7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Luka Nuorela 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.
Squad15 Oct 2029
Aaro Soiniemi 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.
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 Arvid Bergvik is on it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” IFK Mariehamn have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sebastian Dahlström and IFK Mariehamn agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at IFK Mariehamn this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Oct 2029
A place in the month's best eleven for Rui Monteiro
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Rui Monteiro has come out of that comparison in the side, and IFK Mariehamn have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Nobody at IFK Mariehamn 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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Rashid Abubakar has written the date down.
Sebastian Dahlström and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Oct 2029
Words at IFK Mariehamn training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aaro Soiniemi 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.
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 Samson Ngulube is on it.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at IFK Mariehamn would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Hannes Gamper trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Sebastian Dahlström 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.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Words at IFK Mariehamn training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aaro Soiniemi 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. IFK Mariehamn know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nobody at IFK Mariehamn 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.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
Yeboah Amankwah 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 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Samson Ngulube and IFK Mariehamn agree another 4 years.
A touch he did not mean and a goal that goes in the book with his name against it. IFK Mariehamn will not blame him tonight and he will not need them to.
Yeboah Amankwah 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.
VPS made IFK Mariehamn work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings3 Sep 2029
Rui Monteiro was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.17. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Daniel Hamalainen commits to IFK Mariehamn for another 3 years.
Squad3 Sep 2029
Words at IFK Mariehamn training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aaro Soiniemi 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Manassé Diallo has come out of that comparison in the side, and IFK Mariehamn have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout3 Sep 2029
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Paulus Uronen, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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 Samson Ngulube is on it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Ilves in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around IFK Mariehamn people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 11 arrived, 7 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Sebastian Dahlström 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.
IFK Mariehamn asked and Port Vale said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aaro Soiniemi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
IFK Mariehamn have made the call to Bodo/Glimt. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Slovan Bratislava have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at IFK Mariehamn this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cosenza have kept their man, and IFK Mariehamn go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A 2‑0 win over RoPS, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings13 Aug 2029
Rui Monteiro was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.26. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Aatu Koivuporras is 20, and IFK Mariehamn have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Paulus Uronen on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Sebastian Dahlström 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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
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 Aaro Soiniemi is on it.
41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. IFK Mariehamn lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at IFK Mariehamn, and it is not being withdrawn.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Yeboah Amankwah 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arvid Lundberg was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Paulus Uronen after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
The dugoutAaro Soiniemi has become a man the manager trusts
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Teppo Marttinen: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
KTP go through and IFK Mariehamn go home, 0‑0 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
The first defeat in 8 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against FC Lahti; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
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.
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. IFK Mariehamn lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at IFK Mariehamn this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Paulus Uronen after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
36 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. IFK Mariehamn lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at IFK Mariehamn this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Paulus Uronen could afford to be generous.
Nobody at IFK Mariehamn 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Elliot Holmäng’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and IFK Mariehamn needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Everything agreed with Rosenborg, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
IFK Mariehamn asked and Monaco said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Nobody at IFK Mariehamn 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.
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at IFK Mariehamn that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Anttoni Huttunen has written the date down.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Sebastian Dahlström has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
HIFK have accepted the money. What IFK Mariehamn do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Monaco keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at IFK Mariehamn this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. IFK Mariehamn will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Nobody at IFK Mariehamn 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at IFK Mariehamn, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Sebastian Dahlström 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at IFK Mariehamn, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at IFK Mariehamn, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at IFK Mariehamn this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at IFK Mariehamn 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.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at IFK Mariehamn would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what IFK Mariehamn can pretend not to have heard.
Sebastian Dahlström 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Aaro Soiniemi and IFK Mariehamn agree another 4 years.
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 Aaro Soiniemi is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at IFK Mariehamn, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Sebastian Dahlström 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 easiest signature of my career.” Jelle van der Heyden and IFK Mariehamn agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. IFK Mariehamn lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason IFK Mariehamn will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer went to FC Lahti this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The offer went to VPS this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
HJK will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Joona Veteli has pre-agreed a move to IFK Mariehamn, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
23 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. IFK Mariehamn lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 23 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what IFK Mariehamn can pretend not to have heard.
Sebastian Dahlström 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The words a physio says slowly. 30 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason IFK Mariehamn will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Sebastian Dahlström 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
The dugout10 Jul 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Paulus Uronen to a room that had heard them before.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. IFK Mariehamn told Nikos Dosis something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 38 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason IFK Mariehamn will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at IFK Mariehamn this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
46 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. IFK Mariehamn lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around IFK Mariehamn they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Noah Nurmi 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Marlo Hyvönen has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sebastian Dahlström. 1‑0 against Ilves, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
8.21. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Position 6, 16 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
The dugout26 Jun 2028
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Paulus Uronen, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
55 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. IFK Mariehamn lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
VPS left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout19 Jun 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Paulus Uronen left the room before anybody could ask which.
Ilves next, and one man in the IFK Mariehamn dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. IFK Mariehamn know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nobody at IFK Mariehamn 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at IFK Mariehamn. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The words a physio says slowly. 62 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; IFK Mariehamn are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Paulus Uronen could afford to be generous.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jerry Voutilainen trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against VPS in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
70 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. IFK Mariehamn lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Rashid Abubakar has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. HJK defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against SJK in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at IFK Mariehamn, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Successful dribbles: 10. 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.
77 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. IFK Mariehamn lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around IFK Mariehamn they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Arvid Lundberg and IFK Mariehamn agree another 4 years.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 18 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
In brief
Player ratingsThe afternoon belonged to Marlo Hyvönen
84 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. IFK Mariehamn lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Sebastian Dahlström 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.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The dugout22 May 2028
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Paulus Uronen chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.