part with Aalborg, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Antonio Yakoub 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. Monaco have kept their man, and Orebro go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad10 Feb 2031
Words at Orebro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Peder Klausen 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Orebro, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Orebro know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Orebro can pretend not to have heard.
Antonio Yakoub 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 Feb 2031
Words at Orebro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Peder Klausen 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 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 Buster Runheim is on it.
“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.
Squad27 Jan 2031
Words at Orebro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Haji Mnoga 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 Samuel Wikman signs something — a contract at Orebro or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Orebro. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
40 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Orebro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Jan 2031
Words at Orebro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Peder Klausen 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Buster Runheim trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Chovanie Amatkarijo signs something — a contract at Orebro or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Adam Wihed has written the date down.
Antonio Yakoub was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad13 Jan 2031
Words at Orebro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Peder Klausen 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.
Antonio Yakoub 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 Haji Mnoga was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Buster Runheim is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Johan Brattberg 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 Peder Klausen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Samuel Wikman signs something — a contract at Orebro or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Orebro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Dec 2030
Peder Klausen 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.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Chovanie Amatkarijo signs something — a contract at Orebro or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Antonio Yakoub 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.
Squad16 Dec 2030
Haji Mnoga 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.
Antonio Yakoub 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 never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Johan Brattberg commits to Orebro for another 2 years.
Squad9 Dec 2030
Words at Orebro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Peder Klausen 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 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 Buster Runheim is on it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Peder Klausen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Samuel Wikman signs something — a contract at Orebro or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Orebro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Nov 2030
Haji Mnoga 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Chovanie Amatkarijo signs something — a contract at Orebro or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
Antonio Yakoub 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.
Squad18 Nov 2030
Peder Klausen 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. Orebro know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Antonio Yakoub 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.
Squad11 Nov 2030
Haji Mnoga falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It is 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Haji Mnoga was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Antonio Yakoub is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Orebro, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Samuel Wikman signs something — a contract at Orebro or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
40 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 10 on 33 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Orebro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad28 Oct 2030
Words at Orebro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adem Sarajlić 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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Orebro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings21 Oct 2030
Antonio Yakoub was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.63. 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Antonio Yakoub. 3‑1 against GIF Sundsvall, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Peder Klausen 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.
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 Peder Klausen.
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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑1, Interim Coach could afford to be generous.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Peder Klausen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
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 Buster Runheim is on it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Orebro have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Antonio Yakoub 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.
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 Johan Brattberg.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adem Sarajlić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Johan Brattberg and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Sep 2030
Words at Orebro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Peder Klausen 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 could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout30 Sep 2030
The manager has not finished forgetting Jacob Ortmark'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.
Something was said to Adem Sarajlić and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
Johan Brattberg 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 Peder Klausen 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.
Marked 8.02 — 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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 easiest signature of my career.” Edwin Ibrahimbegovic and Orebro agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
9 combined actions and 6.93. 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad16 Sep 2030
Adem Sarajlić 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.
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 dugout16 Sep 2030
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.” Interim Coach, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Orebro, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Antonio Yakoub 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 Peder Klausen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.00 — 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.
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.
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.
Antonio Yakoub 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.
Squad2 Sep 2030
Peder Klausen 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.
Marked 6.49 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Haji Mnoga 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 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.
Johan Brattberg 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.
Orebro asked and Feyenoord said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Three points for Orebro, 1‑0 the final word against Gefle in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings26 Aug 2030
Manasse Kusu was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.18. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adem Sarajlić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
0‑4 to Hammarby, 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Orebro can pretend not to have heard.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 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.
Boardroom19 Aug 2030
Deadline passes with 9 signed and 7 gone
That is the business done at Orebro 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Peder Klausen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Esbjerg is saying, and nobody at Orebro 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 Orebro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
100 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Standard Liege have kept their man, and Orebro go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad12 Aug 2030
Peder Klausen 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.
Orebro asked and Padova said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
IFK Norrkoping left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout5 Aug 2030
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 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
SquadWords at Orebro training over how hard people work
Transfer targetsA loan move for Markus Walker is in the works
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Johan Brattberg
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Orebro have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The deal with Benfica 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Orebro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Orebro asked and Esbjerg said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Peder Klausen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and IFK Norrkoping waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Orebro is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The deal with Malmo FF 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Peder Klausen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 91th minute. Djurgarden will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Two goals and a mark of 8.83 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Antonio Yakoub 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.
Position 11, 15 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Stanislav Shukalovych and Orebro agree another 4 years.
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 3‑2, Interim Coach could afford to be generous.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Peder Klausen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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.
The dugout8 Jul 2030
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.” Interim Coach kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Johan Brattberg 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 Jul 2030
Words at Orebro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Peder Klausen 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.
The dugout1 Jul 2030
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 1‑2 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Osman Taher Petersson is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Johan Brattberg 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.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Manasse Kusu. 1‑0 against Helsingborg, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.04 — 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adem Sarajlić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Halmstad in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Orebro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Jun 2030
Words at Orebro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Peder Klausen 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 18 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
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.
“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.
Antonio Yakoub 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 Peder Klausen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Peder Klausen trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Position 14 and 5 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
9 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Atvidaberg were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Osman Taher Petersson and Orebro agree another 5 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Orebro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.44 — 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adem Sarajlić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 16 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Orebro and BK Hacken, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad27 May 2030
Words at Orebro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Peder Klausen 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.
23 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Orebro lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
8 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Orebro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
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.
30 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Orebro lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
7 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.
Player ratings13 May 2030
A brace, and Jacob Ortmark takes the afternoon — 7.85
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jacob Ortmark provided it, and the 7.85 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Antonio Yakoub 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Orebro and Gefle, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 3‑4, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad13 May 2030
Words at Orebro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adem Sarajlić 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.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Johan Brattberg
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Adem Sarajlić
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Orebro lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Orebro interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Interim Coach keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
6 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.
Johan Brattberg 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.
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.
44 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Orebro lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Johan Brattberg 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.
Squad29 Apr 2030
Words at Orebro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Peder Klausen 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 was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
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.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
51 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Orebro lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Antonio Yakoub 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 Adem Sarajlić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Peder Klausen trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The words a physio says slowly. 58 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.
Antonio Yakoub 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 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Orebro and Malmo FF in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Day 14 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
Squad15 Apr 2030
Peder Klausen 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.
Orebro ran out of time with Halmstad. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
65 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Orebro lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Not an interim appointment — an institution with an empty coaching office. Somebody unfamiliar will run the sessions this week, and the question of how a club gets into this state is one the board will be asked and will not answer.
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 9 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Olympique Lyonnais 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 Orebro 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. Helsingborg have kept their man, and Orebro go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
In brief
SquadWords at Orebro training over how hard people work
72 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Orebro lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Orebro had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Olympique Lyonnais, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
$170.0K on the table at Halmstad. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Johan Brattberg 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 transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Eelis Taskila is a Orebro player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Orebro have made the call to Helsingborg. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Orebro will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Squad1 Apr 2030
Words at Orebro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. William Svendgaard 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.
79 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Orebro lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Everything agreed with Olympique Lyonnais, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Antonio Yakoub 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 approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad25 Mar 2030
Words at Orebro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Peder Klausen 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.
86 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Orebro lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Kalmar FF have kept their man, and Orebro 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 Peder Klausen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Orebro have made the call to Olympique Lyonnais. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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.
94 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Orebro lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Orebro had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Esbjerg, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Johan Brattberg 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.
Orebro asked and Liverpool said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad11 Mar 2030
Adem Sarajlić 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Falkenberg will make the call about Buster Runheim this week. Orebro have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
In brief
The dugoutJohan Brattberg has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutPeder Klausen asks for a word with the manager
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Orebro will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have shaken hands with Halmstad; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Orebro can pretend not to have heard.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Utrecht is saying, and nobody at Orebro is enjoying the guessing.
Orebro asked and Atalanta said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Peder Klausen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Orebro will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Orebro can pretend not to have heard.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Orebro have done the hard part with Utrecht, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Antonio Yakoub 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 approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad25 Feb 2030
Words at Orebro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Haji Mnoga 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Orebro will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Antonio Yakoub 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 Haji Mnoga was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Orebro know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Orebro will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hammarby have kept their man, and Orebro go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad11 Feb 2030
Adem Sarajlić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It is 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.
“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 Orebro, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Orebro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Feb 2030
Haji Mnoga 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Frederik Mortensen has his answer from Orebro; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Chovanie Amatkarijo signs something — a contract at Orebro or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
BoardroomOpen for business: Orebro enter the window
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Orebro have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Johan Brattberg and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Jan 2030
Haji Mnoga falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It is 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Orebro know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Orebro. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
33 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.
The least glamorous thing a foreign signing ever does and the one that decides most of them. A player who can hear the shout behind him is a different footballer from one who cannot.
In brief
SquadQuestions about Adam Wihed on the training pitch
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Jacob Ortmark
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Orebro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Orebro 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.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Haji Mnoga was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Orebro 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Orebro 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 Dino Salihović signs something — a contract at Orebro or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Orebro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Jan 2030
Haji Mnoga 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.
Gustav Erik Stachowski is 20, and Orebro have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Gustav Erik Stachowski and Orebro agree another 4 years.
Nobody at Orebro 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.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Kevin Eriksson 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Chovanie Amatkarijo signs something — a contract at Orebro or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
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.
Antonio Yakoub 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.
Squad31 Dec 2029
Words at Orebro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adem Sarajlić 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 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Orebro know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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 Orebro will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
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 Adam Wihed has written the date down.
Antonio Yakoub 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 Haji Mnoga was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Orebro have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Haji Mnoga was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Orebro 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.
Johan Brattberg 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 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad10 Dec 2029
Adem Sarajlić 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.
Nobody at Orebro 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Chovanie Amatkarijo signs something — a contract at Orebro or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
Johan Brattberg and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Dec 2029
Haji Mnoga falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It is 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Orebro know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Orebro than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Orebro. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Orebro, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Antonio Yakoub 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.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Words at Orebro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Haji Mnoga 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 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.
Antonio Yakoub and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Words at Orebro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adem Sarajlić 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 at Orebro 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Orebro will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Orebro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Nov 2029
Haji Mnoga 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.
Osman Taher Petersson is 20, and Orebro have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Maxim Vorogovskiy is 19, and Orebro have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Squad12 Nov 2029
5 new faces, and Orebro 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.
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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Orebro told Maxim Vorogovskiy something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Orebro is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Antonio Yakoub 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.
Squad5 Nov 2029
Haji Mnoga 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.
Nobody at Orebro 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.
Position 11 on 32 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.
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.
Antonio Yakoub 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.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Words at Orebro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ahmed Yasin 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. Melvin Koliqi 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.
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 Menno Koch is on it.
Johan Brattberg was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad22 Oct 2029
Words at Orebro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ahmed Yasin 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 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.
The dugout22 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 Adam Kulusevski to a room that had heard them before.
Nobody at Orebro 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Orebro, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Antonio Yakoub’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Orebro needing him to play as if none of it matters.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dino Salihović signs something — a contract at Orebro or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Johan Brattberg 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Stanislav Shukalovych is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“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; Orebro are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Haji Mnoga was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout15 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Adam Kulusevski to a room that had heard them before.
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 Antonio Yakoub is on it.
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.