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.
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.
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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
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.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Boardroom23 Aug 2027
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
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.
“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.
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.
Olav Øby and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Aug 2027
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
“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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
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.
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.
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.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Sandefjord, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sander Risan Mørk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 dugout26 Jul 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Patrick Normann to a room that had heard them before.
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 ratings19 Jul 2027
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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Edvard Pettersen commits to Sandefjord for another 5 years.
Squad12 Jul 2027
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
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.
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.
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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sandefjord this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Patrick Normann after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad28 Jun 2027
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 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.
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
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Nikolaj Möller
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.
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.
“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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
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.
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.
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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 33. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings14 Jun 2027
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.
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.
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 easiest signature of my career.” Mathias Sauer and Sandefjord agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad14 Jun 2027
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.
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
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Jakob Swift
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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Sandefjord may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad24 May 2027
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.
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 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.
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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jakob Dunsby was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Squad10 May 2027
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.
Boardroom10 May 2027
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.
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.
Squad3 May 2027
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 dugout26 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 2‑3 Patrick Normann left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
Boardroom5 Apr 2027
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.
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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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 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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
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.
“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 dugout1 Mar 2027
Jakob Dunsby loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Jakob Dunsby's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
$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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
$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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
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.
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.
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 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 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.
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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Sandefjord are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vetle Walle Egeli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ervin Gigović trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
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.
“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
SquadThe training reports on Lamin Njie are not good
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.
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.
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 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.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
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.
“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.
“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.
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.
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.
“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 dugout4 Jan 2027
Jakob Dunsby loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Jakob Dunsby's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
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.
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.
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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“It 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.
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.
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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
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.
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 speculation has reached the stands, and the stands have answered. Sandefjord would like this settled before it becomes the only thing anybody asks about.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sandefjord know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Sandefjord that is a harder question to answer.
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.
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.
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 easiest signature of my career.” Elias Jemal and Sandefjord agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Dec 2026
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.
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.
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.
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.
Evangelos Patoulidis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Nov 2026
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.
“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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
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 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.
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.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“It 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“There 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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
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.
“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.
Boardroom19 Oct 2026
Nobody left the Sandefjord dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Squad19 Oct 2026
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 dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑4 Patrick Normann left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
The clubs 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
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.
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.
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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
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.
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.
14 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Successful dribbles: 14. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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.
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.
“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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
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.
“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 one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The 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 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.
“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 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.
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.
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.
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.
“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 dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Patrick Normann left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Nobody 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
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.
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad10 Aug 2026
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.
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.
“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.
Evangelos Patoulidis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
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.
“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.
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 dugout3 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑4 Patrick Normann left the room before anybody could ask which.