Marked for Daniel Kesonen
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Aug 2027
78 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. HJK lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match25 Aug 2027
HJK through in the cup
A 3‑0 win over SJK, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Squad30 Aug 2027
22 goals and a season average of 7.57. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.16, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad30 Aug 2027
A fracture rules Daniel Kesonen out for 18 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason HJK will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match28 Aug 2027
The run at home goes on for HJK
13 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 26. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Age has not caught Teemu Pukki yet — 7.93
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.93 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market30 Aug 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at HJK, and it is not being withdrawn.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad23 Aug 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Julius Tauriainen
85 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. HJK lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match21 Aug 2027
3‑0, and Diber Cambindo took the headlines on an afternoon when everything HJK tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
A brace, and Diber Cambindo takes the afternoon — 9.61
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Diber Cambindo provided it, and the 9.61 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 31. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad23 Aug 2027
A season average of 7.56 with 21 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Market23 Aug 2027
Terms done: Jesse Öst is going
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and SJK waiting with a shirt. Nobody at HJK is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad23 Aug 2027
26 days out for Daniel Kesonen after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. HJK will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match21 Aug 2027
HJK make home a hard place to visit
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Boardroom23 Aug 2027
HJK close the window on a squad of their own making
20 in and 7 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Aug 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Julius Tauriainen
93 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. HJK lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match16 Aug 2027
Nobody above HJK
First, on 48 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.
Match14 Aug 2027
A 2-goal lead gone for HJK
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. IFK Mariehamn kept coming because nothing stopped them, and HJK will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Market16 Aug 2027
Terms done: Pyry Mentu is going
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and RoPS waiting with a shirt. Nobody at HJK is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.15, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad16 Aug 2027
A fracture rules Daniel Kesonen out for 33 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason HJK will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad16 Aug 2027
A season average of 7.49 with 19 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Market16 Aug 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market16 Aug 2027
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match7 Aug 2027
HJK run riot against KTP
4‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings9 Aug 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.28, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad9 Aug 2027
A fracture rules Daniel Kesonen out for 40 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason HJK will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market9 Aug 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around HJK people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market9 Aug 2027
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” KTP had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market9 Aug 2027
“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 HJK, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad9 Aug 2027
18 goals and a season average of 7.46. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Market9 Aug 2027
Only the photograph left for Pyry Mentu
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Pyry Mentu will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around HJK the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
Roni Hudd: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” HJK have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.