Brought into English football by Wimbledon, this industrious midfielder made a big name for himself at Selhurst Park. His incisive runs and accurate passing saw him at odds with the perception of Wimbledon's long-ball game. The Norwegian attracted much attention and eventually went to Liverpool for a fee of around £3.5 million. Unfortunately, his career went into stagnation there as he started well, but fell out of favour and towards the end of season 1998-99 realised that his opportunities at Anfield would be limited. The change of management obviously did not help, but the midfield there has become full of players who would hold down a regular first team place elsewhere and this is why Oyvind sought to play his football at another club. Offers from Sheffield Wednesday were rebuffed when he knew Spurs were interested, as he wanted to return to the capital. His addition to the squad was valuable as he could play as an orthodox wide midfielder or in the hole behind the forward a la Beardsley. His £3 million fee has been criticised by some as too much for a Premier reserve player, but other similar stars cost twice that.

His first season was a relative success.  He  provided a link between the forward line and midfield, getting into the area and scoring a few goals to boot.  However, he was subject to injury problems, which kept him out of Euro 2000.  He overcame that to feature in the pre-season games for 2000-2001 and during that campaign he was in and out the first team in the Premier League as injury hit again.  However, he has yet to reproduce his best form and is generally playing in an unusual position on the left of midfield to accommodate Anderton on the right.

Rumours of a transfer to Charlton Athletic in summer 2001 did not come to anything and he played most of the 2001-02 season as a squad member under Glenn Hoddle's management.  Again the summer of 2002 brought rumours of a move, but none came about and this left him again as a second string player, behind many of the summers imports Hoddle brought in.

He initially moved to Villa Park, where he got few games and left for his home country with Lyn Oslo taking him back to Norway.  Oyvind retired from playing at the end of the 2007 season when he was with Stromsgodset in the second tier of Norwegian football.