26 Sep 2027
Sunday
Process
60 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

20 Sep 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

The wait goes on for Sandefjord

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.

Market

Francisco Pinho has one foot out of the door

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.

Squad

Alem Omerinović is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.

Squad

Jakob Dunsby falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

The terraces

One of their own: Sebastian Holm Mathisen

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.

Player ratings

Sebastian Holm Mathisen in the eights

A performance of 8.24 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

Match

Sebastian Holm Mathisen answers Odd immediately

Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Sebastian Holm Mathisen had Sandefjord level again within 1 minutes, and Odd never got to play with a lead at all.

Squad

Mads Abrahamsen in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sandefjord this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Player ratings

Jakob Vester was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

In brief

Back issues
59 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

13 Sep 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Jakob Dunsby

Successful dribbles: 32. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

The dugout

Magnar Ødegaard: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sandefjord have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Match

The wait goes on for Sandefjord

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.

Boardroom

Sandefjord to lose Harvey Broad for free

There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Harvey Broad 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.

Market

Harvey Broad is on his way

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.

Squad

Real improvement from Francisco Pinho at Sandefjord

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Francisco Pinho is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Squad

Words at Sandefjord training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sander Risan Mørk 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 terraces

One of their own: Filip Loftesnes-Bjune

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.

The dugout

Olav Øby left out for the big one

A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Olav Øby will call it something else in private.

In brief

58 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

6 Sep 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

The terraces

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.

Boardroom

The scrutiny sharpens at Sandefjord

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.

Boardroom

Lourenço Borges signs for Aalesund while still at Sandefjord

The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Lourenço Borges has agreed terms with Aalesund for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.

Market

Luís Sampaio is on his way

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.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Jakob Dunsby

Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Olav Øby in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sandefjord this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Words at Sandefjord training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakob Dunsby 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.

Match

A bad afternoon for Sandefjord against IK Start

1‑3 to IK Start, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Vetle Walle Egeli

“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.

In brief

57 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

30 Aug 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Elias Hadaya keeps Sandefjord in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Market

Filip Loftesnes-Bjune hands in a written request

“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.

Market

Alem Omerinović is on his way

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.

Boardroom

Luís Sampaio has agreed to leave Sandefjord for nothing

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.

Squad

A row about effort at Sandefjord

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jakob Dunsby was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Player ratings

Jakob Dunsby beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Chizzy Ezenwata

Sandefjord asked and Chelsea said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Match

Tromso take the points off Sandefjord

Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Transfer targets

Deadline beats Sandefjord to Armand Wangen

The clock did what Lillestrom would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.

In brief

56 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

23 Aug 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

Chastening afternoon for Sandefjord

A 1‑4 beating by Valerenga was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.

Market

Terms done: Alem Omerinović is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Mjondalen waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Sandefjord is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Boardroom

Deadline passes with 14 signed and 3 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.

Market

Lourenço Borges puts it in writing

“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.

Transfer targets

Armand Wangen due for a Sandefjord medical

Everything agreed with Lillestrom, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.

Boardroom

Francisco Pinho signs for Tromso while still at Sandefjord

The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Francisco Pinho has agreed terms with Tromso for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Jakob Dunsby

Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Market

Francisco Pinho is on his way

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.

Squad

Words at Sandefjord training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sander Risan Mørk 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

55 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

16 Aug 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings

Jakob Dunsby runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 33. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

A one-man rearguard from Elias Hadaya

There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.

Market

Luís Sampaio puts it in writing

“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.

Transfer targets

The paperwork begins on Richmond Gyamfi

A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Sandefjord have done the hard part with AGF, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.

Squad

A falling-out at Sandefjord

Olav Øby and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Jakob Dunsby falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

The terraces

One of their own: Mathias Sauer

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.

Match

Sebastian Holm Mathisen sends Sandefjord past Bodo/Glimt

It finished 1‑0, and it was Sebastian Holm Mathisen’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Sandefjord.

Transfer targets

A loan move for Chizzy Ezenwata is in the works

Sandefjord have made the call to Chelsea. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.

In brief

54 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

9 Aug 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

The terraces

Anger at Sandefjord spills outside the ground

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.

Market

Filipe Quintas hands in a written request

“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.

Transfer targets

Mauro Lenaerts due for a Sandefjord medical

Everything agreed with KV Oostende, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.

Player ratings

Jakob Dunsby beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad

Sander Risan Mørk signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sander Risan Mørk and Sandefjord agree another 4 years.

Squad

Jakob Dunsby 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.

Transfer targets

Door shut on John Kelly

Sandefjord asked and Watford said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Squad

Words exchanged at Sandefjord

Mads Abrahamsen 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 dugout

Ervin Gigović gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

In brief

53 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

2 Aug 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Elias Hadaya stands alone

10 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.

Market

Jakob Vester puts it in writing

“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.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Jakob Dunsby

Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

A row about effort at Sandefjord

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sander Risan Mørk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Robin Mirisola

Sandefjord asked and Racing Genk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Match

Late, late show earns Sandefjord a point

Minute 90, against Molde, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.

Squad

A falling-out at Sandefjord

Mads Abrahamsen and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Transfer targets

A loan move for John Kelly is in the works

Sandefjord have made the call to Watford. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.

The dugout

A promise honoured for Filip Loftesnes-Bjune

It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Sandefjord told Filip Loftesnes-Bjune something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.

In brief

52 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

26 Jul 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Elias Hadaya stands alone

9 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.

Market

Terms done: Alem Omerinović is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Mjondalen waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Sandefjord is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Jakob Dunsby

Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Transfer targets

Armand Wangen is a medical away from Sandefjord

The deal with Lillestrom 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Sandefjord

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jakob Dunsby was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Transfer targets

Everton tell Sandefjord: Braiden Graham is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Match

A bad afternoon for Sandefjord against Rosenborg

0‑1 to Rosenborg, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

Squad

Alf Lukas Grønneberg in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sandefjord this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

The dugout

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 Patrick Normann to a room that had heard them before.

In brief

51 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

19 Jul 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings

Jakob Dunsby runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 35. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Match

Sandefjord win it in stoppage time

The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 91th minute. Stabaek will replay every second of the added time for a week.

Player ratings

A brace, and Mathias Sauer takes the afternoon — 9.00

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mathias Sauer provided it, and the 9.00 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Squad

Jakob Dunsby 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.

Transfer targets

Sandefjord rebuffed over Dani Homet

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. MSK Zilina have kept their man, and Sandefjord go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Match

Mathias Sauer sends Sandefjord past Stabaek

It finished 2‑1, and it was Mathias Sauer’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Sandefjord.

Squad

Filip Loftesnes-Bjune makes it 100

100 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.

Match

Halfway: Sandefjord sit in position 12

16 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.

Squad

Tempers go at Sandefjord

Alf Lukas Grønneberg 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.

In brief

50 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

12 Jul 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

The terraces

Supporters organise against the Sandefjord board

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.

Player ratings

Jakob Vester goes up and wins it — 7.99

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 7.99 for the rest of it.

Squad

Edvard Pettersen signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Edvard Pettersen commits to Sandefjord for another 5 years.

Squad

Words at Sandefjord training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakob Dunsby 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.

Match

Mathias Sauer the difference as Sandefjord beat Stromsgodset

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mathias Sauer. 2‑1 against Stromsgodset, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

The terraces

Sandefjord supporters have found a favourite in Mathias Sauer

There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Mathias Sauer 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.

Player ratings

Jakob Dunsby runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Player ratings

One of those days for Mathias Sauer

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.01, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

Squad

Words exchanged at Sandefjord

Mads Abrahamsen 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.

In brief

49 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

5 Jul 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

Sandefjord are in real trouble now

Position 14, 10 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.

Market

Filip Loftesnes-Bjune asks to leave Sandefjord

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Jakob Dunsby

Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Tempers go at Sandefjord

Olav Øby 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.

Squad

Jakob Dunsby 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.

Match

Viking take the points off Sandefjord

Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Squad

Appearance number 100 for Elias Jemal

100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.

The dugout

No hiding place for Nikolaj Möller

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nikolaj Möller, and the manager let it.

The dugout

Patrick Normann: “No excuses”

“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.

In brief

48 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

28 Jun 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Player ratings

Jakob Dunsby was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 29. 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Sandefjord

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jakob Dunsby was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Match

A bad afternoon for Sandefjord against Sarpsborg 08

1‑2 to Sarpsborg 08, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

Squad

Mads Abrahamsen in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sandefjord this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

The dugout

Patrick Normann faces the questions

“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Patrick Normann after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.

Squad

The division's best last weekend was a Sandefjord man

It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Mathias Sauer was the best thing in any of them.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Ridouan Essaeh

“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 dugout

Somebody else is better right now than Magnar Ødegaard

The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.

Market

The Vetle Walle Egeli talk will not go away

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.

In brief

47 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

21 Jun 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Jakob Dunsby

Successful dribbles: 47. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Player ratings

Mathias Sauer scores twice — 9.32

Two goals and a mark of 9.32 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Player ratings

Sebastian Holm Mathisen, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.93

A mark of 8.93 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.

The dugout

Lamin Njie: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sandefjord have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Squad

Words at Sandefjord training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vetle Walle Egeli 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.

Match

Sandefjord see off Haugesund

Three points for Sandefjord, 3‑1 the final word against Haugesund in a contest settled by the finer margins.

Squad

Tempers go at Sandefjord

Mads Abrahamsen 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 dugout

Patrick Normann: “That is the standard”

“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 3‑1, already talking about the next one.

Squad

Mathias Sauer named player of the week

One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Mathias Sauer has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.

In brief

46 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

14 Jun 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

The terraces

Anger at Sandefjord spills outside the ground

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.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Jakob Dunsby

Successful dribbles: 33. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Player ratings

A brace, and Mathias Sauer takes the afternoon — 8.74

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mathias Sauer provided it, and the 8.74 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Player ratings

Sebastian Holm Mathisen, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.92

A mark of 7.92 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.

Squad

Olav Øby in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sandefjord this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Mathias Sauer stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Mathias Sauer and Sandefjord agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

Jakob Dunsby 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.

Match

Sandefjord see off Mjondalen

Three points for Sandefjord, 2‑1 the final word against Mjondalen in a contest settled by the finer margins.

The terraces

Sandefjord supporters have found a favourite in Sebastian Holm Mathisen

There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Sebastian Holm Mathisen 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.

In brief

45 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

7 Jun 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Jakob Dunsby

Successful dribbles: 33. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Match

Sandefjord are in real trouble now

Position 14, 4 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.

Squad

The step up is real for Alem Omerinović

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.

Squad

Words at Sandefjord training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakob Dunsby 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.

Match

Sandefjord come up short against Odd

Odd left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

Squad

A falling-out at Sandefjord

Mads Abrahamsen and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Nikolaj Möller

“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 dugout

Patrick Normann faces the questions

“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Patrick Normann after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.

Squad

Edvard Pettersen makes the team of the month

Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.

In brief

44 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

31 May 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

The drought breaks for Sandefjord

13 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Aalesund were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.

Player ratings

Both of them Jakob Dunsby's — 8.57

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.57, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

The dugout

Mads Abrahamsen says Sandefjord went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Squad

A row about effort at Sandefjord

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sander Risan Mørk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The terraces

The crowd has taken to Mathias Sauer

At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.

Match

Sandefjord find a way past Aalesund

Aalesund made Sandefjord work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Ervin Gigović

“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.

Player ratings

Nothing got past Sander Risan Mørk

17 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.

Squad

Alf Lukas Grønneberg in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sandefjord this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

In brief

43 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

24 May 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

No end in sight to Sandefjord's wait for a win

13 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Sandefjord has to find a result from somewhere.

Player ratings

Jakob Dunsby runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 39. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

The dugout

Ervin Gigović keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Sandefjord may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Squad

Jakob Dunsby 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.

Match

Elias Jemal’s goal not enough for Sandefjord

Elias Jemal scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to IK Start, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.

Squad

Tempers go at Sandefjord

Mads Abrahamsen 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 dugout

Patrick Normann answers for it

“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.

The dugout

Alf Lukas Grønneberg gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

The dugout

The form table has caught Magnar Ødegaard

Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.

In brief

42 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

17 May 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

The terraces

Supporters organise against the Sandefjord board

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.

Match

No end in sight to Sandefjord's wait for a win

12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Sandefjord has to find a result from somewhere.

Squad

Elias Hadaya stands alone

11 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.

Player ratings

Jakob Dunsby runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 36. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Player ratings

Sebastian Holm Mathisen, 21, steals the show — 8.12

Marked 8.12 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.

Squad

A row about effort at Sandefjord

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jakob Dunsby was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The terraces

Sandefjord supporters have found a favourite in Sebastian Holm Mathisen

There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Sebastian Holm Mathisen 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.

Squad

100 appearances for Sebastian Holm Mathisen

100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.

Squad

Words exchanged at Sandefjord

Mads Abrahamsen 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.

In brief

41 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

10 May 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

The wait goes on for Sandefjord

11 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.

Match

The cup run ends for Sandefjord

1‑2 against Rosenborg, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.

Match

Chastening afternoon for Sandefjord

A 0‑3 beating by Valerenga was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.

Squad

Elias Hadaya stands alone

8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.

Player ratings

Jakob Dunsby was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 30. 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.

Player ratings

No sign of nerves from Lamin Njie at 18 — 7.61

The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Lamin Njie did not need any: 7.61, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.

Match

No clean sheets in sight for Sandefjord

6 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.

Squad

Words at Sandefjord training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sander Risan Mørk 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.

Boardroom

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.

In brief

40 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

3 May 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

No end in sight to Sandefjord's wait for a win

9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Sandefjord has to find a result from somewhere.

The dugout

Ridouan Essaeh says Sandefjord went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Match

Elias Jemal’s goal not enough for Sandefjord

Elias Jemal scored, and precious little else went right: 3‑5 to Bodo/Glimt, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.

Match

Nobody could stop scoring

8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Sandefjord and Bodo/Glimt in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.

Squad

Jakob Dunsby 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.

Match

Sandefjord leaking at the back

4 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.

The terraces

Sandefjord supporters have found a favourite in Mathias Sauer

There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Mathias Sauer 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 dugout

Olav Øby gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

Player ratings

Mathias Sauer in the eights

A performance of 8.06 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

In brief

39 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

26 Apr 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

The knee: Mads Abrahamsen out for 14 days

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.

Match

The wait goes on for Sandefjord

8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Jakob Dunsby

Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Match

Lillestrom take the points off Sandefjord

Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Squad

A row about effort at Sandefjord

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jakob Dunsby was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Tempers go at Sandefjord

Mads Abrahamsen 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.

Squad

Too much change too quickly at Sandefjord

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 dugout

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 Patrick Normann left the room before anybody could ask which.

The dugout

Alf Lukas Grønneberg gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

In brief

38 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

19 Apr 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

The terraces

Supporters organise against the Sandefjord board

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.

Squad

The knee: Mads Abrahamsen out for 21 days

21 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.

Match

Sandefjord taken apart

0‑3 to Molde, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.

Match

The wait goes on for Sandefjord

7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.

Squad

Vetle Walle Egeli in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sandefjord this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

A row about effort at Sandefjord

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sander Risan Mørk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Match

The goals have deserted Sandefjord

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.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Elias Hadaya

“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.

Player ratings

Jakob Dunsby beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

In brief

37 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

12 Apr 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

The knee: Mads Abrahamsen out for 30 days

30 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.

Match

A hiding for Sandefjord

Beaten 0‑4 by Rosenborg, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.

Market

Terms done: Alf Lukas Grønneberg is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Atvidaberg waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Sandefjord is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Match

The wait goes on for Sandefjord

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.

Squad

Elias Hadaya keeps Sandefjord in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Squad

Words exchanged at Sandefjord

Olav Øby 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Sandefjord

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jakob Dunsby was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

Elias Jemal gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

Player ratings

Jakob Dunsby beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

In brief

36 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

5 Apr 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Mads Abrahamsen damages knee ligaments — 38 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 38 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.

Boardroom

Sandefjord spell it out for Patrick Normann

The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Patrick Normann has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.

Boardroom

Deadline passes with 12 signed and 2 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.

Squad

Real improvement from Francisco Pinho at Sandefjord

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Francisco Pinho is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Squad

Words at Sandefjord training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakob Dunsby 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.

Market

Atvidaberg join the queue for Alf Lukas Grønneberg

Add another name to the list: Atvidaberg have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Alf Lukas Grønneberg. The answer from Sandefjord has not changed — yet.

Squad

A falling-out at Sandefjord

Mads Abrahamsen and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

The dugout

Filip Loftesnes-Bjune asks for a word with the manager

“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 dugout

The manager's exit leaves Pele Arganese-McDermott exposed

Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Pele Arganese-McDermott is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.

In brief

35 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

29 Mar 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Boardroom

The scrutiny sharpens at Sandefjord

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.

Transfer targets

No thanks: John Kelly rejects the move

Sandefjord had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Watford, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.

Squad

A falling-out at Sandefjord

Vetle Walle Egeli and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

A row about effort at Sandefjord

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sander Risan Mørk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Transfer targets

Sandefjord rebuffed over Anísio Cabral

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Benfica have kept their man, and Sandefjord go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Market

The Sander Risan Mørk question follows Sandefjord around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Sander Risan Mørk’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

The dugout

Ridouan Essaeh has been promised minutes

A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Ridouan Essaeh has written the date down.

Market

Sandefjord put Francisco Pinho up for sale

The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Francisco Pinho may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.

The dugout

Jakob Dunsby keeps his manager's vote

The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Jakob Dunsby plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.

In brief

34 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

22 Mar 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

The terraces

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.

Transfer targets

Malek El Mala will not be coming to Sandefjord

Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Köln is saying, and nobody at Sandefjord is enjoying the guessing.

Squad

A falling-out at Sandefjord

Olav Øby and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Alem Omerinović is a better footballer than he was

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.

Squad

Jakob Dunsby 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.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Antwoine Hackford

Sandefjord asked and AFC Wimbledon said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Market

The Jakob Dunsby story refuses to die

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 dugout

A door opens for Ridouan Essaeh

He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.

Market

Luís Sampaio placed on the list

Sandefjord have made Luís Sampaio available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.

In brief

33 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

15 Mar 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

Sandefjord sink to position 15

7 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.

Transfer targets

Srđan Hrstić turns down Sandefjord

The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Altach keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.

Squad

Jakob Dunsby 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.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Salko Hamzić

Sandefjord asked and Red Bull Salzburg said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Squad

Mads Abrahamsen in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sandefjord this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Marcus Haaland out for 14 days

The medical room confirms 14 days on the sidelines for Marcus Haaland, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.

Squad

Too much change too quickly at Sandefjord

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 dugout

No hiding place for Lamin Njie

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lamin Njie, and the manager let it.

The dugout

Ervin Gigović knocks on the manager's door

“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.

In brief

32 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

8 Mar 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Boardroom

Sandefjord spell it out for Patrick Normann

The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Patrick Normann has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.

Market

Filip Loftesnes-Bjune hands in a written request

“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.

Market

Atvidaberg come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Sandefjord did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Squad

Olav Øby stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Olav Øby and Sandefjord agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

Words exchanged at Sandefjord

Vetle Walle Egeli 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Sandefjord

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sander Risan Mørk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Transfer targets

Sandefjord rebuffed over John Kelly

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Watford have kept their man, and Sandefjord go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

The dugout

No hiding place for Ridouan Essaeh

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ridouan Essaeh, and the manager let it.

Transfer targets

A loan move for Srđan Hrstić is in the works

Sandefjord have made the call to Altach. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.

In brief

31 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

1 Mar 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Boardroom

Pressure builds in the Sandefjord boardroom

The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.

Market

Sandefjord turn down Viking for Mathias Sauer

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Market

Business is business: Daniel Johan Skaarud goes

IK Start 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.

Squad

Olav Øby in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sandefjord this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Words at Sandefjord training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakob Dunsby 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.

Transfer targets

Benfica tell Sandefjord: Anísio Cabral is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Sander Risan Mørk

“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 dugout

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.

Squad

Sandefjord have started building around Omar el Masri

He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.

In brief

30 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

22 Feb 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

The terraces

Supporters organise against the Sandefjord board

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.

Market

Daniel Johan Skaarud has said yes to IK Start

The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Sandefjord have lost him in all but the paperwork.

Squad

A row about effort at Sandefjord

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jakob Dunsby was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Matías Contrera

Sandefjord asked and Shrewsbury Town said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Squad

Words exchanged at Sandefjord

Daniel Johan Skaarud 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 dugout

The manager makes an example of Magnar Ødegaard

“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.

Squad

Fabiano Pacia is a square peg at Sandefjord

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.

Market

The Jakob Dunsby story refuses to die

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.

Squad

Daniel Johan Skaarud: “I am not a substitute”

“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Sandefjord will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.

In brief

29 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

15 Feb 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

Sandefjord sink to position 15

7 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.

Market

Sandefjord turn down Molde for Daniel Johan Skaarud

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Market

Business is business: Evangelos Patoulidis goes

Rosenborg paid $860.0K 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.

Squad

Tempers go at Sandefjord

Vetle Walle Egeli 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.

Squad

Lourenço Borges gets the move he always wanted

Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Lourenço Borges has just signed for Sandefjord, and for once the answer mattered.

Transfer targets

Too dear: Sandefjord walk away from Bop Guèye

$62.0K was the most the club would pay and Sarpsborg 08 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Sandefjord

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sander Risan Mørk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Transfer targets

FC Nordsjaelland tell Sandefjord: Souleymane Alio is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

The dugout

No hiding place for Nikolaj Möller

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nikolaj Möller, and the manager let it.

In brief

28 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

8 Feb 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Boardroom

Patrick Normann has until the next board meeting

What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Sandefjord can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.

Market

Filip Loftesnes-Bjune asks to leave Sandefjord

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Market

Eyes on Evangelos Patoulidis again

The phone has started ringing about Evangelos Patoulidis again, and this time the name on the line is Rosenborg. Sandefjord are listening politely and promising nothing.

Squad

Tempers go at Sandefjord

Evangelos Patoulidis 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.

Transfer targets

Sandefjord bid $62.0K for Bop Guèye

The offer went to Sarpsborg 08 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.

Squad

A move Luís Sampaio would have made for nothing

There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Luís Sampaio is living that version at Sandefjord, and it tends to show in the first month.

Transfer targets

Too dear: Sandefjord walk away from Isak Aron Sjong

$32.0K was the most the club would pay and Bodo/Glimt 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.

Squad

Jakob Dunsby 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.

Transfer targets

Stabaek tell Sandefjord: Magnus Lankhof Dahlby is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

In brief

27 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

1 Feb 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Boardroom

The silence upstairs is getting loud at Sandefjord

Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.

Squad

Evangelos Patoulidis in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sandefjord this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

A row about effort at Sandefjord

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jakob Dunsby was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Market

No place for Filip Loftesnes-Bjune in the plan

“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Filip Loftesnes-Bjune has his answer from Sandefjord; what he does with it is the next window’s story.

The dugout

No hiding place for Ervin Gigović

“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.

Squad

Pele Arganese-McDermott stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Pele Arganese-McDermott and Sandefjord agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

The dugout

Kristoffer Halvorsen without the man who signed him

Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Kristoffer Halvorsen was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.

Squad

No place for Pele Arganese-McDermott in the new shape

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.

Market

The Sander Risan Mørk question follows Sandefjord around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Sander Risan Mørk’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

In brief

26 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

25 Jan 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

The terraces

Supporters organise against the Sandefjord board

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.

Squad

A falling-out at Sandefjord

Olav Øby and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

A row about effort at Sandefjord

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vetle Walle Egeli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

Ervin Gigović knocks on the manager’s door

“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ervin Gigović trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

Market

Vetle Walle Egeli linked with a move away

The name of Vetle Walle Egeli keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Sandefjord say nothing, which says plenty.

Market

The shop window has Evangelos Patoulidis in it

Sandefjord have let the market know Evangelos Patoulidis can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.

In brief

25 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

18 Jan 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

Sandefjord are in real trouble now

Position 15, 7 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.

Squad

Words exchanged at Sandefjord

Olav Øby 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.

Squad

Jakob Dunsby falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Nikolaj Möller

“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.

Market

The Jakob Dunsby question follows Sandefjord around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Jakob Dunsby’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

The dugout

Lamin Njie knocks on the manager’s door

“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lamin Njie trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

In brief

24 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

11 Jan 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

The dugout

Nikolaj Möller keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Sandefjord may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Squad

Tempers go at Sandefjord

Evangelos Patoulidis 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.

Squad

The step up is real for Alem Omerinović

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.

Squad

A row about effort at Sandefjord

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jakob Dunsby was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Ridouan Essaeh

“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 dugout

Evangelos Patoulidis asks for a word with the manager

“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.

In brief

23 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

4 Jan 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Boardroom

Sandefjord put Patrick Normann on notice

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.

Boardroom

The silence upstairs is getting loud at Sandefjord

Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.

Market

Evangelos Patoulidis puts it in writing

“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 dugout

Lamin Njie: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sandefjord have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Squad

Evangelos Patoulidis in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sandefjord this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Sandefjord lose Aron Linnes

31 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.

Squad

A row about effort at Sandefjord

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Magnar Ødegaard was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

No hiding place for Magnar Ødegaard

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Magnar Ødegaard, and the manager let it.

The dugout

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.

In brief

22 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

28 Dec 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

The terraces

Anger at Sandefjord spills outside the ground

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.

Market

Sandefjord turn down Zamora for Evangelos Patoulidis

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Squad

A row about effort at Sandefjord

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jakob Dunsby was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Jakob Vester in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sandefjord this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Market

Vetle Walle Egeli linked with a move away

The name of Vetle Walle Egeli keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Sandefjord say nothing, which says plenty.

Market

Evangelos Patoulidis placed on the list

Sandefjord have made Evangelos Patoulidis available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.

The dugout

A door opens for Ervin Gigović

He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.

The dugout

Magnar Ødegaard knocks on the manager's door

“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.

The dugout

The manager comes out for Evangelos Patoulidis

Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Evangelos Patoulidis has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.

In brief

21 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

21 Dec 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

Every point is an argument now for Sandefjord

Position 15 and 7 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.

Squad

Jakob Dunsby 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.

Squad

Filip Loftesnes-Bjune in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sandefjord this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Market

The Jakob Dunsby question follows Sandefjord around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Jakob Dunsby’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

The terraces

Supporters make their feelings known about Evangelos Patoulidis

The speculation has reached the stands, and the stands have answered. Sandefjord would like this settled before it becomes the only thing anybody asks about.

The dugout

Ridouan Essaeh has been promised minutes

A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Ridouan Essaeh has written the date down.

The dugout

Magnar Ødegaard knocks on the manager's door

“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.

Market

Evangelos Patoulidis has been watched

Rosenborg had somebody in the stand with a notebook, and he was not there for the pies. Watching is free; the next step is not.

The dugout

Elias Hadaya keeps his manager's vote

The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Elias Hadaya plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.

In brief

20 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

14 Dec 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Fredrik Pedersen

14 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.

Squad

Tempers go at Sandefjord

Olav Øby 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Sandefjord

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vetle Walle Egeli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Nikolaj Möller

“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.

Market

The Evangelos Patoulidis talk will not go away

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.

Squad

Evangelos Patoulidis has seen what the next man earns

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.

In brief

19 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

7 Dec 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

The knee: Fredrik Pedersen out for 21 days

21 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.

Boardroom

The scrutiny sharpens at Sandefjord

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.

Squad

Olav Øby in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sandefjord this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Elias Jemal stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Elias Jemal and Sandefjord agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

Words at Sandefjord training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakob Dunsby 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.

Market

Elias Jemal returns a better player

13 games and 4 goals away from here, and a man the manager did not have last summer. The loan did what loans are supposed to do and almost never do.

Boardroom

$3.4M taken back off the Sandefjord table

What was available in the summer has quietly gone. Upstairs nobody will call it a change of ambition; downstairs nobody will call it anything else.

Market

The Sander Risan Mørk question follows Sandefjord around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Sander Risan Mørk’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

The dugout

The manager makes Ridouan Essaeh a promise

Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Sandefjord. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.

In brief

18 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

30 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Fredrik Pedersen

28 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 terraces

Anger at Sandefjord spills outside the ground

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.

Squad

A falling-out at Sandefjord

Evangelos Patoulidis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Words at Sandefjord training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vetle Walle Egeli 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.

Market

Elias Jemal returns a better player

13 games and 4 goals away from here, and a man the manager did not have last summer. The loan did what loans are supposed to do and almost never do.

The dugout

Ervin Gigović gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

Squad

Ervin Gigović has had enough of the bench

“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.

Market

Vetle Walle Egeli linked with a move away

The name of Vetle Walle Egeli keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Sandefjord say nothing, which says plenty.

The dugout

Lamin Njie knocks on the manager’s door

“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lamin Njie trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

In brief

17 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

23 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Fredrik Pedersen damages knee ligaments — 35 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 35 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.

Match

Every point is an argument now for Sandefjord

Position 15 and 7 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.

Squad

Words exchanged at Sandefjord

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.

Squad

Mathias Sauer falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

The dugout

No hiding place for Ridouan Essaeh

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ridouan Essaeh, and the manager let it.

The dugout

Evangelos Patoulidis asks for a word with the manager

“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.

In brief

16 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

16 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Fredrik Pedersen damages knee ligaments — 43 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 43 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.

Squad

Tempers go at Sandefjord

Evangelos Patoulidis 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.

Squad

Vetle Walle Egeli falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

The dugout

Nikolaj Möller gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

The dugout

Evangelos Patoulidis knocks on the manager's door

“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.

The dugout

Sandefjord keep their word to Xander Lambrix

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.

In brief

15 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

9 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Fredrik Pedersen damages knee ligaments — 50 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 50 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.

Market

Evangelos Patoulidis asks to leave Sandefjord

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Squad

Vetle Walle Egeli 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.

Squad

A falling-out at Sandefjord

Jakob Vester and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

The dugout

No hiding place for Alem Omerinović

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alem Omerinović, and the manager let it.

Market

The Sander Risan Mørk question follows Sandefjord around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Sander Risan Mørk’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

Squad

Evangelos Patoulidis has seen what the next man earns

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 dugout

A door opens for Ola Kamara

He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.

Loan watch

The goals keep arriving from Elias Jemal’s exile

4 goals in 13 games at IFK Norrkoping — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Sandefjord updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.

In brief

14 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

2 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Fredrik Pedersen

58 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 terraces

Supporters organise against the Sandefjord board

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.

Player ratings

Jakob Dunsby was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 32. 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.

Match

No end in sight to Sandefjord's wait for a win

5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Sandefjord has to find a result from somewhere.

The dugout

Alem Omerinović: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sandefjord have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Squad

Vetle Walle Egeli 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.

Squad

The armband comes off Evangelos Patoulidis

Sandefjord will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.

The dugout

Half-satisfied: Patrick Normann on the draw

“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.

The dugout

Somebody else is better right now than Ridouan Essaeh

The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.

In brief

13 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

26 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Fredrik Pedersen

65 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.

Match

Sandefjord are in real trouble now

Position 15, 6 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.

Match

The wait goes on for Sandefjord

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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Sandefjord

Olav Øby 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.

Squad

Vetle Walle Egeli falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Evangelos Patoulidis

Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Match

Late, late show earns Sandefjord a point

Minute 89, against Stromsgodset, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.

The dugout

No hiding place for Lamin Njie

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lamin Njie, and the manager let it.

Match

Sandefjord share the spoils with Stromsgodset

A 1‑1 draw with Stromsgodset leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.

In brief

12 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

19 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Fredrik Pedersen damages knee ligaments — 74 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 74 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.

Match

Nowhere to hide for Sandefjord

0‑4 against Viking, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.

Squad

Tempers go at Sandefjord

Olav Øby 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.

Squad

Words at Sandefjord training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vetle Walle Egeli 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 dugout

Ervin Gigović gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

Boardroom

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.

Squad

14 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 dugout

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 0‑4 Patrick Normann left the room before anybody could ask which.

The dugout

Sandefjord pick somebody else ahead of Ridouan Essaeh

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.

In brief

11 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

12 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Fredrik Pedersen

82 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.

Market

Evangelos Patoulidis puts it in writing

“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.

Player ratings

Daniel Johan Skaarud, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.13

A mark of 8.13 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.

Squad

6 saves: Elias Hadaya was the team

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.

Squad

Evangelos Patoulidis in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sandefjord this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Player ratings

Jakob Dunsby was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

The terraces

The crowd has taken to Daniel Johan Skaarud

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.

Squad

A row about effort at Sandefjord

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.

Match

Sandefjord and Sarpsborg 08 take a point apiece

It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.

In brief

10 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

5 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Fredrik Pedersen

89 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.

Squad

Elias Hadaya keeps Sandefjord in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 12 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

The terraces

Anger at Sandefjord spills outside the ground

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.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Evangelos Patoulidis

Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Transfer targets

Valdemar Grymer turns down Sandefjord

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.

Squad

A falling-out at Sandefjord

Evangelos Patoulidis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Vetle Walle Egeli 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.

Match

A bad afternoon for Sandefjord against Haugesund

1‑3 to Haugesund, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

The dugout

No hiding place for Nikolaj Möller

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nikolaj Möller, and the manager let it.

In brief

9 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

28 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Fredrik Pedersen

96 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.

Match

Sandefjord are in real trouble now

Position 15, 4 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.

Player ratings

Sebastian Holm Mathisen, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.88

A mark of 7.88 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.

Match

The drought breaks for Sandefjord

9 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Mjondalen were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.

Squad

Words exchanged at Sandefjord

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.

Squad

The step up is real for Alem Omerinović

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.

Squad

Words at Sandefjord training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vetle Walle Egeli 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.

Player ratings

Evangelos Patoulidis was unplayable

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.

Match

Sandefjord find a way past Mjondalen

Mjondalen made Sandefjord work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.

In brief

8 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

21 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

No end in sight to Sandefjord's wait for a win

9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Sandefjord has to find a result from somewhere.

Squad

Elias Hadaya keeps Sandefjord in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Squad

Words at Sandefjord training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vetle Walle Egeli 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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Sandefjord

Jakob Vester 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.

Match

A bad afternoon for Sandefjord against Odd

1‑2 to Odd, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

The dugout

Ridouan Essaeh gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

Squad

Sandefjord are still strangers to each other

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 dugout

Patrick Normann answers for it

“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.

Player ratings

Evangelos Patoulidis was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 14. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

In brief

7 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

14 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

8 matches without a win for Sandefjord

The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Sandefjord are no longer polite ones.

Player ratings

Jakob Dunsby was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 26. 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.

Match

4 matches without a goal for Sandefjord

The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.

Squad

Mathias Sauer signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mathias Sauer and Sandefjord agree another 4 years.

Squad

Words at Sandefjord training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vetle Walle Egeli 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.

Match

A bad afternoon for Sandefjord against Aalesund

0‑1 to Aalesund, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

The dugout

Mathias Sauer gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

The dugout

Patrick Normann faces the questions

“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Patrick Normann after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.

The dugout

Ridouan Essaeh dropped after a run of poor form

The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.

In brief

6 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

7 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Player ratings

Jakob Dunsby runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Match

7 matches without a win for Sandefjord

The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Sandefjord are no longer polite ones.

Squad

A falling-out at Sandefjord

Olav Øby and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Vetle Walle Egeli 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.

Match

3 matches without a goal for Sandefjord

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.

Market

Talks stall between Sandefjord and Evangelos Patoulidis

“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.

Squad

The armband comes off Sander Risan Mørk

Sandefjord will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.

The dugout

Half-satisfied: Patrick Normann on the draw

“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.

The dugout

Somebody else is better right now than Ridouan Essaeh

The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.

In brief

5 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

31 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

The wait goes on for Sandefjord

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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Sandefjord

Olav Øby 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Sandefjord

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vetle Walle Egeli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Match

Sandefjord come up short against Tromso

Tromso left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

The dugout

No hiding place for Ervin Gigović

“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 dugout

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 Patrick Normann left the room before anybody could ask which.

The dugout

The form table has caught Ridouan Essaeh

Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.

Player ratings

Jakob Dunsby was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 13. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Market

Sander Risan Mørk linked with a move away

The name of Sander Risan Mørk keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Sandefjord say nothing, which says plenty.

In brief

4 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

24 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Player ratings

Jakob Dunsby runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 40. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Match

No end in sight to Sandefjord's wait for a win

5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Sandefjord has to find a result from somewhere.

Transfer targets

No thanks: Souleymane Alio rejects the move

Sandefjord had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at FC Nordsjaelland, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.

Squad

Tempers go at Sandefjord

Evangelos Patoulidis 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.

Squad

Vetle Walle Egeli 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.

Transfer targets

Odd tell Sandefjord: Zakaria Mugeese is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Match

A bad afternoon for Sandefjord against Valerenga

0‑1 to Valerenga, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

The dugout

Ola Kamara gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

Squad

14 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.

In brief

3 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

17 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

Chastening afternoon for Sandefjord

A 1‑6 beating by Bodo/Glimt was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.

Match

Sandefjord out of the cup

Molde ended it 1‑4. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.

Squad

Elias Hadaya stands alone

8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Jakob Dunsby

Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

The terraces

Sandefjord are taken apart by Molde — and the town wants answers

It finished 1-4. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.

Boardroom

Window shuts: 19 in, 2 out at Sandefjord

The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 19 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.

Match

4 matches without a win for Sandefjord

The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Sandefjord are no longer polite ones.

Squad

Evangelos Patoulidis in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sandefjord this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

Nobody could stop scoring

7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Sandefjord and Bodo/Glimt in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.

In brief

2 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

10 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Market

Sandefjord turn down IK Start for Sander Risan Mørk

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Player ratings

No sign of nerves from Daniel Johan Skaarud at 18 — 7.85

The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Daniel Johan Skaarud did not need any: 7.85, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.

Market

Rosenborg watching Marcus Melchior

The interest is real enough to have reached print. Sandefjord have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.

Squad

Jakob Dunsby stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Jakob Dunsby and Sandefjord agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

Words exchanged at Sandefjord

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.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Jakob Dunsby

Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Words at Sandefjord training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakob Dunsby 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.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Sory Diarra

Sandefjord asked and Haugesund said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Match

Sandefjord come up short against Lillestrom

Lillestrom left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

In brief

1 Edition

The Sandefjord Sentinel

3 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

A hiding for Sandefjord

Beaten 0‑4 by Molde, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.

Squad

Sander Risan Mørk signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sander Risan Mørk and Sandefjord agree another 4 years.

Squad

A falling-out at Sandefjord

Evangelos Patoulidis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Jakob Dunsby 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.

Squad

100 appearances for Vetle Walle Egeli

100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.

Boardroom

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.

Market

Still no ink between Sandefjord and Evangelos Patoulidis

“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 Evangelos Patoulidis.

The dugout

The manager has not finished forgetting Sander Risan Mørk'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 dugout

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 0‑4 Patrick Normann left the room before anybody could ask which.

In brief