On Tuesday they will oversee the club’s first home Champions League game, against Bayern Munich, the latest step in a journey that has brought shared success in every sense. And I remember we said: ‘Hey, we should take a team together one day.’” They are outwardly an odd couple. Aarsheim had played almost 300 games for Viking during the 1990s and 2000s.
He cemented club legend status as a classy midfielder and captain, combining modest league successes with a handful of short Uefa Cup runs before starting to coach at Randaberg. Jensen’s attempts to forge a playing career at Viking had been stalled by injury; he had played college soccer in the United States before landing back in Norway’s lower divisions and managing tiny Havørn. He can explode and be aggressive when he needs to, but it’s at the right time and there needs to be a reason.” It is Aarsheim’s style to weigh words deliberately, a dash of swearing added for effect.
The rhetoric falls to Jensen. We put dreams to the players and put that flame inside for them to dream bigger. We don’t want players simply to be satisfied to play here.” Viking have become an outstanding side themselves under Aarsheim and Jensen.
Their paths had converged, becoming assistants to the previous Viking head coach, Bjarne Berntsen, before both were due to be interviewed for his replacement. Would you fancy that?’” “I’m sat there thinking: ‘Jesus, are we really going for this?’” remembers Eirik Bjørnø, who was 29 and newly promoted to Viking’s chief executive officer position, when Aarsheim and Jensen turned up for their interview. The pair had everything planned, down to a 120-page dossier on how their team should play.
At Jensen’s instigation, they had also prepared a special slide. Then up pop these two wolves on the photo.” The sheep were, quite plainly, Viking’s competitors. As Jensen tells it: “We said: ‘Are you going to hire these two badass wolves?
We’re going to eat up all the sheep.’” Bjørnø and Viking’s sporting director, the former Manchester United and Fulham striker Erik Nevland, were persuaded. It was a bit of a gamble but we were in a position where we could do that.” Joint managers are vanishingly rare at the highest level. It’s special, but why change something that works?” Their efforts bore spectacular fruit last year, beating a previously imperious Bodø/Glimt to the Eliteserien title.
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