The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Lamin Njie did not need any: 8.23, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Deni Dashaev 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 Kristoffer Halvorsen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Vegard Bohinen, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
Position 3, 42 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.
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 7.91 for the rest of it.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Xander Lambrix commits to Sandefjord for another 3 years.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Sandefjord training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Noa Williams 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.
Jens Husebø 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 Noa Williams was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Noa Williams was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.20. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Filip Da Silva 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
8 new faces, and Sandefjord 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Ranheim in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sandefjord know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sandefjord, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Sandefjord, another week without a signature from Kevin Möhwald.
Position 5 on 36 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Sandefjord that is a harder question to answer.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sander Risan Mørk and Sandefjord agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Noa Williams was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Deni Dashaev 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 given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Sandefjord know it.
0‑3 against Lillestrom, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sandefjord they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Noa Williams 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 Sandefjord this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Sandefjord will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
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 Vegard Bohinen left the room before anybody could ask which.
12 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Sandefjord training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kristoffer Halvorsen 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 player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Andrea Barberis will call it something else in private.
Sander Risan Mørk had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Odd were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
1 for Sander Risan Mørk, marked 7.79, 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Lamin Njie and Sandefjord agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at Sandefjord training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Noa Williams 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.
Deni Dashaev 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.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad13 Sep 2027
8 new faces, and Sandefjord 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sandefjord, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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 Noa Williams was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. IFK Värnamo have kept their man, and Sandefjord go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Andrea Barberis and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Lamin Njie is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sandefjord, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He went out to keep goal every week and came back with 0 games and 0 of them shut out. Somebody at Sandefjord argued for this move last summer; nobody is arguing for it now.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sander Risan Mørk will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sandefjord the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sandefjord this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Edvard Pettersen 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: Håkon Volden. 2‑0 against Aalesund, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
7.75, 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.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 19 arrived, 16 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Brondby have kept their man, and Sandefjord go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at Sandefjord training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Noa Williams 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.
Elias Sandøy Myrvågnes 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Sandefjord can tell you which week it ends in.
Sandefjord asked and FC Copenhagen said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Deni Dashaev 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 Noa Williams was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout16 Aug 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Vegard Bohinen to a room that had heard them before.
5 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Sandefjord have done the hard part with Ranheim, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $222.5K — a club that wants Elias Sandøy Myrvågnes enough to be asked twice.
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.
Sandefjord asked and IFK Värnamo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sandefjord this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Vegard Bohinen after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
Player ratingsNoa Williams beats them one at a time
The dugoutElias Hadaya has become a man the manager trusts
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sander Risan Mørk will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sandefjord the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Position 3, 31 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.
$170.0K on the table at Ranheim. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Derby County have kept their man, and Sandefjord go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Sandefjord this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Noa Williams 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Sandefjord, another week without a signature from Sander Risan Mørk.
He is 20, and nobody at Sandefjord signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Two goals and a mark of 8.13 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The clubs have shaken hands with Haugesund; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Filip Da Silva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sander Risan Mørk. 2‑0 against Lyn, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The offer from Torres for Evangelos Patoulidis 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 offer went to Haugesund 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sebastian Holm Mathisen and Sandefjord agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
Half the programme played, position 3, 27 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Deni Dashaev 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 watch every Sandefjord game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at HB Køge runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 Elias Hadaya is on it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Sandefjord, another week without a signature from Edvard Pettersen.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Vegard Bohinen after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Raufoss defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Moss in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout5 Jul 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 Vegard Bohinen to a room that had heard them before.
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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Sander Risan Mørk has come out of that comparison in the side, and Sandefjord have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Joakim Halsnes Knudsen is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
The offer from HNK Vukovar 1991 for Evangelos Patoulidis 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 a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Vegard Bohinen after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Skeid next, and one man in the Sandefjord dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Two goals and a mark of 8.47 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The phone has started ringing about Evangelos Patoulidis again, and this time the name on the line is Ascoli. Sandefjord are listening politely and promising nothing.
1 for Sander Risan Mørk, marked 7.99, 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.
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.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Vegard Bohinen, on a 3‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Sandefjord has been clear about where Alf Lukas Grønneberg stands, which is more than many ever get.
“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 Sandefjord will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Vetle Walle Egeli has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
“I watch every Sandefjord game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at HB Køge runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Lillestrom will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Sandefjord were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Edvard Pettersen did not need any: 8.18, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sandefjord this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Sandefjord, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Evangelos Patoulidis provided it, and the 8.85 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Evangelos Patoulidis. 2‑1 against Mjondalen, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Jens Husebø 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.
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
The dugout31 May 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Elias Hadaya'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.
The dugout31 May 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Vegard Bohinen, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Edvard Pettersen, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.95
A mark of 7.95 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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 20 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.
Deni Dashaev 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Vegard Bohinen on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sandefjord, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zeno Van Den Bosch was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Level with 86 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Sandefjord had all but put away. Aalesund will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
“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 Sandefjord, and 0 appearances in 14 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
Rosenborg go through and Sandefjord go home, 1‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms 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 Sandefjord, and it is not being withdrawn.
7.76, 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.
At 19 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.
10 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.
“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 Sandefjord, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zeno Van Den Bosch was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The young player of the month award goes to a 21-year-old at Sandefjord who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Vetle Walle Egeli is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Nobody at Sandefjord 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 dugout3 May 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.” Vegard Bohinen chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Filip Loftesnes-Bjune has moved up it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sandefjord have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Sandefjord training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zeno Van Den Bosch is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Vetle Walle Egeli 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.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
“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 Sandefjord, and 3 appearances in 11 say he has earned the hearing.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Vegard Bohinen on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sandefjord can pretend not to have heard.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Sebastian Holm Mathisen scored in the 89th minute, Kongsvinger had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Sandefjord took the lot.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Sebastian Holm Mathisen did not need any: 7.91, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Kongsvinger were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sebastian Holm Mathisen. 1‑0 against Kongsvinger, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alf Lukas Grønneberg and Sandefjord agree another 4 years.
“I watch every Sandefjord game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at HB Køge runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“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 Sandefjord, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Evangelos Patoulidis 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.
3 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zeno Van Den Bosch was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Aron Bohinen is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Magnus Linnes 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 board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“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 Sandefjord, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 11 arrived, 12 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Elliot Lavlund is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Sandefjord training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zeno Van Den Bosch 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 Sandefjord this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Sandefjord is running low.
“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 Sandefjord, and it is not being withdrawn.
At 18 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 Zeno Van Den Bosch was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. PSV have kept their man, and Sandefjord go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Lamin Njie 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 mood at Sandefjord has turned into something else
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.
“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 Sandefjord, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Sandefjord training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zeno Van Den Bosch 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.
William Kvale is 20, and Sandefjord 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.
“I watch every Sandefjord 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.
Dylan Alexander Twiddy 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 shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Sandefjord will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The fee is $2.2M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Sarpsborg 08 drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
At 19 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 Sandefjord hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Sandefjord training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zeno Van Den Bosch 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.
9 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 board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Vegard Bohinen has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“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 Sandefjord, and it is not being withdrawn.
Bryne paid $1.3M and Sandefjord took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Elliot Lavlund is 18, 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; Sandefjord are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
Johan Solstad-Nøis is 19, and Sandefjord 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.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Danilo Ravelli is in the works
“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 Sandefjord, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have shaken hands with Tromso; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
$890.0K was the most the club would pay and Molde 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Sandefjord know it.
Add another name to the list: Moss have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Mathias Sauer. The answer from Sandefjord has not changed — yet.
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. PSV have kept their man, and Sandefjord go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Sandefjord have gone to Molde 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Sandefjord have done the hard part with Antwerp, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Joakim Halsnes Knudsen is living that version at Sandefjord, and it tends to show in the first month.
Sandefjord 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.
Deni Dashaev 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 19, and nobody at Sandefjord signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
“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 Sandefjord, and it is not being withdrawn.
Odd paid $1.8M and Sandefjord took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The chase for Deni Dashaev ended with $490.0K changing hands and IK Start out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The chase for Jens Husebø ended with $250.0K changing hands and IK Start out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Jakob Vester 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.
Antwerp 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
5 new faces, and Sandefjord 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 board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Sandefjord have done the hard part with IK Start, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Sandefjord have gone to IK Start 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.
Marius Nordal is 20, and Sandefjord 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.
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 Elias Hadaya is on it.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Sandefjord are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Sandefjord would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sandefjord can pretend not to have heard.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Sandefjord heard it as anything else.
Dylan Alexander Twiddy 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Evangelos Patoulidis trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Neo Drugge Hysén's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Sandefjord would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
The mood at Sandefjord has turned into something else
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sandefjord can pretend not to have heard.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Evangelos Patoulidis 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 Jakob Dunsby signs something — a contract at Sandefjord or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
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.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Fredrik Pedersen plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
14 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sandefjord lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Sandefjord, and it is not being withdrawn.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sandefjord, and both men came out saying it was fine.
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sandefjord lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
At 18 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.
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 Elias Hadaya is on it.
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sandefjord lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Vegard Bohinen has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Edvard Pettersen is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Sandefjord, another week without a signature from Sander Risan Mørk.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Sandefjord training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mathias Sauer 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.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
Jakob Dunsby loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Jakob Dunsby's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sander Risan Mørk trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The mood at Sandefjord has turned into something else
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 36 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marcus Melchior will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sandefjord the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Daniel Johan Skaarud is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mathias Sauer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sander Risan Mørk 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 Jakob Dunsby signs something — a contract at Sandefjord or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
44 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sandefjord lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Sandefjord, and it is not being withdrawn.
At 18 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 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.
“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 Sandefjord hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ole Odegaard is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Jonas Henriksen is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Sandefjord training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mathias Sauer 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 Sandefjord 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. Sandefjord will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The arithmetic ran out, and everybody could see it coming from a distance. The hard summer starts now, and next season's fixtures will be full of unfamiliar names.
“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 Sandefjord, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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 Sandefjord hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Dylan Alexander Twiddy is living that version at Sandefjord, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
“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 Sandefjord, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sandefjord is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
13 appearances and 0 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sandefjord know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Evangelos Patoulidis keeps the shirt for now, at Sandefjord's convenience rather than his own.
“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 Sandefjord, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Boardroom23 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Sandefjord 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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
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 1‑4 defeat, delivered by Vegard Bohinen to a room that had heard them before.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Beaten 4 times, 4 saves, and an afternoon that will go on his record whether it was his fault or the defence’s. It is the quiet unfairness of the position.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sandefjord 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 Sandefjord can pretend not to have heard.
Nobody at Sandefjord will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sandefjord know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Sandefjord that is a harder question to answer.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sandefjord will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Erling Thorsby is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Marcus Riise 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Sander Pedersen 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. Magnus 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Aleksander Melgalvis and Sandefjord agree another 1 years.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sandefjord will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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 Sandefjord is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Jakob Swift 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.
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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Aleksander Melgalvis and Sandefjord agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
KFUM Oslo held the lead for 3 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Sandefjord answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with 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 Sandefjord can pretend not to have heard.
At 18 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.
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. 9 actions, 6.64, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
14 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.
“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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sandefjord can pretend not to have heard.
Marked 7.06 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.
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 Elias Hadaya is on it.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
Everybody at Sandefjord saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 36 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Evangelos Patoulidis trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Sandefjord are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marcus Melchior will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sandefjord the goodbyes have quietly begun.
9 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Rosenborg were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
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 7.77 for the rest of it.
At 19 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.
Morten Trøen is 18, and Sandefjord 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.
At 19 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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Sandefjord has been clear about where Fredrik Pedersen stands, which is more than many ever get.
13 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 would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Vegard Bohinen was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Sandefjord dressing room was either.
“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 Sandefjord, and it is not being withdrawn.
Tromso left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout21 Sep 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 0‑1 Vegard Bohinen left the room before anybody could ask which.
Nobody at Sandefjord 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.
4 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Sander Risan Mørk signs something — a contract at Sandefjord or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
Player ratingsJakob Dunsby beats them one at a time
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
Valerenga left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout14 Sep 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 0‑1 Vegard Bohinen left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Sandefjord, another week without a signature from Marcus Melchior.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sandefjord they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Aarhus Fremad moved on, Jakob Vester reports back to Sandefjord, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sandefjord can pretend not to have heard.
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.
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 7.31 for the rest of it.
Kristiansund held the lead for 3 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Sandefjord answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Tromso moved on, Marcus Melchior reports back to Sandefjord, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
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 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Vegard Bohinen 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 Elias Hadaya is on it.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Sandefjord are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
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 7.33 for the rest of it.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Deadline passes with 7 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Sandefjord 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.
Sandefjord asked and FC Copenhagen 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 deal with Skeid 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $166.9K — a club that wants Filip Stensland enough to be asked twice.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Brann have kept their man, and Sandefjord go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Fredrik Thorsby 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Aron Hauge is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Erling Berge is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Jonas Henriksen is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Evangelos Patoulidis and Sandefjord agree another 4 years.
27 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.