From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Sep 2026
Henrik Bjørdal has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Viking they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match5 Sep 2026
Whatever happens, Viking do not lose
8 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Match5 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Viking
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Viking are no longer polite ones.
Squad7 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Viking this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Kristoffer Askildsen falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Market7 Sep 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Viking, another week without a signature from Erik Botheim.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 Aug 2026
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Simen Kvia-Egeskog had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
Supporters turn on the $3.3M sale of Ľubomír Belko
He is going to Olympiacos, the club has $3.3M 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Olympiacos pay $3.3M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Market31 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Match29 Aug 2026
Still nobody has beaten Viking
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Viking
Henrik Falchener 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 dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Veton Berisha
“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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Viking
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Julian Faye Lund was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad31 Aug 2026
8 new faces, and Viking 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Aug 2026
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Ľubomír Belko: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Match19 Aug 2026
Viking through in the cup
A 0‑0 win over Haugesund, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market24 Aug 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Viking is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market24 Aug 2026
Viking say no — this time
The offer from OB for Simen Kvia-Egeskog 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Match22 Aug 2026
Still nobody has beaten Viking
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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Viking
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Henrik Falchener was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match12 Aug 2026
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Romano Postema obliged against Tromso. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Viking.
Match15 Aug 2026
4‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Match12 Aug 2026
Viking win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 117th minute. Tromso will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.95 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Age has not caught Zlatko Tripic yet — 8.27
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.27 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market17 Aug 2026
Helsingborg come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Viking did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Deadline passes with 8 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Viking 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market10 Aug 2026
Henrik Bjørdal has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Viking they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market10 Aug 2026
Valerenga come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Viking did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
$280.0K settles it between the clubs for Julian Faye Lund
Bodo/Glimt have accepted the money. What Viking do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bodo/Glimt have kept their man, and Viking go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Henrik Bjørdal has agreed terms with Rosenborg for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Henrik Falchener and Viking agree another 5 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Viking training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Henrik Bjørdal 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Viking
Henrik Heggheim and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
Erik Botheim gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market3 Aug 2026
Joe Bell wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Viking hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Zlatko Tripic and Viking agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Viking
Erik Botheim and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market3 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Helsingborg have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Jakob Segadal Hansen. The answer from Viking has not changed — yet.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Henrik Bjørdal 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
A point taken on 94 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad3 Aug 2026
7 new faces, and Viking 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.