“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Stabaek can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout10 Dec 2029
The manager has not finished forgetting Eirik Lereng's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The club is not barred from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every name linked with Stabaek this window arrives with a name leaving in the same sentence.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Camilo Pinillo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
The dugoutBossman Debra knocks on the manager’s door
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Marius Lundemo 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 Eirik Lereng was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
25 appearances and 6 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
6 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.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Markus Johnsgård's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
In brief
The dugoutBossman Debra knocks on the manager’s door
Marius Lundemo 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 most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Stabaek will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eirik Lereng was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Nov 2029
The manager has not finished forgetting Martin Børsheim's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stabaek this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Words at Stabaek training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adam Fuglsang is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Stabaek are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
29 appearances at Lyn and the goals have stopped going in. Stabaek lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Nobody at Stabaek will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Patrick Elyounoussi did not need any: 7.71, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Scott Vatne has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Stabaek have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Squad12 Nov 2029
Eirik Lereng falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
The dugout12 Nov 2029
The manager has not finished forgetting Eirik Lereng's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Stabaek can pretend not to have heard.
Two goals and a mark of 8.49 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Marius Lundemo 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Stabaek and Skeid, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad5 Nov 2029
Words at Stabaek training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eirik Lereng 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Marius Lundemo scored, was marked 7.39, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Sixten Mathisen 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 Adam Fuglsang was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
The dugout29 Oct 2029
The manager has not finished forgetting Martin Børsheim's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
A mark of 8.15 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
A season average of 7.06 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Stabaek know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stabaek 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eirik Lereng was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eirik Lereng was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout15 Oct 2029
Eirik Lereng is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The manager has a list and the board has a condition attached to it. That is not a crisis — half of football works this way — but it decides which of the two of them gets his way in August.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Stabaek, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Sebastian Pedersen’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Stabaek 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 Marius Lundemo signs something — a contract at Stabaek or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Stabaek can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Stabaek have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Marius Lundemo 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 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad8 Oct 2029
Adam Fuglsang 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 20 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Stabaek will try not to make too much of it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Stabaek have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Marius Lundemo 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 Eirik Lereng was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Marius Lundemo is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
9 shut-outs in 25 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Sebastian Heredia-Randen has been having a lot of them.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stabaek 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 Eirik Lereng was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Frederik Ellegaard's mistake
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Patrick Elyounoussi provided it, and the 8.55 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Patrick Elyounoussi 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.
“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.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Adam Fuglsang falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Stabaek pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Sixten Mathisen 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.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Eirik Lereng falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout10 Sep 2029
The manager has not finished forgetting Eirik Lereng's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Nobody has barred the club from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every incoming name comes with an outgoing one attached.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Sebastian Pedersen’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Stabaek needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 12 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Stabaek can pretend not to have heard.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Patrick Elyounoussi did not need any: 7.75, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Marius Lundemo 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 Eirik Lereng was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 16 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 Stabaek 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 Lorenzo Mihali was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
The dugout27 Aug 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Interim Coach was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Stabaek dressing room was either.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Stabaek will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Stabaek will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Stabaek, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 14 arrived, 18 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Stromsgodset have kept their man, and Stabaek go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eirik Lereng was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Stabaek will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Stabaek had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Rosenborg, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Marius Lundemo and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad13 Aug 2029
Eirik Lereng 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 37 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lucas Myklebust will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Stabaek the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Stabaek had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Bodo/Glimt, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Stabaek can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Stabaek have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Rosenborg arrived with $5.8M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Stabaek will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Sebastian Olderheim has gone, the accounts have $5.8M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stabaek this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sogndal have kept their man, and Stabaek go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Words at Stabaek training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eirik Lereng 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 Stabaek will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Stabaek have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Add another name to the list: Rosenborg have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Sebastian Olderheim. The answer from Stabaek has not changed — yet.
“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 Stabaek, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bodo/Glimt have kept their man, and Stabaek go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Myklebust was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Stabaek will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Stabaek, and it is not being withdrawn.
Marius Lundemo 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.
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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Stabaek are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Half the programme played, position 11, 17 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 65 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Two goals and a mark of 8.63 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Marius Lundemo 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 Eirik Lereng was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Interim Coach could afford to be generous.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Stabaek will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Sebastian Samarin scored, was marked 7.88, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stabaek 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 Lucas Myklebust was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Stabaek will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Two goals and a mark of 8.84 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Myklebust was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
A point taken on 89 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Stabaek will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Stabaek is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
A mark of 8.06 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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Lucas Myklebust has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Lucas Myklebust was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 19 he is 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.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Words at Stabaek training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eirik Lereng 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Interim Coach could afford to be generous.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 93 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Sebastian Olderheim did not need any: 8.20, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Marius Lundemo 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 accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Stabaek now.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Words at Stabaek training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Myklebust 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 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 Stabaek know it.
In brief
The dugoutMartin Børsheim is still being punished for one mistake
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Stabaek will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Stabaek have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.04, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Words at Stabaek training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Myklebust is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Sebastian Olderheim 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Stabaek will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Marius Lundemo 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 club 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 it has been tried.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Successful dribbles: 14. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marcus de Claville was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 114 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Marius Lundemo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 May 2029
Words at Stabaek training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Myklebust 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.” Interim Coach after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Stabaek will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Sebastian Olderheim did not need any: 8.07, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
7.98, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stabaek this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 128 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Sebastian Olderheim did not need any: 7.72, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Marius Lundemo 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.
At 21 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Stabaek will try not to make too much of it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 135 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
A mark of 8.05 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The 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 tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Stabaek can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Matthias Eiba 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 club 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 it has been tried.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Stabaek will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Stabaek have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Words at Stabaek training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Myklebust 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 watch every Stabaek game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Brann runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
11 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stabaek this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Stabaek are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“I watch every Stabaek game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Aalesund runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“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 Stabaek will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
There is nobody left to promote and nobody left to run a session. The board have brought in a name the supporters do not know, and the question of how a club gets here will outlast whoever answers it.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $98.1K of what Stabaek paid for Bent Sørmo is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Sebastian Olderheim did not need any: 8.09, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Stabaek have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Marius Lundemo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 21 he is 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.
That is the business done at Stabaek 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Matthias Eiba has just signed for Stabaek, and for once the answer mattered.
Marius Lundemo 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 approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Words at Stabaek training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Myklebust 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.
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.
A season average of 7.10 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Stabaek know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Nathan Dekoke has, at Stabaek, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Words at Stabaek training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Morten Bjørlo 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.
Stabaek asked and Haugesund said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Stabaek, and 0 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Stabaek, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at Stabaek 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stabaek this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Words at Stabaek training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Morten Bjørlo 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Stabaek, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
The manager has not finished forgetting Diego Burlacu's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
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 Edvard Varvin-Kvamme is on it.
The deal with Brann 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.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Lucas Myklebust 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 would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Eirik Lereng 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.
“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 Stabaek, and it is not being withdrawn.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Stabaek have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Marius Lundemo 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.
Szabolcs Buki has left for Haugesund in a $140.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Morten Bjørlo falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Stabaek know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Stabaek have made the call to Ikorodu City. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Stabaek, and it is not being withdrawn.
A season average of 7.10 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Stabaek know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Morten Bjørlo 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. Bodo/Glimt have kept their man, and Stabaek go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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 Jon Øya is on it.
“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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stabaek this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Stabaek will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Myklebust was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The deal with Rosenborg 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sebastian Olderheim and Stabaek agree another 5 years.
Marius Lundemo 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 accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Stabaek now.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Morten Bjørlo 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.
Stabaek asked and Stromsgodset 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Stabaek has been clear about where Oscar Solnørdal stands, which is more than many ever get.
The phone has started ringing about Bossman Debra again, and this time the name on the line is Brann. Stabaek are listening politely and promising nothing.
Marius Lundemo 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.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Morten Bjørlo falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.10, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
“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 Stabaek know it.
Sebastian Olderheim and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Words at Stabaek training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Morten Bjørlo 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jacob Hanstad trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Edvard Varvin-Kvamme is on it.
Marius Lundemo 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.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Words at Stabaek training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Morten Bjørlo 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 dugout15 Jan 2029
Diego Burlacu is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Stabaek know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Stabaek would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
What was a back-page link has become a chant, and the chant is not friendly. Stabaek would rather it were settled quietly, and it has stopped being quiet.
Position 5, 47 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.
Lorenzo Mihali 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.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Words at Stabaek training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Myklebust 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.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Stabaek know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Stabaek would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
A season average of 7.10 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Stabaek know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Marius Lundemo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Words at Stabaek training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Morten Bjørlo 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 Stabaek 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stabaek 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Stabaek, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
Marius Lundemo 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 Lucas Myklebust was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
1 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Stabaek could get for him.
The dugout18 Dec 2028
Diego Burlacu is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Stabaek know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ayoub Aleesami will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Stabaek the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Stabaek have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Marius Lundemo 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 Morten Bjørlo 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 Stabaek, another week without a signature from Ayoub Aleesami.
8 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jacob Hanstad trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Stabaek know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Not a month, not a run of form — a whole season of being the best 21-year-old anybody in this division could put on a pitch. This is the honour that gets mentioned for the rest of his career.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Stabaek have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
A season average of 7.10 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Stabaek know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Morten Bjørlo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Stabaek will try very hard not to make too much of it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Stabaek, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stabaek this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Stabaek are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Words at Stabaek training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcus de Claville 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.
The speculation has reached the stands, and the stands have answered. Stabaek would like this settled before it becomes the only thing anybody asks about.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Stabaek. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Eirik Lereng trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
BoardroomThe Stabaek production line keeps running
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Stabaek have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Sunusi Audu 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 Morten Bjørlo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Position 5 on 47 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ayoub Aleesami will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Stabaek the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Oliver Frost Eckardt Hansen did not need any: 8.06, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Stabaek have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Marius Lundemo and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
A mark of 7.83 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.
“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 Stabaek know it.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.05, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gustav Olsen Holmen provided it, and the 7.98 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stabaek 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 Morten Bjørlo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Fredrik Odegaard could afford to be generous.
Marius Lundemo 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 Oct 2028
Words at Stabaek training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Morten Bjørlo 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.” Fredrik Odegaard after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Leo Romero Sonesson and Stabaek agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Stabaek now.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
Diego Burlacu is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ayoub Aleesami will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Stabaek the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Sunusi Audu 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 Marcus de Claville was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Stabaek are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
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 Edvard Varvin-Kvamme is on it.
A season average of 7.02 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Stabaek know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Morten Bjørlo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
7 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.
Henrik Skretteberg is 20, and Stabaek 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.83 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Stabaek have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Morten Bjørlo 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 Stabaek this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Marius Lundemo 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 7.14 on 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Stabaek pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Stabaek can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Stabaek they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
1 for Justin Salmon, marked 7.83, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Marius Lundemo 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 Morten Bjørlo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Kongsvinger scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Stabaek can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stabaek 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 Morten Bjørlo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Stabaek, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
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 Lorenzo Mihali is on it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Kongsvinger in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Stabaek can pretend not to have heard.
A mark of 7.71 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.
“I watch every Stabaek game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Kristiansund runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
Up for the corner, and Justin Salmon delivers — 7.63
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Justin Salmon scored, was marked 7.63, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Marius Lundemo 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.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Morten Bjørlo 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.
Stabaek asked and Fredrikstad 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 watch every Stabaek game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at HamKam runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Stabaek 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.
1 for Justin Salmon, marked 7.55, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 29 arrived, 19 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Ayoub Aleesami has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Marius Lundemo 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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Morten Bjørlo 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 name of Ayoub Aleesami has come up in conversations Stabaek were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stabaek this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Lars Sorloth has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Patrick Svensson is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Stabaek can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“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 Stabaek, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Player ratings7 Aug 2028
Up for the corner, and Justin Salmon delivers — 7.73
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Justin Salmon scored, was marked 7.73, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Elias Tenden has just signed for Stabaek, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Words at Stabaek training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Morten Bjørlo 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 offer from Sarpsborg 08 for Ayoub Aleesami 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 hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Sebastian Olderheim did not need any: 7.68, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Marius Lundemo 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 Morten Bjørlo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Stabaek asked and Great Olympics said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Sebastian Olderheim 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Haugesund waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Stabaek 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 Stabaek can pretend not to have heard.
The deal with Nasarawa United 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.
Marius Lundemo 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. Viborg have kept their man, and Stabaek 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 Stabaek this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Words at Stabaek training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Morten Bjørlo 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 phone has started ringing about Axel Aamodt again, and this time the name on the line is Haugesund. Stabaek are listening politely and promising nothing.
24 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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
6 new faces, and Stabaek 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
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.
1 for Marius Lundemo, marked 7.54, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Suleiman Osman has agreed terms with Bryne for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Marius Lundemo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at Stabaek training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Morten Bjørlo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a 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.
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.
Marius Lundemo 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Stabaek, and 0 appearances in 19 say he has earned the hearing.
“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 Stabaek, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Morten Bjørlo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
11 combined actions and 7.08. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Stabaek, and 0 appearances in 19 say he has earned the hearing.
Philip Sørlie Bro 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stabaek this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Morten Bjørlo 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 first defeat in 5 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Åsane; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Fredrik Odegaard after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Cassander Dreyer did not need any: 7.77, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Stabaek can pretend not to have heard.
Herman Haugen 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 keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Stabaek, another week without a signature from Ayoub Aleesami.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Player ratings5 Jun 2028
A brace, and Justin Salmon takes the afternoon — 8.35
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Justin Salmon provided it, and the 8.35 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings5 Jun 2028
Cassander Dreyer, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.77
A mark of 7.77 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.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Marius Lundemo 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Justin Salmon. 3‑2 against Egersund, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Words at Stabaek training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Morten Bjørlo 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Stabaek, and 4 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
Marked 8.10 — 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.
92 minutes played. Sebastian Olderheim found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Kongsvinger went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Sebastian Olderheim did not need any: 8.13, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“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 Stabaek, and it is not being withdrawn.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 6.95 for the rest of it.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Marius Lundemo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at Stabaek training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Morten Bjørlo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
1 for Marius Lundemo, marked 7.70, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stabaek this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 37 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Stabaek is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
11 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
4 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 16 actions, 6.75, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Marius Lundemo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 May 2028
Morten Bjørlo falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Sebastian Olderheim has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Marius Ulla
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Sebastian Olderheim did not need any: 7.66, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“I watch every Stabaek game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Kristiansund runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Stabaek have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Marius Lundemo 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.
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.
“I watch every Stabaek game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at HamKam runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
0‑2 to Aalesund, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout1 May 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Fredrik Odegaard to a room that had heard them before.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
In brief
The dugoutMarius Ulla dropped after a run of poor form
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Stabaek have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Sebastian Olderheim did not need any: 7.72, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
1 for Ayoub Aleesami, marked 7.94, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Herman Haugen 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Mathias Klausen 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.
11 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.
1‑5 to Bryne, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Marius Lundemo scored, was marked 7.25, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Oscar Solnørdal 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.
6 goals in one match, Marius Lundemo on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Stabaek and Bryne.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hillerød have kept their man, and Stabaek go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Stabaek have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Sebastian Olderheim did not need any: 7.66, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.26 for the rest of it.
Marius Lundemo 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.
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.
Day 9 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Sebastian Olderheim 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.
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
Stabaek close the window on a squad of their own making
10 in and 16 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.
A season average of 7.04 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Stabaek know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Marius Lundemo 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.
Stabaek asked and Tromso 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 bill for the sacking has arrived. Bjorn Strandberg leaves with $327.6K for the time left on his deal, and that money buys the club nothing it can put on the pitch.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Stabaek will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. IA have kept their man, and Stabaek go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad27 Mar 2028
10 new faces, and Stabaek 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.
“I watch every Stabaek game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Valerenga runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Stabaek, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Stabaek had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Haugesund, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Stabaek have made the call to Kolding IF. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ayoub Aleesami trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 mood at Stabaek has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Ayoub Aleesami had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Fillip Jenssen Riise was one of the reasons people came, and $3.1M does not replace that by itself.
Marius Lundemo 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 fee is $110.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Mjondalen drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
HamKam paid $720.0K and Stabaek took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Stabaek can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The name of Brage Tobiassen has come up in conversations Stabaek were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
He is 20, he is averaging 7.04, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Stromsgodset paid $730.0K and Stabaek took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Oscar Solnørdal 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.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sogndal have kept their man, and Stabaek go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
6 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.
Stabaek asked and Raufoss said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Fillip Jenssen Riise trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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. Stabaek know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Stabaek have no good answer.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Stabaek know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
The mood at Stabaek has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Franklin Nyenetue has gone, the accounts have $1.1M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Sandefjord paid $1.1M and Stabaek took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sogndal have kept their man, and Stabaek 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 Stabaek this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
The dugoutMorten Bjørlo knocks on the manager’s door
Stabaek interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Bjorn Strandberg keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Stabaek have done the hard part with Brann, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Marius Lundemo 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.
Something was said to Marius Lundemo and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Edvard Varvin-Kvamme 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 mood at Stabaek has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
The 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. Stabaek 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 Stabaek, and both men came out saying it was fine.