Marked for Joni Mäkelä
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market1 Nov 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.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad1 Nov 2027
A falling-out at KTP
Samuli Hölttä and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Nov 2027
A row about effort at KTP
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Onni Hänninen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
“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.
Market1 Nov 2027
Erik Raitala returns from a loan that gave him nothing
3 appearances and 0 goals is not a season, it is a year somebody has lost. Whether that is his fault, the borrowing club's or the people who arranged it is the argument the next few weeks will have.
Squad1 Nov 2027
The captaincy has been taken off Joni Mäkelä. KTP will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
Market1 Nov 2027
“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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and KTP will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market18 Oct 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at KTP is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market18 Oct 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 The request is on a desk at KTP, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Tempers go at KTP
Samuli Hölttä 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 Oct 2027
Words at KTP training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Onni Hänninen 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.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Foday Manneh, and the manager let it.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at KTP, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom27 Sep 2027
Pressure builds in the KTP boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market27 Sep 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
18 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words exchanged at KTP
Nathaniel Tahmbi 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
A row about effort at KTP
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Onni Hänninen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ardijan Chilafi, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market30 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.
Boardroom30 Aug 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at KTP
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” KTP may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match28 Aug 2027
4 matches without a win for KTP
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around KTP are no longer polite ones.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words exchanged at KTP
Samuli Hölttä 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 targets30 Aug 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
The manager makes an example of Joni Mäkelä
“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.
Match28 Aug 2027
KTP come up short against Ilves
Ilves left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Onni Hänninen 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
Crisis
Match17 Jul 2027
No end in sight to KTP's wait for a win
16 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at KTP has to find a result from somewhere.
The terraces19 Jul 2027
Supporters organise against the KTP board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Match19 Jul 2027
KTP sink to position 12
2 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Match17 Jul 2027
KTP taken apart
0‑3 to FC Lahti, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Market19 Jul 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.
Market19 Jul 2027
KuPS come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and KTP did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
Ardijan Chilafi: 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.” KTP have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. KTP have done the hard part with SJK, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Tempers go at KTP
Arttu Tulehmo 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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The dugout
Joni Mäkelä gets it from the manager
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Squad
A row about effort at KTP
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Boardroom
Inquest at KTP
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match29 May 2027
9 matches without a win for KTP
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around KTP are no longer polite ones.
Squad31 May 2027
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.
Market31 May 2027
Only the photograph left for Arttu Tulehmo
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Arttu Tulehmo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around KTP the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match29 May 2027
No clean sheets in sight for KTP
5 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Match29 May 2027
Joni Mäkelä scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to SJK, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad31 May 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 KTP this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 May 2027
A row about effort at KTP
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sebastian Suvanne was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad31 May 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Elio Landi and KTP agree another 3 years.
The dugout31 May 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 May 2027
Arttu Tulehmo has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around KTP they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match1 May 2027
The wait goes on for KTP
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad3 May 2027
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Andrea Buonaccorsi has, at KTP, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Match1 May 2027
The goals have deserted KTP
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at KTP can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad3 May 2027
Tempers go at KTP
Nathaniel Tahmbi 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 terraces3 May 2027
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.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at KTP training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Onni Hänninen 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.
The dugout3 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Arttu Tulehmo
“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.
Squad3 May 2027
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market5 Apr 2027
Arttu Tulehmo has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around KTP they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom5 Apr 2027
Deadline passes with 1 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at KTP until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Squad5 Apr 2027
The step up is real for Elio Landi
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words exchanged at KTP
Nathaniel Tahmbi 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at KTP training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Elio Landi 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.