There is no crueller way to lose a football match. IK Start scored in the 90th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at IK Start this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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. 13 actions, 6.88, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
HamKam made IK Start work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
Mikael Ugland was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.15. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“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 IK Start, and 19 appearances in 38 say he has earned the hearing.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Ole Pedersen could afford to be generous.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 90th minute. Sarpsborg 08 will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Stefen Tchamche, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.73
A mark of 7.73 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.
Mikael Ugland 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.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Ole Pedersen could afford to be generous.
John Olav Norheim and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at IK Start training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stefen Tchamche 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 not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. IK Start told Jasper Torkildsen something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“I watch every IK Start game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Middelfart runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at IK Start, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Nickolay Årsbog'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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Fredrikstad in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
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 ratings4 Oct 2027
Up for the corner, and Steve Mvoué delivers — 7.95
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Steve Mvoué scored, was marked 7.95, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Stefen Tchamche has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Steve Mvoué. 1‑0 against Molde, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Thomas Lotsberg has come out of that comparison in the side, and IK Start have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at IK Start this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
0‑2 to Brann, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at IK Start training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Armand Wangen 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 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.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Ole Pedersen to a room that had heard them before.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at IK Start pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
8 clean sheets from 17 appearances at Kristiansund. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
7 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
John Olav Norheim 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 run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 5 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
“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 IK Start, and 5 appearances in 34 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Markus Soomets'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.
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.
The 2-goal deficit was real and so was the recovery. Mikael Ugland was at the centre of it, Tromso were at the end of it, and everybody who left early will hear about this one for years.
Marked 7.84. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Nicolai Apland is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mikael Ugland. 3‑2 against Tromso, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at IK Start training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stefen Tchamche 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 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what IK Start can pretend not to have heard.
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 award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. IK Start have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
“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 IK Start, and 12 appearances in 30 say he has earned the hearing.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jasper Torkildsen trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Nickolay Årsbog'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.
John Olav Norheim 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Ole Pedersen could afford to be generous.
17 appearances at Kristiansund and the goals have stopped going in. IK Start lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what IK Start can pretend not to have heard.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 16 arrived, 15 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Nikolas Koutsakos 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.
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.
“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 IK Start, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at IK Start this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
15 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Armand Wangen 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 IK Start, and it is not being withdrawn.
Markus Soomets 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. Sogndal have kept their man, and IK Start go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what IK Start can pretend not to have heard.
John Olav Norheim 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at IK Start training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stefen Tchamche is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Brann have kept their man, and IK Start go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
John Olav Norheim 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.
IK Start asked and Randers 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mikael Ugland, and the manager let it.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Armand Wangen falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at IK Start, and 0 appearances in 26 say he has earned the hearing.
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at IK Start this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Half the programme played, position 14, 13 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Ole Pedersen left the room before anybody could ask which.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at IK Start, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at IK Start this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Viking left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Armand Wangen 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.
7 clean sheets from 14 appearances at Kristiansund. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Stromsgodset in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. IK Start know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nikolas Koutsakos was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Marked 8.09 — 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Armand Wangen 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.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Ole Pedersen could afford to be generous.
Position 14 and 10 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Håkon Lorentzen was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I watch every IK Start game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Middelfart runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ole Pedersen after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Armand Wangen
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
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.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Armand Wangen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every IK Start 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.
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 dugout21 Jun 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Ole Pedersen left the room before anybody could ask which.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at IK Start 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 Armand Wangen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
9 combined actions and 6.48. 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.
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 IK Start, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Ole Pedersen chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
John Olav Norheim 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 Mikael Ugland and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Ole Pedersen left the room before anybody could ask which.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Steve Mvoué is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at IK Start has been clear about where Mohamed Baghli stands, which is more than many ever get.
Mikael Ugland 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Vilhelm Gunnarsson has, at IK Start, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Marked 8.29 — 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.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at IK Start training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Armand Wangen 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 IK Start game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Middelfart runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Fredrik Pålerud has his answer from IK Start; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Two goals and a mark of 8.28 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ousmane Diallo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 IK Start, and 5 appearances in 15 say he has earned the hearing.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mikael Ugland trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Ole Pedersen after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
1 for Steve Mvoué, marked 7.92, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 7.07, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ole Pedersen after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad17 May 2027
6 new faces, and IK Start are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation IK Start are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.71 for the rest of it.
Håkon Lorentzen 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 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. 14 actions, 6.55, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
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 kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Håkon Lorentzen provided it, and the 8.39 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Nikolas Koutsakos 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 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Alexander Gurendal 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.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Bryne were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” IK Start have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
A point taken on 88 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at IK Start, and both men came out saying it was fine.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Nikolas Koutsakos 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.
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.
1‑4 to Sogndal, 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” IK Start have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Erlend Dahl Reitan and IK Start agree another 4 years.
Mikael Ugland was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
3 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Patrick Odegaard has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Tobias Bohinen 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.
That is the business done at IK Start 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.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
John Olav Norheim was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at IK Start training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rasmus Sandberg is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at IK Start this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 IK Start, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nikolas Koutsakos trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Erlend Segberg has his answer from IK Start; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Erlend Dahl Reitan signs something — a contract at IK Start or anywhere else — this column belongs to 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 IK Start can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around IK Start they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
IK Start had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Vizela, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at IK Start this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Elias Aleksandersen is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
IK Start asked and Mjondalen said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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 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.
John Olav Norheim and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at IK Start can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“I did not go to Valerenga to sit and watch. I want to come back to IK Start and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at IK Start training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rasmus Sandberg 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. IK Start know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around IK Start people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 IK Start, and it is not being withdrawn.
IK Start offered $900.0K; Tromso said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The fee is $300.0K, 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.
“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; IK Start are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
John Olav Norheim was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at IK Start would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
The offer from Stromsgodset for Kristoffer Tønnessen 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 clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Egersund keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
IK Start have gone to Mjondalen with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
“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; IK Start are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at IK Start this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I watch every IK Start game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Middelfart runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what IK Start can pretend not to have heard.
Jesper Cornelius has gone, the accounts have $2.8M 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.
Egersund paid $2.8M and IK Start took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The phone has started ringing about Kristoffer Tønnessen again, and this time the name on the line is Stromsgodset. IK Start are listening politely and promising nothing.
IK Start 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.
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.
IK Start have made the call to Deportivo La Coruña. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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.
“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 IK Start, and it is not being withdrawn.
John Olav Norheim 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.
Sandefjord paid $490.0K and IK Start took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The offer from Aalesund for Eirik Schulze 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around IK Start people have started saying his name in the past tense.
He is going to Bodo/Glimt, the club has $1.2M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Nikolas Koutsakos 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.
Add another name to the list: Sandefjord have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Deni Dashaev. The answer from IK Start has not changed — yet.
IK Start 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.
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 IK Start, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Ousmane Diallo
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what IK Start can pretend not to have heard.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Eirik Schulze has his answer from IK Start; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. IK Start 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 IK Start would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at IK Start. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mikael Ugland trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. IK Start know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The least glamorous thing a foreign signing ever does and the one that decides most of them. A player who can hear the shout behind him is a different footballer from one who cannot.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
The minutes were not coming at IK Start, so they will be looked for at Middelfart. A loan out is not a goodbye, but it is always a question: about the player, or about the plan.
Nikolas Koutsakos 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 phone has started ringing about Terry Benjamin again, and this time the name on the line is B.93. IK Start are listening politely and promising nothing.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. IK Start know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at IK Start. 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 Ousmane Diallo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
John Olav Norheim 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at IK Start, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at IK Start the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” IK Start have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. IK Start had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at IK Start this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. IK Start know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at IK Start, another week without a signature from Altin Ujkani.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Mikael Ugland has written the date down.
In brief
The dugoutDeni Dashaev knocks on the manager’s door
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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nikolas Koutsakos trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. IK Start know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Nikolas Koutsakos 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Håkon Lorentzen 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Marcus Riise is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Kristian Meling 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ole Daehli has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Aron Riise has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
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 IK Start have no good answer.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Fredrik Pålerud trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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.
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
Mathematically certain, and nobody in this town is going to bed early. Whatever else happened this season, it finishes a division above where it started.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. IK Start had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at IK Start this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The one award on the pitch nobody else can win. 9 games in a season in which nobody scored past him, and a career that will be measured against this one.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at IK Start, and both men came out saying it was fine.
33 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
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.
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 is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. IK Start told Mikael Ugland something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Storm Strand-Kolbjørnsen may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. IK Start know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Erlend Segberg has written the date down.
The first defeat in 11 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Lillestrom; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
John Olav Norheim 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.
“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; IK Start are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“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.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
John Olav Norheim 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.
Lillestrom next, and one man in the IK Start dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Erlend Segberg has written the date down.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Mjondalen the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that IK Start will enjoy reviewing.
Markus Soomets was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and John Olav Norheim trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
32 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Two goals and a mark of 8.28 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The instruction came from the boardroom and the dugout did not agree with it. Somebody will go, the fee will be called good business, and the manager will spend the season rebuilding around the space.
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.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Steve Mvoué. 2‑0 against Odd, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order IK Start prefer.
9 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.
Erlend Dahl Reitan 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for IK Start. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jesper Cornelius. 1‑0 against Skeid, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
8.08. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Marked 7.20 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.
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“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 IK Start, and 1 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
8 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” IK Start have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Nikolas Koutsakos 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 won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 12 combined actions and a mark of 7.26, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Nikolas Koutsakos has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Steve Mvoué. 2‑0 against Stabaek, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.26 — 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at IK Start this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Stabaek next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one IK Start will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Omar Jebali has written the date down.
7 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.
23 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
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.
8.31. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order IK Start prefer.
6 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.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.08 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
1 for Steve Mvoué, 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad28 Sep 2026
9 new faces, and IK Start 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at IK Start, and 1 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Kongsvinger will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. IK Start were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A brace, and Eirik Schulze takes the afternoon — 8.18
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Eirik Schulze provided it, and the 8.18 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and John Olav Norheim trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.09 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Ten men and a goalkeeper behind him, and it still finished in the net. He knew before anybody told him, and nobody at IK Start needed to.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Ole Pedersen, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Johan Meyer'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 IK Start this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Kristoffer Tønnessen has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at IK Start than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. IK Start know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Fredrik Pålerud has written the date down.
In brief
The terracesSupporters make their feelings known about Nikolas Koutsakos
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Fredrik Pålerud was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Ole Pedersen kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Chances created: 11. Nothing on the scoresheet and everything in the match: the pass before the pass, over and over, until the defence stopped guessing right.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.04 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
5.71, 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Eirik Schulze. 2‑0 against Raufoss, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
Steve Mvoué 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 dugout24 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Ole Pedersen, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. IK Start have lost him in all but the paperwork.
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.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at IK Start 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at IK Start this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
IK Start asked and Molde said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Håkon Lorentzen. 1‑0 against Sogndal, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Still no offer on the table, and Eirik Schulze’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Ole Pedersen was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the IK Start dressing room was either.
Sogndal next, and one man in the IK Start dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Where he used to play does most of his talking for him at IK Start. The room defers to it, the kids study it, and the only thing that can puncture it is a bad month.
Steve Mvoué 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.
Still no offer on the table, and Steve Mvoué’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fredrik Pålerud was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad3 Aug 2026
20 new faces, and IK Start are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at IK Start, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Ole Pedersen after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.