“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; Raufoss are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Øyvind Sandnes Olsen and Raufoss agree another 3 years.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Sander Ryerson after 1‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Jørgen Sjøl's mistake
Linus Alperud, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.93
A mark of 7.93 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Markus Aanesland will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Raufoss the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Jesper Fiksdal 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 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Linus Alperud. 2‑0 against Åsane, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sebastian Gjelsvik was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
17 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sander Nordbø will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Raufoss the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Jesper Fiksdal 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Raufoss training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastian Gjelsvik 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.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Raufoss this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Raufoss, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Egersund next, and one man in the Raufoss dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of 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.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
They sit in position 14 and they will be waiting. Away form is where a season shows its true character, and this side has a point to make about its own.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Sander Nordbø and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Nicolai Fremstad is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
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 Markus Aanesland is on it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Raufoss they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Jacob Storevik and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Linus Alperud 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.
Marked 8.17. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Raufoss.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Raufoss training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastian Gjelsvik 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.
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.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.04, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A brace, and Jonas Selnæs takes the afternoon — 8.37
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jonas Selnæs provided it, and the 8.37 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sander Nordbø will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Raufoss the goodbyes have quietly begun.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Rafik Zekhnini 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.
9 goals in one match, Jonas Selnæs on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Raufoss and Moss.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sebastian Gjelsvik was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 86. Aalesund had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Raufoss, another week without a signature from Eirik Åsvestad.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Sander Ryerson was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Raufoss dressing room was either.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Raufoss this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sebastian Gjelsvik was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Raufoss, another week without a signature from Rafik Zekhnini.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Raufoss. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Raufoss know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Raufoss could ask drops and the wages Sander Nordbø can ask rise.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Raufoss this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“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.
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.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Raufoss would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Raufoss know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Raufoss could ask drops and the wages Rafik Zekhnini can ask rise.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 93th minute. IK Start will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Markus Aanesland will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Raufoss the goodbyes have quietly begun.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Jacob Storevik was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Raufoss asked and Brann said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
$2.1M on the table at Viking. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Raufoss close the window on a squad of their own making
16 in and 18 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $2.2M — a club that wants Joe Bell enough to be asked twice.
The fee is $130.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Skeid drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Filip Da Silva 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.
Raufoss asked and Kristiansund said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Jacob Storevik 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.
$300.0K was the most the club would pay and Kristiansund were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Linus Alperud from Lillestrom for $770.0K, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Raufoss asked and Skeid said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Tobias Meling 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. Mathias Daehli 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Bjorn Normann has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Hakon Pedersen 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 offer went to Lillestrom this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Raufoss this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AC Horsens have kept their man, and Raufoss go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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; Raufoss are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Raufoss know it, and so does everybody who watches him.