Marked for David Ezeh
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at HJK
Lassi Lappalainen 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Alfie Cicale 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 dugout16 Nov 2026
Alfie Cicale 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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lassi Lappalainen trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Roni Hudd gets picked when it counts
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 Roni Hudd is on it.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Santeri Haarala joins up with his country. HJK lose him for the window and would like him back in one piece.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market2 Nov 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Emmanuel Boateng will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around HJK the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad2 Nov 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 HJK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Lucas Lingman and HJK agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A row about effort at HJK
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Joakim Nilsson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market2 Nov 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at HJK, another week without a signature from Lassi Lappalainen.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Liam Möller
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match21 Oct 2026
The small margins put HJK out
Out, 1‑1 to KuPS, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market26 Oct 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at HJK is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match21 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for HJK
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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Twelve yards and the whole ground holding its breath, and it did not go in. He will put his name down for the next one, which is the only thing to do.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Mihailo Bogićević 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 dugout26 Oct 2026
Joakim Nilsson is still paying for one afternoon at HJK
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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at HJK
Daniel Raitala 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 Oct 2026
No place for David Ezeh on the big day
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at HJK pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
In brief
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The dugout
Matej Marković has become a man the manager trusts
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The terraces
Everybody has an opinion about Joakim Nilsson
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market19 Oct 2026
Lucas Lingman has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around HJK they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at HJK
Lassi Lappalainen 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Jasper Samooja is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at HJK training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joakim Nilsson 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.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
David Ezeh knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at HJK, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Roni Hudd has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at HJK 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market5 Oct 2026
Till Cissokho has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around HJK they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad5 Oct 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 HJK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at HJK training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mihailo Bogićević 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Too much change too quickly at HJK
11 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.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Liam Möller has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at HJK 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.