8 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Rosenborg 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 Rosenborg can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rosenborg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
3‑1 against NEC, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 28 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
7 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Amin Chiakha 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 18 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.
34 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Rosenborg will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
There are goals, and then there are goals against that particular opponent. The Rosenborg support have their bragging rights for a year and they know exactly whose name is on them.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Amin Chiakha did not need any: 7.64, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Tomáš Nemčík 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Rosenborg will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Nobody at Rosenborg 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Rosenborg has been clear about where Haakon Sørum stands, which is more than many ever get.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Rosenborg. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Peter Reinhardsen has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
4 goals in 25 games at Lyn — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Rosenborg updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rosenborg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There were 88 minutes on the clock and Sogndal had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Rosenborg did not stop to explain themselves.
Two goals and a mark of 7.93 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Rosenborg hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jonas Svensson and Rosenborg agree another 2 years.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Rosenborg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aslak Fonn Witry 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.
31 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Rosenborg will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Tomáš Nemčík wants continental football; whether Rosenborg can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Rosenborg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomáš Nemčík 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. Niklas Ødegård 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Dino Islamović. 2‑0 against Stromsgodset, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 42 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
3 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Emil Ceïde will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Rosenborg escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Jonas Svensson 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.
30 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rosenborg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Rosenborg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ethan Amundsen-Day is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Dino Islamović 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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at Rosenborg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomáš Nemčík 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 Rosenborg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rosenborg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Tomáš Nemčík falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
At 21 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Rosenborg will try not to make too much of it.
Nobody at Rosenborg 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 67 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Jonas Svensson 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. 9 combined actions and a mark of 7.31, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lars Erik Sødal 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.
29 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rosenborg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Position 2, 43 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Boardroom23 Aug 2027
Deadline passes with 13 signed and 15 gone
That is the business done at Rosenborg 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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Rosenborg hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at Rosenborg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomáš Nemčík is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 109 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aslak Fonn Witry was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Nobody at Rosenborg 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Rosenborg will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
41 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Peter Reinhardsen 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 fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes Rosenborg will be judged on one thing only.
In brief
Player ratingsThe afternoon belonged to Iver Fossum
27 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rosenborg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
11 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Tomáš Nemčík 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.
Jonas Svensson 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. Spartak Moscow have kept their man, and Rosenborg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Rosenborg will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
Emil Ceïde was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.25. 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.
In brief
Player ratingsSimen Bolkan Nordli was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Noah Sahsah at his very best
SquadDefences have started doubling up on Emil Ceïde
Position 2, 35 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The phone has started ringing about Ole Selnæs again, and this time the name on the line is Bryne. Rosenborg are listening politely and promising nothing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. KFUM Oslo have kept their man, and Rosenborg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Rosenborg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomáš Nemčík 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.
Jonas Svensson 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.
Level with 89 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Rosenborg had all but put away. Tromso will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
26 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Valerenga will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Rosenborg were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.87 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Stabaek have kept their man, and Rosenborg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Noah Sahsah 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.
The phone has started ringing about Haakon Sørum again, and this time the name on the line is Mjondalen. Rosenborg are listening politely and promising nothing.
In brief
Player ratingsNoah Sahsah was on a different afternoon to everybody else
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rosenborg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rosenborg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match10 Jul 2027
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for Rosenborg. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Tomáš Nemčík 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Rosenborg, and 0 appearances in 18 say he has earned the hearing.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Mathias Kjølø
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Aleksander Borgersen did not need any: 8.34, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.80 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Rosenborg heard it as anything else.
Ole Selnæs 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 Tomáš Nemčík was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Noah Sahsah, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.55
A mark of 8.55 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Leopold Wahlstedt and Rosenborg agree another 5 years.
Ole Selnæs 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 Alfred Scriven was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Ole Odegaard could afford to be generous.
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 Dino Islamović is on it.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Noah Sahsah did not need any: 7.83, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
An average of 7.01 in a first team he is several years too young for. Rosenborg have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Rosenborg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomáš Nemčík is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Peter Reinhardsen 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.
23 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Tomáš Nemčík falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rosenborg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 6.93 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.
Nobody at Rosenborg 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ervin Gigović, and the manager let it.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Ole Odegaard was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Rosenborg dressing room was either.
20 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.99 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.89 for the rest of it.
Jonas Svensson 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.
Marked 8.07 — 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 young player of the month award goes to a 21-year-old at Rosenborg who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Rosenborg have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rosenborg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Rosenborg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomáš Nemčík 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Iver Fossum. 2‑0 against Viking, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings31 May 2027
Iver Fossum was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.10. 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 8.04 — 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Ole Odegaard on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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 Dino Islamović is on it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomáš Nemčík was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against HamKam; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
The dugout24 May 2027
Tomáš Nemčík 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.
A goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Rosenborg, and 0 appearances in 18 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout24 May 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Ole Odegaard to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
The dugoutEmil Ceïde has become a man the manager trusts
Two goals and a mark of 8.62 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Rosenborg hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rosenborg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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; Rosenborg are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
In brief
SquadWords at Rosenborg training over how hard people work
20 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.41, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings10 May 2027
Noah Sahsah, 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rosenborg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Ole Selnæs 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 Tomáš Nemčík was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Rosenborg game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Odd runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
19 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
There are goals, and then there are goals against that particular opponent. The Rosenborg support have their bragging rights for a year and they know exactly whose name is on them.
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Rosenborg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomáš Nemčík is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
18 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. Molde on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alfred Scriven was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Rosenborg game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at OB runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody at Rosenborg 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 dugout26 Apr 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Ole Odegaard chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
Tomáš Nemčík 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.
Mathias Kjølø 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 Apr 2027
7 new faces, and Rosenborg 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.
Nobody at Rosenborg 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 finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Ole Odegaard chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Chances created: 10. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
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.
17 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Boardroom12 Apr 2027
6 academy players handed senior numbers at Rosenborg
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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Tomáš Nemčík 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.
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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Hakon Thorsby 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.
Rosenborg close the window on a squad of their own making
7 in and 10 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.
Aslak Fonn Witry 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 a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 17 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alfred Scriven was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Rosenborg game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Skeid runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Rosenborg hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Emil Ceïde 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 Mar 2027
Words at Rosenborg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomáš Nemčík is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. PSV have kept their man, and Rosenborg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Rosenborg, and 0 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Rosenborg 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.
“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 Rosenborg will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
2‑1 against Red Bull Salzburg, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Iver Fossum was at the centre of the description.
16 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Tomáš Nemčík 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.
Rosenborg asked and Banik Ostrava 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 won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 7.00, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
8 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Rosenborg, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
The fee is $3.2M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Kristiansund drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The offer from Utsikten for Michael Lansing 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.
The deal with Queens Park Rangers is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The terraces15 Mar 2027
Rosenborg spend $3.2M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $3.2M for Niklas Ødegård, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Noah Sahsah 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 mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Rosenborg 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.” Haakon Sørum and Rosenborg agree another 5 years.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Rosenborg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alfred Scriven 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 dugoutOle Selnæs has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutIver Fossum is still being punished for one mistake
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Rosenborg people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Rosenborg and Kristiansund have settled on $3.2M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The fee is $3.0M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Valerenga drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
At 17 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomáš Nemčík was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces8 Mar 2027
Rosenborg spend $3.0M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $3.0M for Carl Lange, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Jonas Svensson 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. Holstein Kiel have kept their man, and Rosenborg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
1‑0 against Red Bull Salzburg, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Emil Ceïde was at the centre of the description.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rosenborg can pretend not to have heard.
15 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Rosenborg have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rosenborg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leopold Wahlstedt was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Mathias Kjølø 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.
5 matches without a win, and then this, against Red Bull Salzburg. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rosenborg can pretend not to have heard.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $880.0K has been paid because Håkon Sjåtil is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
$790.0K was the most the club would pay and Sandefjord were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Rosenborg asked and IF Elfsborg 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 phone has started ringing about Johan Bakke again, and this time the name on the line is Skeid. Rosenborg are listening politely and promising nothing.
“I watch every Rosenborg game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at OB runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rosenborg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Rosenborg have gone to Valerenga with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Aslak Fonn Witry 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 phone has started ringing about Håkon Røsten again, and this time the name on the line is Raufoss. Rosenborg are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Rosenborg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leopold Wahlstedt is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Vejle have kept their man, and Rosenborg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Adrian Pereira has his answer from Rosenborg; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The words a physio says slowly. 25 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Rosenborg people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Admira Wacker is saying, and nobody at Rosenborg is enjoying the guessing.
Rosenborg asked and Stabaek 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 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.” Tomáš Nemčík has his answer from Rosenborg; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The name of Mark Mampassi has come up in conversations Rosenborg were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Iver Fossum'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.
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Rosenborg lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rosenborg can pretend not to have heard.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Nobody at Rosenborg 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 dugout1 Feb 2027
Mathias Kjølø 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Aslak Fonn Witry signs something — a contract at Rosenborg or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Words at Rosenborg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomáš Nemčík 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 Rosenborg 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 Ole Selnæs signs something — a contract at Rosenborg or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rosenborg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomáš Nemčík was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rosenborg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
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 Simen Bolkan Nordli is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dino Islamović signs something — a contract at Rosenborg or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Rosenborg has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Rosenborg have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Tomáš Nemčík was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Rosenborg can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The offer from JS Kabylie for Amin Chiakha 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.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Rosenborg will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rosenborg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Tomáš Nemčík 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.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Mathias Kjølø'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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Aslak Fonn Witry signs something — a contract at Rosenborg or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rosenborg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ole Selnæs signs something — a contract at Rosenborg or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nobody at Rosenborg 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 Dino Islamović signs something — a contract at Rosenborg or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Rosenborg would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
“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 Rosenborg will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Rosenborg, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
SquadThe training reports on Roy Warholm are not good
0‑2 against Galatasaray. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rosenborg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Iver Fossum 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 kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Rosenborg had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rosenborg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Adrian Pereira 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 a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 17 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Mathias Kjølø'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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Aslak Fonn Witry signs something — a contract at Rosenborg or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
15 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
1 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Marked 8.15 — 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.
Santeri Väänänen was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
7.93, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Ole Selnæs and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“Nobody 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 dugout23 Nov 2026
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 2‑3 Ole Odegaard left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
Every touch weighed, every quote parsed, every mistake replayed. Some players grow into that; some are quietly finished by it; nobody knows which until afterwards.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mikkel Ceïde will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rosenborg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ole Selnæs 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.
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 Simen Bolkan Nordli is on it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Simen Bolkan Nordli’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Rosenborg needing him to play as if none of it matters.
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Rosenborg could ask drops and the wages Mikkel Ceïde can ask rise.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Rosenborg have no good answer.
1‑0 against AGF, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Dino Islamović was at the centre of the description.
14 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rosenborg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Amin Chiakha will call it something else in private.
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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Rosenborg heard it as anything else.
The first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Bryne; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Iver Fossum is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
3‑1 against AGF, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Dino Islamović was at the centre of the description.
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ole Selnæs. 2‑0 against Haugesund, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.54 — 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.
Marked 8.25 — 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
10 new faces, and Rosenborg are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rosenborg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rosenborg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Rosenborg and HamKam in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Marked 7.41 on 13 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rosenborg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
At 20 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Simen Bolkan Nordli and Rosenborg agree another 5 years.
Sarpsborg 08 will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Eirik Wichne has pre-agreed a move to Rosenborg, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Peter Reinhardsen and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Simen Bolkan Nordli is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Amin Chiakha 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 Aslak Fonn Witry signs something — a contract at Rosenborg or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Rosenborg have no good answer.
1‑1 against Galatasaray, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
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.
At 20 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.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
KFUM Oslo will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Ayoub Aleesami has pre-agreed a move to Rosenborg, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 11 combined actions and a mark of 7.10, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Nobody left the Rosenborg dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
1 for Ole Selnæs, marked 7.92, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
At 20 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.
Ole Selnæs and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Dino Islamović was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.49. 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.
KFUM Oslo will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Momodou Njie has pre-agreed a move to Rosenborg, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 3 times before the twentieth minute. Tromso tried to reorganise, Rosenborg did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
3‑1 against KuPS, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Dino Islamović was at the centre of the description.
Two goals and a mark of 8.45 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mikkel Ceïde will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rosenborg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ole Selnæs 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 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.
Valerenga will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Magnus Westergaard has pre-agreed a move to Rosenborg, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Marked 8.26 — 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rosenborg 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 Rosenborg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ranheim will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Philip Slørdahl has pre-agreed a move to Rosenborg, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
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.
Nobody at Rosenborg 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
“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 Rosenborg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Brann will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Joachim Soltvedt has pre-agreed a move to Rosenborg, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Rosenborg have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Emil Ceïde has come out of that comparison in the side, and Rosenborg have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Mads Bomholt 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.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Rosenborg than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
In brief
The dugoutMathias Kjølø asks for a word with the manager
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Simen Bolkan Nordli obliged against Ranheim. 2‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Rosenborg.
“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 Rosenborg, and it is not being withdrawn.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Santeri Väänänen has agreed terms with Sogndal for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Fredrikstad will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Daniel Eid has pre-agreed a move to Rosenborg, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
At 18 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.
Dávid Ďuriš has gone, the accounts have $5.6M 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.
FC Nordsjaelland paid $5.6M and Rosenborg took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rosenborg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The deal that would have taken Santeri Väänänen to Skeid has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Rosenborg with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Ulrik Fredriksen has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Rosenborg have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 1 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Mikkel Ceïde 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.
The chase for Peter Reinhardsen ended with $340.0K changing hands and Sarpsborg 08 out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Orebro had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The offer from Bodo/Glimt for Mikkel Ceïde 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bodo/Glimt have kept their man, and Rosenborg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $587.5K — a club that wants Niklas Jensen Wassberg enough to be asked twice.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Shakhtar is saying, and nobody at Rosenborg is enjoying the guessing.
The offer went to Brann 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.
Rosenborg have gone to Sarpsborg 08 with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Dino Islamović provided it, and the 8.56 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Rosenborg asked and Derby County 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 offer from Randers for Amin Chiakha 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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Rosenborg hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.