Marked for Aapo Boström
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match1 Apr 2030
SJK up to position 1
45 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad1 Apr 2030
A fracture rules Teppo Marttinen out for 88 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason SJK will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market1 Apr 2030
“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 The request is on a desk at SJK, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad1 Apr 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SJK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Apr 2030
Words at SJK training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kasper Paananen 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.
Market1 Apr 2030
KTP are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. SJK will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Nov 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” SJK may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Tempers go at SJK
Jeremiah Streng 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.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Kasper Paananen 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Oct 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Samkelo Mzolo
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SJK lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad8 Oct 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” SJK may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad8 Oct 2029
Tempers go at SJK
Kasper Paananen 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.
In brief
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Boardroom
$3.0M on the table at SJK
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Squad
Words at SJK training over how hard people work
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Market
The Jeremiah Streng question follows SJK around
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Boardroom
SJK keep producing them
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market21 May 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SJK can pretend not to have heard.
Squad21 May 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SJK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match19 May 2029
6 unbeaten for SJK
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation SJK did not have in the autumn.
Squad21 May 2029
Kasper Paananen 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.
Squad21 May 2029
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and SJK know it.
Match19 May 2029
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for SJK. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Player ratings21 May 2029
Ninety minutes of Kasper Paananen at his very best
Marked 8.67. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at SJK.
Match19 May 2029
Three points for SJK, 1‑0 the final word against FF Jaro in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad21 May 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Aapo Boström commits to SJK for another 4 years.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match5 Mar 2029
SJK are in among the leaders
Position 1 and 46 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market5 Mar 2029
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad5 Mar 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Kasper Paananen and SJK agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market5 Mar 2029
Qara Guseynov has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around SJK they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Tempers go at SJK
Till Cissokho 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.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Words at SJK training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kasper Paananen 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.
Boardroom5 Mar 2029
$2.2M on the table at SJK
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Market5 Mar 2029
Everyone has stopped pretending: Ilves will make the call about Hemmo Riihimäki this week. SJK have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad5 Mar 2029
The manager makes an example of Aapo Boström
“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.
In brief
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Market
The shop window has Paulo Lima in it
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Boardroom
The SJK production line keeps running
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Boardroom
The SJK board choose calm
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match3 Oct 2028
A European lesson for SJK
0‑1 against Slavia Prague. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
Squad9 Oct 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” SJK may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad9 Oct 2028
45 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad9 Oct 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Samuel Chukwudi and SJK agree another 4 years.
Market9 Oct 2028
Qara Guseynov has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around SJK they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad9 Oct 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SJK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The terraces9 Oct 2028
Everybody has an opinion about Jeremiah Streng
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Market9 Oct 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jeremiah Streng signs something — a contract at SJK or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.