Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marius van der Raad will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around SonderjyskE the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ulrik Yttergård Jenssen 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 Musiliu Odekunle was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Position 4 on 38 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
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.
In brief
The dugoutQuinten Bert asks for a word with the manager
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Musiliu Odekunle will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around SonderjyskE the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Elias Warming 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 Musiliu Odekunle was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at SonderjyskE, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around SonderjyskE they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Rasmus Møller 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jerailly Wielzen, and the manager let it.
Squad6 May 2030
Alama Bayo 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.
In brief
The dugoutEmmanuel Aby knocks on the manager's door
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SonderjyskE this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Apr 2030
Words at SonderjyskE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel Aby 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SonderjyskE is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Ulrik Yttergård Jenssen 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 Rasmus Møller was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at SonderjyskE will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
In brief
MatchContinental football is in reach for SonderjyskE
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SonderjyskE can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SonderjyskE 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 SonderjyskE 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 Rasmus Møller was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at SonderjyskE, another week without a signature from Gabriele Martena.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rasmus Møller trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at SonderjyskE has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Emmanuel Aby will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around SonderjyskE the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SonderjyskE 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 Emmanuel Aby was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Tobias Klysner is on it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SonderjyskE can pretend not to have heard.
Ulrik Yttergård Jenssen and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Apr 2030
Words at SonderjyskE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel Aby 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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Alesio Pano is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
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.
“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 SonderjyskE, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around SonderjyskE they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Elias Warming 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Axel Bertelsen and SonderjyskE agree another 4 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Simon Bækgaard was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. SonderjyskE will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Elias Warming is on it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SonderjyskE can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Musiliu Odekunle will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around SonderjyskE the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SonderjyskE this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Mar 2030
Emmanuel Aby falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I 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 SonderjyskE will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at SonderjyskE. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at SonderjyskE, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
BoardroomThe SonderjyskE production line keeps running
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SonderjyskE is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Rasmus Møller 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.
“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.
Squad11 Mar 2030
Emmanuel Aby 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.
Nobody at SonderjyskE will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at SonderjyskE, another week without a signature from Simon Bækgaard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around SonderjyskE they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Rasmus Møller 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 Simon Bækgaard was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at SonderjyskE, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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 SonderjyskE, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SonderjyskE is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Rasmus Møller and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Feb 2030
Emmanuel Aby 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.
Nobody at SonderjyskE will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
In brief
The dugoutRasmus Møller knocks on the manager’s door
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SonderjyskE can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Musiliu Odekunle will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around SonderjyskE the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ulrik Yttergård Jenssen 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.
Squad18 Feb 2030
Words at SonderjyskE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel Aby is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at SonderjyskE, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Marius van der Raad has written the date down.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SonderjyskE is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Giacomo Maucci trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SonderjyskE is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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 SonderjyskE, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 1 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. SonderjyskE will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Everything agreed with AC Horsens, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. SonderjyskE will try again when the window opens; B.93 may not be selling by then.
Jerailly Wielzen 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SonderjyskE can pretend not to have heard.
SonderjyskE asked and Viborg 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 SonderjyskE this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Jan 2030
Words at SonderjyskE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Musiliu Odekunle 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.
SonderjyskE have made the call to Silkeborg. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Nobody at SonderjyskE will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
In brief
The dugoutEmmanuel Aby knocks on the manager's door
MatchContinental football is in reach for SonderjyskE
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Lyngby waiting with a shirt. Nobody at SonderjyskE is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SonderjyskE can pretend not to have heard.
The deal with HB Køge 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around SonderjyskE they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
$75.0K was the most the club would pay and Hillerød 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.
SonderjyskE asked and AGF said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SonderjyskE can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Hvidovre for Musiliu Odekunle was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The offer went to Hillerød 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.
Rasmus Møller 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 Emmanuel Aby was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. SonderjyskE have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Position 4 on 38 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SonderjyskE is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Two goals and a mark of 8.47 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. SonderjyskE will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alexander Lyng and SonderjyskE agree another 4 years.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” SonderjyskE have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Ulrik Yttergård Jenssen 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mike Themsen. 2‑1 against Aarhus Fremad, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
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.
In brief
BoardroomWages swallow 86% of the SonderjyskE income
“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 SonderjyskE, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around SonderjyskE they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Ulrik Yttergård Jenssen 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.
Marked 6.28 on 11 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emmanuel Aby was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout24 Dec 2029
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 Oliver Andersen left the room before anybody could ask which.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emmanuel Aby was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Jerailly Wielzen was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Marked 7.60 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, SonderjyskE had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout17 Dec 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Oliver Andersen kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SonderjyskE is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Tristan Andrew has agreed terms with AC Horsens for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Gabriele Martena and SonderjyskE agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Rasmus Møller was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SonderjyskE 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 Emmanuel Aby was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad3 Dec 2029
A place in the month's best eleven for Mike Themsen
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Mike Themsen has come out of that comparison in the side, and SonderjyskE have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at SonderjyskE has been clear about where Bartłomiej Krasiewicz stands, which is more than many ever get.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Mads Mikkelsen scored in the 85th minute, Kolding IF had already begun thinking about the journey home, and SonderjyskE took the lot.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SonderjyskE is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Marked 8.41 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The 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 earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Oliver Andersen on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Rasmus Møller 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Haakon Ludvigsen has his answer from SonderjyskE; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Words at SonderjyskE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alama Bayo 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.
Something was said to Elias Warming and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Elias Warming is on it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Kolding IF in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SonderjyskE this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Squad12 Nov 2029
Words at SonderjyskE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel Aby 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Adam Andersson, and the manager let it.
The dugout12 Nov 2029
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 1‑2 Oliver Andersen left the room before anybody could ask which.
Nobody at SonderjyskE will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Middelfart will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. SonderjyskE were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.93, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SonderjyskE this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Musiliu Odekunle was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
BoardroomWages eat 91% of everything SonderjyskE earn
SquadA place in the month's best eleven for Elias Warming
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SonderjyskE can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marius van der Raad will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around SonderjyskE the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Words at SonderjyskE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rasmus Møller is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SonderjyskE this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Successful dribbles: 25. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Rasmus Møller 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.
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad22 Oct 2029
Words at SonderjyskE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel Aby 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.” Oliver Andersen after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” SonderjyskE have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 SonderjyskE, and it is not being withdrawn.
Rasmus Møller 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 Musiliu Odekunle was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
FC Fredericia next, and one man in the SonderjyskE dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at SonderjyskE would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at SonderjyskE, another week without a signature from Elias Warming.
20 points from position 4. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Tristan Andrew’s negotiating for him
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ulrik Yttergård Jenssen and SonderjyskE agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SonderjyskE this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings8 Oct 2029
Ismaïl Seydi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.36. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
20 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.
Boardroom8 Oct 2029
93% of the income goes out in wages at SonderjyskE
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
In brief
SquadA place in the month's best eleven for Asker Beck
“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 SonderjyskE, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marius van der Raad will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around SonderjyskE the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emmanuel Aby was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. SonderjyskE will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“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 SonderjyskE, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Giacomo Maucci is living that version at SonderjyskE, and it tends to show in the first month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SonderjyskE this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Jerailly Wielzen is living that version at SonderjyskE, and it tends to show in the first month.
Lyngby will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. William Møller has pre-agreed a move to SonderjyskE, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. SonderjyskE will try again when the window opens; B.93 may not be selling by then.
Jerailly Wielzen and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Words at SonderjyskE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Musiliu Odekunle is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody at SonderjyskE will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at SonderjyskE, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Successful dribbles: 34. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match1 Sep 2029
Mads Mikkelsen wins it after the whistle should have gone
93 minutes played. Mads Mikkelsen found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and B.93 went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mads Mikkelsen provided it, and the 8.56 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” B.93 had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
Deadline passes with 12 signed and 15 gone
That is the business done at SonderjyskE 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around SonderjyskE they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad3 Sep 2029
Mike Themsen 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 clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Aalborg keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Successful dribbles: 27. 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 offer went to Aalborg 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.
Squad27 Aug 2029
Mike Themsen 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.
SonderjyskE asked and FC Copenhagen said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is 20 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Silkeborg waiting with a shirt. Nobody at SonderjyskE is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
$240.0K on the table at Silkeborg. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Andreas Oggesen 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.
SonderjyskE asked and OB said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He 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.
“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 SonderjyskE, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Kolding IF for Musiliu Odekunle was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
SonderjyskE have gone to Aalborg with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” SonderjyskE have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at SonderjyskE expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Alexander Lyng.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. B.93 have kept their man, and SonderjyskE go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad13 Aug 2029
Words at SonderjyskE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mike Themsen 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.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Asker Beck will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at SonderjyskE escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
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.
“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 SonderjyskE, and it is not being withdrawn.
SonderjyskE asked and Aalborg said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at SonderjyskE expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Alexander Lyng.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Words at SonderjyskE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mike Themsen 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. SonderjyskE have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 SonderjyskE, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets30 Jul 2029
$710.0K settles it between the clubs for Igor Vekić
Vejle have accepted the money. What SonderjyskE do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
SonderjyskE had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Aalborg, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Match28 Jul 2029
After 10 games, SonderjyskE finally taste it again
The first defeat in 10 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against AGF; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SonderjyskE is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at SonderjyskE expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Alexander Lyng.
Maxime Soulas 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SonderjyskE can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around SonderjyskE they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” SonderjyskE have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at SonderjyskE expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Alexander Lyng.
6 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mike Themsen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for SonderjyskE is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Andreas Oggesen 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SonderjyskE can pretend not to have heard.
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at SonderjyskE expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Alexander Lyng.
SonderjyskE offered $75.0K; Hillerød said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Mike Themsen 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. Randers have kept their man, and SonderjyskE go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Position 5 on 36 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Nicolai Flø’s negotiating for him
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Hobro had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at SonderjyskE expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Alexander Lyng.
SonderjyskE asked and Vejle said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Emmanuel Aby and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Words at SonderjyskE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Cherif Haïdara 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.
SonderjyskE have made the call to Aalborg. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Kamil Mazur
The offer from Kolding IF for Marius van der Raad was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at SonderjyskE expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Alexander Lyng.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ismaïl Seydi and SonderjyskE agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Words at SonderjyskE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mike Themsen 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.
Andreas Oggesen 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.
SonderjyskE asked and AGF said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
FC Copenhagen have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
SonderjyskE and Vejle have settled on $800.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The phone has started ringing about Maxime Soulas again, and this time the name on the line is Hobro. SonderjyskE are listening politely and promising nothing.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Musiliu Odekunle will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around SonderjyskE the goodbyes have quietly begun.
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at SonderjyskE expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Alexander Lyng.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Words at SonderjyskE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mike Themsen is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. FC Midtjylland have kept their man, and SonderjyskE go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Kolding IF waiting with a shirt. Nobody at SonderjyskE is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SonderjyskE can pretend not to have heard.
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at SonderjyskE expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Alexander Lyng.
Ulrik Yttergård Jenssen was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Randers have kept their man, and SonderjyskE go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Words at SonderjyskE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Cherif Haïdara 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 injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 16 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
“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 SonderjyskE will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at SonderjyskE expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Alexander Lyng.
Maxime Soulas and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Mike Themsen 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. Brondby have kept their man, and SonderjyskE go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Add another name to the list: Kolding IF have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Marius van der Raad. The answer from SonderjyskE has not changed — yet.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SonderjyskE can pretend not to have heard.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and SonderjyskE have had the benefit of it.
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at SonderjyskE expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Alexander Lyng.
The offer went to FC Midtjylland 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.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Andreas Oggesen 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.
SonderjyskE asked and Esbjerg said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Isaac Sackey damages knee ligaments — 140 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 140 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SonderjyskE is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Cherif Haïdara was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Marius van der Raad has written the date down.
In brief
The dugoutEnzo Ngoma asks for a word with the manager
148 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SonderjyskE lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SonderjyskE can pretend not to have heard.
Squad21 May 2029
Mike Themsen 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.
Emmanuel Aby 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. SonderjyskE know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
156 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. SonderjyskE lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
This is not rotation. Maxime Soulas has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at SonderjyskE is pretending otherwise.
Squad14 May 2029
Mike Themsen 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.
Andreas Oggesen 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at SonderjyskE, another week without a signature from Isaac Sackey.
Position 5, 36 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
Vegard Solheim 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 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Tobias Klysner is on it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at SonderjyskE, another week without a signature from Andreas Oggesen.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Enzo Ngoma has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SonderjyskE is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Mike Themsen 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.
Maxime Soulas 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.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Words at SonderjyskE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mike Themsen is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at SonderjyskE, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. SonderjyskE know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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 SonderjyskE will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
This is not rotation. Maxime Soulas has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at SonderjyskE is pretending otherwise.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Words at SonderjyskE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Cherif Haïdara is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody at SonderjyskE will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
36 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mads Mikkelsen and SonderjyskE agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Words at SonderjyskE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mike Themsen is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and SonderjyskE have no good answer.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at SonderjyskE, another week without a signature from Nicolai Flø.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Musiliu Odekunle will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around SonderjyskE the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mads Mikkelsen and SonderjyskE agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Words at SonderjyskE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mike Themsen 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.
Ongelethu Somtsewu 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.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. SonderjyskE know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Tristan Andrew has, at SonderjyskE, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Andreas Oggesen 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at SonderjyskE, another week without a signature from Tristan Andrew.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. SonderjyskE know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Tristan Andrew arrives at SonderjyskE with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Alesio Pano has just signed for SonderjyskE, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Mike Themsen 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 SonderjyskE this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say David Boison Frimpong is on it.
Position 5 on 36 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Alesio Pano arrives at SonderjyskE with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mike Themsen 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 SonderjyskE this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at SonderjyskE will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and SonderjyskE will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
In brief
The dugoutNicolai Flø knocks on the manager’s door
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Musiliu Odekunle will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around SonderjyskE the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SonderjyskE 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 Mohamed Cherif Haïdara was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at SonderjyskE than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mohamed Cherif Haïdara trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Mike Themsen 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. SonderjyskE know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at SonderjyskE, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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 SonderjyskE will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mike Themsen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Adam Andersson 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“I 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 SonderjyskE will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
36 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
SonderjyskE asked and Sandefjord said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. SonderjyskE will try again when the window opens; B.93 may not be selling by then.
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 20, and nobody at SonderjyskE signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Nobody at SonderjyskE will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Add another name to the list: Hobro have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Maxime Soulas. The answer from SonderjyskE has not changed — yet.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around SonderjyskE they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 1 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Elias Warming is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Words at SonderjyskE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mike Themsen is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bodo/Glimt have kept their man, and SonderjyskE go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 35 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
The dugoutIsmaïl Seydi knocks on the manager's door
131Edition
The SonderjyskE Post
29 Jan 2029
From our football correspondentUpbeat
Squad29 Jan 2029
Mike Themsen 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.
SonderjyskE asked and Brondby said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
SonderjyskE have made the call to Bodo/Glimt. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. SonderjyskE know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at SonderjyskE, another week without a signature from Nikodem Szady.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Middelfart waiting with a shirt. Nobody at SonderjyskE is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” SonderjyskE have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Randers have kept their man, and SonderjyskE go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Jacob Vetter 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 from Hobro for Maxime Soulas was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Maxime Soulas and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Words at SonderjyskE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mike Themsen 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.
SonderjyskE asked and FC Midtjylland said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The phone has started ringing about Musiliu Odekunle again, and this time the name on the line is Middelfart. SonderjyskE are listening politely and promising nothing.
SonderjyskE have made the call to Lyngby. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Something was said to Andreas Oggesen and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Position 5 on 36 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Add another name to the list: Hobro have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Maxime Soulas. The answer from SonderjyskE has not changed — yet.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SonderjyskE 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 Mike Themsen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. SonderjyskE had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Haakon Ludvigsen scored, was marked 7.83, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Sefer Emini was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mike Themsen. 2‑0 against Aarhus Fremad, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Match30 Dec 2028
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for SonderjyskE. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Player ratings1 Jan 2029
Mike Themsen was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.32. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around SonderjyskE they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
This is not rotation. Maxime Soulas has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at SonderjyskE is pretending otherwise.
Player ratings25 Dec 2028
Up for the corner, and Sefer Emini delivers — 7.75
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Sefer Emini scored, was marked 7.75, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Mike Themsen 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sefer Emini. 2‑1 against Hobro, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Emmanuel Aby 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.
Marked 8.41 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Emmanuel Aby, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.44
A mark of 8.44 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mike Themsen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Emmanuel Aby. 2‑1 against HB Køge, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Two goals and a mark of 8.18 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Vegard Solheim and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
He is 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.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.33, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad11 Dec 2028
A muscle injury sidelines Mads Dolberg for 14 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. SonderjyskE will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
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.
17 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Sefer Emini 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.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Words at SonderjyskE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mike Themsen 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for SonderjyskE is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Isaac Sackey has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Tobias Klysner is on it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sefer Emini will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around SonderjyskE the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Maxime Soulas 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 Mike Themsen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 88. Kolding IF had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” SonderjyskE 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.
5 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Andreas Oggesen trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Asker Beck’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and SonderjyskE needing him to play as if none of it matters.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Maxime Soulas signs something — a contract at SonderjyskE or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
MatchContinental football is in reach for SonderjyskE
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SonderjyskE can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Words at SonderjyskE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mike Themsen is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Elias Warming 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.
Something was said to Gavin Beavers and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Oliver Andersen chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
In brief
SquadThe division's best last weekend was a SonderjyskE man
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.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Mike Themsen falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at SonderjyskE, another week without a signature from Sefer Emini.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around SonderjyskE they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Sefer Emini and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Words at SonderjyskE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Cherif Haïdara 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.
Boardroom30 Oct 2028
Nobody left the SonderjyskE 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Oliver Andersen after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
Mike Themsen 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.
Vegard Solheim 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Oliver Andersen after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad23 Oct 2028
5 new faces, and SonderjyskE 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 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SonderjyskE this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Mike Themsen falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Position 4 on 17 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at SonderjyskE has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Maxime Soulas 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.
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.
Nobody at SonderjyskE will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
In brief
Player ratingsIsmaïl Seydi beats them one at a time
Player ratingsThe chances came and went for Mike Themsen
SquadA SonderjyskE teenager takes the young player award
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sefer Emini will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around SonderjyskE the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Sefer Emini 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.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Mike Themsen 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Emmanuel Aby 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.89 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SonderjyskE 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 Mike Themsen 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 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Mike Themsen 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.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Mads Mikkelsen in the middle of it, and Hobro unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
6 new faces, and SonderjyskE 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason SonderjyskE will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
SonderjyskE offered $340.0K; Vejle said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Simon Bækgaard has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means SonderjyskE have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Brondby have kept their man, and SonderjyskE go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SonderjyskE 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 Mohamed Cherif Haïdara was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
Sefer Emini was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.04. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Gavin Beavers knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason SonderjyskE will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Sefer Emini and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Gabriele Martena has, at SonderjyskE, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mike Themsen 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. FC Midtjylland have kept their man, and SonderjyskE go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Gabriele Martena is 20, and SonderjyskE have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason SonderjyskE will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SonderjyskE is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings4 Sep 2028
A brace, and Sefer Emini takes the afternoon — 8.31
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Sefer Emini provided it, and the 8.31 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $59.3K of what SonderjyskE paid for William Faber is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
This is not rotation. Maxime Soulas has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at SonderjyskE is pretending otherwise.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
SonderjyskE close the window on a squad of their own making
31 in and 12 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
The offer went to Vejle 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.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Words at SonderjyskE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mike Themsen is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason SonderjyskE will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SonderjyskE this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
SonderjyskE asked and Malmo FF said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
HB Køge go through and SonderjyskE go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason SonderjyskE will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Vejle wanted more than $310.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Words at SonderjyskE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rúnar Þór Sigurgeirsson is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Kolding IF have kept their man, and SonderjyskE go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. SonderjyskE will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The offer went to Vejle 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.
Sefer Emini 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.
Kolding IF wanted more than $29.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Mike Themsen 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.
SonderjyskE asked and FC Nordsjaelland said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason SonderjyskE will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sefer Emini will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around SonderjyskE the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Sefer Emini has agreed terms with FC Nordsjaelland for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
The offer went to Kolding IF 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rúnar Þór Sigurgeirsson 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 SonderjyskE can tell you which week it ends in.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 67 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SonderjyskE 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 Rúnar Þór Sigurgeirsson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
SonderjyskE asked and FC Midtjylland said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and SonderjyskE know it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 76 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
SonderjyskE have gone to Kolding IF with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
In brief
SquadWords at SonderjyskE training over how hard people work
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 83 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
SonderjyskE offered $29.0K; Kolding IF said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rúnar Þór Sigurgeirsson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
SonderjyskE asked and FC Nordsjaelland said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Simon Wæver 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.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. SonderjyskE will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
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.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 90 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Sefer Emini 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.
SonderjyskE have gone to Kolding IF with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Vejle waiting with a shirt. Nobody at SonderjyskE is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. SonderjyskE will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 SonderjyskE, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal with Lyngby 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SonderjyskE this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A conversation is coming this week. SonderjyskE will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Words at SonderjyskE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mike Themsen 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.
SonderjyskE have gone to Kolding IF with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Words at SonderjyskE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rúnar Þór Sigurgeirsson is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Maxime Soulas signs something — a contract at SonderjyskE or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at SonderjyskE would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.