Marked for Alfie Cicale
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Jan 2027
Tempers go at HJK
Lassi Lappalainen 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alfie Cicale, and the manager let it.
Squad18 Jan 2027
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Jan 2027
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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Alexander Ring 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
Uneasy
Squad4 Jan 2027
Tempers go at HJK
Lassi Lappalainen 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at HJK training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alfie Cicale 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
HJK will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Dec 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Lassi Lappalainen commits to HJK for another 4 years.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Tempers go at HJK
Lassi Lappalainen 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at HJK training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alfie Cicale 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match28 Nov 2026
A European lesson for HJK
0‑1 against Mattersburg. 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” HJK may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
The terraces30 Nov 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 6 of the 24 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Squad30 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.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Both jobs done by Liam Möller — 6.82
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 14 actions, 6.82, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Squad30 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Teemu Pukki
“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
Upbeat
Market10 Aug 2026
HJK say no — this time
The offer from IFK Mariehamn for Ville Tikkanen was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
25 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Tempers go at HJK
Alexander Ring 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at HJK training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lassi Lappalainen 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.
Match8 Aug 2026
HJK get the job done against KTP
A 1‑0 win over KTP, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Marked 8.55 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mouhamed Guèye and HJK agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Lucas Lingman
“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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Nobody at HJK has picked up the phone to Matej Marković
36 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.