The words a physio says slowly. 72 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
0‑3 to Viking, 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.
Ruben Yttergård Jenssen and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Tromso training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Elias Hjort-Pedersen 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.
79 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Tromso lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
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.
Marked 7.88. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout25 Oct 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 1‑2 Stefan Henriksen left the room before anybody could ask which.
86 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Tromso lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
7 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Sarpsborg 08 were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Tromso training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lars Olden Larsen is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Elias Hjort-Pedersen 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 dugout18 Oct 2027
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.” Stefan Henriksen, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ieltsin Camões trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
93 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Tromso lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Ruben Yttergård Jenssen was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“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 Tromso will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Sarpsborg 08 in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
5 goals in 24 games at Kalmar FF — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Tromso updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The words a physio says slowly. 100 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
0‑3 against Fredrikstad, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Ruben Yttergård Jenssen and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lars Olden Larsen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
107 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Tromso lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
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.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
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 Lars Olden Larsen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Stefan Henriksen after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The words a physio says slowly. 114 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Sebastian Mihai Asan is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tromso this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout20 Sep 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 Stefan Henriksen left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
122 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Tromso lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Vegard Erlien will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Tromso escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
A brace, and Vegard Erlien takes the afternoon — 8.36
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Vegard Erlien provided it, and the 8.36 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
The first defeat in 8 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against IK Start; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Ruben Yttergård Jenssen was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lars Olden Larsen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
130 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Tromso lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Ruben Yttergård Jenssen and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The shirt still fits. Magnar Ødegaard is back at Tromso, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Gustav Valsvik is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Mikkel Wennberg Lindbäck is 20, and Tromso 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.
Nobody at Tromso 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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
The deal that would have taken Troy Nyhammer to Bodo/Glimt has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Tromso with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Add another name to the list: B.93 have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Gustav Valsvik. The answer from Tromso has not changed — yet.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
18 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tromso this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at Tromso training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leo Cornic 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.
Ruben Yttergård Jenssen was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Leo Cornic falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.52 on the card, and the Tromso support went home talking about one name.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Stefan Henriksen was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Tromso dressing room was either.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Tromso told Cassander Dreyer something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Tromso they have already started talking about him 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 Tromso, and it is not being withdrawn.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
Francisco Brás 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Stefan Henriksen on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
In brief
The dugoutJakob Haugaard has become a man the manager trusts
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 offer from B.93 for Gustav Valsvik 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Tromso training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leo Cornic 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.
A point taken on 87 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.
Cassander Dreyer 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: 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Troy Nyhammer is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
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.
Tromso had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Egersund, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leo Cornic was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Tromso asked and Kristiansund said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Tromso have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The deal with Egersund 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.
Tromso asked and Sandefjord said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Sogndal scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
The 86th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Viktor Ekblom decided nobody was going anywhere. Stromsgodset had no time left to answer.
Successful dribbles: 29. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Ruben Yttergård Jenssen and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Tromso have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Tromso training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leo Cornic 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.
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.
10 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 Leo Cornic was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Tromso can tell you which week it ends in.
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.
9 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.
The offer from Shooting Stars for Vince Osuji 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tromso this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
The enquiry everybody at Tromso was hoping would not arrive has arrived. He has never pretended he did not want to go back, and now there is somewhere to go back to.
The dugout28 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 0‑2 Stefan Henriksen left the room before anybody could ask which.
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 Leo Cornic was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Stefan Henriksen after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Francisco Brás was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Nobody at Tromso is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Two goals and a mark of 8.33 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mads Mikkelsen is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Leo Cornic 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 90. Fredrikstad had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Adrian Evensen-Jensen 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.
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.
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.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Nobody at Tromso 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.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Tromso is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Tromso will quote 16 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad31 May 2027
Leo Cornic 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Vegard Erlien signs something — a contract at Tromso or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with IK Start the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Tromso will enjoy reviewing.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ieltsin Camões provided it, and the 8.34 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Troy Nyhammer did not need any: 7.98, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
Ruben Yttergård Jenssen was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“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.
Squad24 May 2027
Leo Cornic 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 watch every Tromso game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at GAIS runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Tromso can tell you which week it ends in.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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. Tromso 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.
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 Mads Mikkelsen is on it.
Bodo/Glimt go through and Tromso go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Ruben Yttergård Jenssen and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 May 2027
Leo Cornic falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Nobody 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.
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.
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.
“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.
In brief
Looking aheadTromso take on the side everybody is chasing
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Marcus Ryberg
Player ratingsA defender's afternoon for Leo Cornic
Two goals and a mark of 8.52 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vince Osuji will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Tromso the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Ieltsin Camões in the middle of it, and KFUM Oslo unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leo Cornic was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Tromso are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
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.
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.
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.
There were 89 minutes on the clock and Bryne had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Tromso did not stop to explain themselves.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.86 at 39, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It finished 1‑0, and it was Ieltsin Camões’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Tromso.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
Ieltsin Camões was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.38. 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.
Adrian Evensen-Jensen 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 dugout26 Apr 2027
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.” Stefan Henriksen kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Two goals and a mark of 8.58 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.22 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Tromso and Haugesund in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ieltsin Camões. 4‑2 against Haugesund, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Haugesund were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
In brief
SquadWords at Tromso training over how hard people work
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the 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.
5 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Birger Henriksen 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 Ajer 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. Jens Thorsby 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Tromso they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 9 arrived, 10 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cremonese have kept their man, and Tromso go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mathias Tønnessen trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mads Mikkelsen is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Krasnodar have kept their man, and Tromso go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Leo Cornic falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Tromso know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mathias Tønnessen trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Tromso. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Tromso people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Ruben Yttergård Jenssen was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Tromso asked and Vejle said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Magnus Bohinen 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. Martin Johansen 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. Marcus Normann 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leo Cornic was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Sander Innvær was one of the reasons people came, and $1.7M does not replace that by itself.
The offer from Mjondalen for Vince Osuji 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. CSKA Moscow have kept their man, and Tromso go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Tromso can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“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 Tromso, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Heine Åsen Larsen reports back to Tromso with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ruben Yttergård Jenssen and Tromso agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The name of Sander Innvær has come up in conversations Tromso were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“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; Tromso are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Johan Solstad-Nøis has left for Sandefjord in a $160.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Tromso training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leo Cornic 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 Tromso this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Tromso have lost him in all but the paperwork.
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.
Transfer targets1 Mar 2027
$520.0K settles it between the clubs for Kweku Kekeli
Mjondalen have accepted the money. What Tromso do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“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 Tromso, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Tromso they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Raufoss moved on, Vince Osuji reports back to Tromso, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Tromso can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Krasnodar have kept their man, and Tromso go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Tromso have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Tromso, and it is not being withdrawn.
Abderrahmane Sarr 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 Daniel Braut trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Mjondalen waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Tromso is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer went to Rostov this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tromso this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Tromso will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mathias Tønnessen trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Tromso would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
The clubs have shaken hands with Stabaek; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The name of Sander Innvær has come up in conversations Tromso were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“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 Tromso will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Tromso would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
A month in which every rumour is possible and most of them are nonsense. The manager has a list, the board has a number, and neither is telling the other the whole of it.
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.
Ruben Yttergård Jenssen and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“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 Tromso will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Tromso know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Tromso would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Tromso. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Tromso, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Tromso have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Tromso that is a harder question to answer.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Heine Åsen Larsen trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
Edvard Bjerkaas 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ieltsin Camões trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The offer from Plateau United for Vince Osuji 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.
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.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Sean Nilsen-Modebe 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.
Abderrahmane Sarr and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Tromso 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 Heine Åsen Larsen has written the date down.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Casper Øyvann
Ruben Yttergård Jenssen was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Johan Solstad-Nøis is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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 Vince Osuji trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
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 Ieltsin Camões has written the date down.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Tromso that is a harder question to answer.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Tromso can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mathias Tønnessen trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Daniel Braut has written the date down.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Tromso 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. Tromso know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Tromso has been clear about where Heine Åsen Larsen stands, which is more than many ever get.
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 Ieltsin Camões has written the date down.
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.
Leon Hien 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.
Daniel Braut scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Stromsgodset, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Stefan Henriksen to a room that had heard them before.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Tromso, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
A side in position 11 visits next. The result will not make anybody’s season and it could quietly break the shape of one, which is why the manager has been watching the video since Sunday.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Casper Øyvann
Ruben Yttergård Jenssen and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Stefan Henriksen after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Tromso has been clear about where Ole Kristian Lauvli stands, which is more than many ever get.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Tromso know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
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.
A 1‑1 draw with HamKam leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Stefan Henriksen was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Tromso dressing room was either.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Ieltsin Camões has moved up 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 Tromso this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Vegard Erlien had Tromso level again within 2 minutes, and KFUM Oslo never got to play with a lead at all.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ieltsin Camões trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
HamKam next, and one man in the Tromso dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Ieltsin Camões
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Tromso told Adrian Evensen-Jensen something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Lars Olden Larsen’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Tromso 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 Viktor Ekblom signs something — a contract at Tromso or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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. Tromso know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Heine Åsen Larsen’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Tromso needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Tromso, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Tromso. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Ole Kristian Lauvli may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Tromso the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
They sit in position 9 and they will be waiting. Away form is where a season shows its true character, and this side has a point to make about its own.
1 for Leo Cornic, marked 7.91, 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 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Leo Cornic. 2‑0 against Haugesund, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
13 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 earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Stefan Henriksen on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
In brief
SquadA Tromso teenager takes the young player award
The dugoutLeon Hien asks for a word with the manager
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tromso this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Stefan Henriksen after 0‑5, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Johan Solstad-Nøis is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
At 18 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Tromso can pretend not to have heard.
8.17. 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.
Abderrahmane Sarr 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Stefan Henriksen could afford to be generous.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The 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.
“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 Tromso, and it is not being withdrawn.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Cassander Dreyer has just signed for Tromso, and for once the answer mattered.
Ruben Yttergård Jenssen was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad7 Sep 2026
13 new faces, and Tromso are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The offer from Paredes for Ieltsin Camões 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.
Valerenga left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Stefan Henriksen left the room before anybody could ask which.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Two goals and a mark of 8.59 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The deal that would have taken Heine Åsen Larsen to Raufoss has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Tromso with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Tromso asked and Bryne said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Tromso will try again when the window opens; Sandefjord may not be selling by then.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Stefan Henriksen could afford to be generous.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Vegard Erlien has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Molde go through and Tromso go home, 1‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Tromso have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The clubs have shaken hands with Sandefjord; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 7 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $333.8K — a club that wants Marcus Melchior enough to be asked twice.
Tromso asked and Wisła Płock said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tromso this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Vetle Skjærvik had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
David Edvardsson has gone, the accounts have $3.8M 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 Tromso this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Kristian Odegaard is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The name of Vetle Skjærvik has come up in conversations Tromso were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ruben Yttergård Jenssen and Tromso agree another 2 years.
Ruben Yttergård Jenssen was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Heine Åsen Larsen. 2‑0 against Molde, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.