– We must not sell players now in 2023, nor in 2024. We do not budget for player sales, general manager Jon Ole Reinhardsen of FK Jerv tells Agderposten.

IK Start, for its part, budgets a total of NOK seven million in player sales this year, according to the annual meeting papers.

FK Jerv seem to have hit the mark very well on several of their signings this season.

In particular top scorer striker Samuel Pedro and centre-back Ange Mutsinzi stand out as objects for sale.

Contracts out next season

The duo has contracts until 2024.

There are brighter economic times in Jerv, despite the relegation from the elite series last autumn.

The Grimstad club made a profit of NOK 5.5 million in 2022, before the sale of Daniel Håkans to Vålerenga was taken into account.

The green zone in the financial reporting to the Norwegian Football Association contributes to greater scope for action over several years.

Thus, the 1st division club at Levermyr can also have more ice in its stomach than for a long time.

– We have better cards in hand now, confirms Reinhardsen.

FK Jerv budgets NOK 36.6 million in operating income this year, compared to around NOK 45.1 million in IK Start.

nge Mutsinzi arrived on a free from Trofense in the second tier of Portugal.

In the summer of 2021, the Jerv management told that the club had rejected a million bid for Willis Furtado.

The winger was sometimes hot in his debut season, which ended with promotion.

The following year, Furtado lost his place on the team in the elite series before finally leaving for free to FC KTP in Finland.

– It is not certain that Jerv would have moved up if Furtado had been sold, points out Reinhardsen, who was not general manager of the Grimstad club two years ago.

He also points out that the football industry is dynamic, and that things can happen at short notice.

– If we are going to sell players, it is so that we can strengthen ourselves afterwards, he repeated while the Jerv players trained on Levermyr artificial grass on Wednesday afternoon.