Marked for Eero Kamara
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market16 Aug 2032
“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.
Squad16 Aug 2032
Tempers go at KäPa
Lucas Margueron 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.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2032
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. HJK have kept their man, and KäPa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad16 Aug 2032
Words at KäPa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Óttar Uni Steinbjörnsson 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.
Boardroom16 Aug 2032
Wages eat 266% of everything KäPa earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The dugout16 Aug 2032
Philip Otoo 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.
Squad16 Aug 2032
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at KäPa can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2032
A loan move for Victor Ekström is in the works
KäPa have made the call to TPS. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2032
A loan enquiry to HJK: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match17 Jul 2032
11 matches without a win for KäPa
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around KäPa are no longer polite ones.
Squad19 Jul 2032
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match17 Jul 2032
KäPa cannot find the net
7 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.
Market19 Jul 2032
Eero Kamara hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KäPa can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2032
Everything agreed with TPS, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad19 Jul 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KäPa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Jul 2032
Words at KäPa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Óttar Uni Steinbjörnsson 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.
Boardroom19 Jul 2032
Wages eat 261% of everything KäPa earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Match17 Jul 2032
KäPa come up short against JIPPO
JIPPO left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match12 May 2032
Cup progress for KäPa
A 1‑0 win over SJK, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match12 May 2032
Cruel end for SJK as KäPa pounce
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. KäPa scored in the 110th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Match17 May 2032
KäPa are in real trouble now
Position 9, 3 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad17 May 2032
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market17 May 2032
“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 KäPa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings17 May 2032
Eero Kamara beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 25. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad17 May 2032
A falling-out at KäPa
Abdallah Maga and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 May 2032
Words at KäPa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Óttar Uni Steinbjörnsson 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.
Match15 May 2032
A bad afternoon for KäPa against JIPPO
0‑1 to JIPPO, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Apr 2032
There were 12 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market12 Apr 2032
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KäPa can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout12 Apr 2032
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market12 Apr 2032
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Market12 Apr 2032
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Market12 Apr 2032
As if he never left: Juan Gonzalez returns
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Juan Gonzalez is a KäPa player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Squad12 Apr 2032
A falling-out at KäPa
Lucas Margueron and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom12 Apr 2032
Graduation day at KäPa
7 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Transfer targets12 Apr 2032
KäPa asked and KuPS said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market15 Mar 2032
“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 KäPa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets15 Mar 2032
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. KäPa have done the hard part with HJK, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad15 Mar 2032
Words exchanged at KäPa
Lucas Margueron 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.
Transfer targets15 Mar 2032
KäPa asked and AC Oulu said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad15 Mar 2032
This league is too small for Matteo Piazza
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. KäPa will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Market15 Mar 2032
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout15 Mar 2032
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.
Transfer targets15 Mar 2032
A loan move for Anton Stuhrmann is in the works
KäPa have made the call to PK-35. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad15 Mar 2032
Too much change too quickly at KäPa
6 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market22 Dec 2031
Mikael Forss hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KäPa can pretend not to have heard.
Squad22 Dec 2031
Words exchanged at KäPa
Lucas Margueron 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.
Squad22 Dec 2031
“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; KäPa are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Market22 Dec 2031
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at KäPa, another week without a signature from Abdallah Maga.
The dugout22 Dec 2031
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Teppo Marttinen trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad22 Dec 2031
Eero Kamara 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.
Market22 Dec 2031
The clock does Teppo Marttinen’s negotiating for him
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee KäPa could ask drops and the wages Teppo Marttinen can ask rise.
Market22 Dec 2031
The shop window has Juha Hakola in it
KäPa have let the market know Juha Hakola can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Boardroom22 Dec 2031
KäPa keep producing them
58 graduates from an academy now rated 11 out of 20. A club this size does not survive any other way, and every name on that list is known in the town.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match14 May 2031
The small margins put KäPa out
Out, 0‑2 to SJK, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Match19 May 2031
KäPa sink to position 8
3 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Match17 May 2031
No end in sight to KäPa's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at KäPa has to find a result from somewhere.
Match17 May 2031
KäPa cannot find the net
6 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.
Market19 May 2031
“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.
Player ratings19 May 2031
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad19 May 2031
A row about effort at KäPa
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Kyllönen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match17 May 2031
KäPa leaking at the back
4 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Squad19 May 2031
Tempers go at KäPa
Jaakko Granlund 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces10 Mar 2031
The mood at KäPa has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad10 Mar 2031
Yllson Lika breaks a bone — 26 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 26 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom10 Mar 2031
The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
Market10 Mar 2031
Linus Ekdal hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KäPa can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets10 Mar 2031
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. KäPa have done the hard part with Inter Turku, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad10 Mar 2031
Tempers go at KäPa
Edis Međedović 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.
Transfer targets10 Mar 2031
KäPa asked and KuPS said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Boardroom10 Mar 2031
Embargo at KäPa
No fees may be paid for anybody, whatever the squad needs. Every rumour about this club until it lifts is a rumour about a deal that cannot be done.
Boardroom10 Mar 2031
The borrowing at KäPa reaches $11.7M
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $11.7M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.