It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. HIFK will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at HIFK, another week without a signature from Aatu Kujanpää.
Goudouss Bamba 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rico Finnäs was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Robert Lartey is 20, and HIFK have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Goudouss Bamba 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Martin Olsson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
11 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” HIFK have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Martin Olsson 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.
Aatu Kujanpää 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.
Market12 Oct 2026
One of our own: Joni Lam joins the HIFK first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Joni Lam is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Aleksi Wahlman trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around HIFK they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at HIFK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Martin Olsson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Goudouss Bamba 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Martin Olsson 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.
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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. HIFK will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Martin Olsson 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.
Tomi Kurvinen 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.
10 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rico Finnäs 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Robin Toivio is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at HIFK would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Aatu Kujanpää’s negotiating for him
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Aatu Kujanpää will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around HIFK the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at HIFK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Martin Olsson 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Yassin Adam has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Lukas Joronen after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
6 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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Martin Olsson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Tomi Kurvinen 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Aatu Kujanpää reports back to HIFK with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Martin Olsson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Tomi Kurvinen 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 deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 16 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Everything agreed with IFK Mariehamn, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Martin Olsson 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at HIFK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
$20.0K on the table at IFK Mariehamn. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Martin Olsson 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Till Cissokho has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means HIFK have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Tomi Kurvinen 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Atte Soiri has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Jaakko Arajuuri has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Nikolai Hradecky has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rico Finnäs 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Lukas Joronen after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.