A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.68 for the rest of it.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ahmed Adebayo. 5‑3 against PK-35, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
8 goals in one match, Ahmed Adebayo on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of HJK and PK-35.
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.
8.54. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saikou Touray 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Oskari Väistö
17 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Rachide Gnanou 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.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Teemu Pukki. 1‑0 against Ekenäs IF, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexander Abrahamsson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Kaan Kairinen is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. HJK have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.76 for the rest of it.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
“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; HJK are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Rachide Gnanou 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 fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Marked 8.28 — 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexander Abrahamsson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Two goals and a mark of 8.34 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.84 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around HJK they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Marked 8.57 — 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.
8 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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. SJK tried to reorganise, HJK did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
In brief
SquadWords at HJK training over how hard people work
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexander Abrahamsson 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 make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Kaan Kairinen is on it.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Nikolai Hakola after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Oskari Väistö’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and HJK needing him to play as if none of it matters.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ángel Rodado signs something — a contract at HJK or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kaan Kairinen 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at HJK can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Jere Kallinen 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Nikolai Hakola after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what HJK can pretend not to have heard.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.97 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation HJK did not have in the autumn.
Squad1 May 2028
Kaan Kairinen 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.
“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; HJK are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Jere Kallinen 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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Teemu Pukki is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Juhani Pikkarainen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around HJK the goodbyes have quietly begun.
1 for Till Cissokho, marked 7.83, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether HJK can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexander Abrahamsson 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.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.43 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
HJK moved before anybody else could: a new deal for Nikolai Hakola, agreed quietly and announced loudly. Boards extend managers for many reasons; the good one is the one this looks like.
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.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Tòfol Montiel. 2‑0 against Inter Turku, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Eero Forss is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Haka will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Carl Gustafsson has pre-agreed a move to HJK, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saikou Touray 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.
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 squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Kaan Kairinen’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and HJK needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at HJK. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at HJK the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
14 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.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 5 arrived, 12 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Rachide Gnanou 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rotherham United have kept their man, and HJK go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
5 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.
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.
Position 4, 36 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Rachide Gnanou has written the date down.
In brief
The dugoutMartin Kirilov asks for a word with the manager
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. HJK have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and HJK know it.
Tòfol Montiel 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 had been thinking. Alexander Abrahamsson 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Lassi Lappalainen is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. HJK know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The offer from KäPa for Martin Kirilov 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.
Teemu Pukki 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 had been thinking. Alexander Abrahamsson 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.
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.
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. HJK would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at HJK would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
HJK had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at PK-35, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexander Abrahamsson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at HJK. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Kaan Kairinen has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
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 HJK would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what HJK can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: FC Lahti keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at HJK heard it as anything else.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Jussi Tanska has agreed terms with Haka for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kaan Kairinen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ville Tikkanen 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.
Squad6 Mar 2028
5 new faces, and HJK are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what HJK can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Sport Recife is saying, and nobody at HJK is enjoying the guessing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Austin FC have kept their man, and HJK go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The fee is $570.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. FC Lahti drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Martim Ferreira has, at HJK, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and HJK know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saikou Touray 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.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Agustín Ávalos is in the works
HJK had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Philadelphia Union, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ludogorets have kept their man, and HJK go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer went to Sport Recife this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Kaan Kairinen wants continental football; whether HJK can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The chase for Romaric Yapi ended with $730.0K changing hands and FC Lahti out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Tòfol Montiel 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 had been thinking. Saikou Touray 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.
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.
$9.6M on the table at Philadelphia Union. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $1.6M has been paid because Alexander Abrahamsson is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Vasco da Gama have kept their man, and HJK go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
$950.0K was the most the club would pay and TPS were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Rachide Gnanou 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.
Alexander Abrahamsson was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $1.6M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
In brief
SquadOskari Väistö falls out with a teammate over standards
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and KTP waiting with a shirt. Nobody at HJK is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
PK-35 have accepted the money. What HJK do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. HJK have done the hard part with TPS, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
HJK have gone to TPS with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.1M — a club that wants Emmanuel Boateng enough to be asked twice.
$760.0K was the most the club would pay and FC Lahti were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Kaan Kairinen 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 had been thinking. Saikou Touray 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.
Teemu Pukki 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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Saikou Touray 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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Rachide Gnanou has written the date down.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at HJK can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Tòfol Montiel is on it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustav Engvall 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Saikou Touray trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at HJK is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Rachide Gnanou 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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Saikou Touray 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saikou Touray 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.
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.
36 points from position 4. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Rachide Gnanou has written the date down.
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.
Something was said to Tòfol Montiel and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
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.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one HJK will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
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.
Rachide Gnanou 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and HJK know it.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Saikou Touray 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Teemu Pukki is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mouhamed Guèye trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether HJK can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Saikou Touray was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Kaan Kairinen is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at HJK. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. HJK know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Teemu Pukki 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustav Engvall 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.
Position 4 on 36 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. HJK know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at HJK hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Ville Tikkanen 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 Saikou Touray was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Jay De Nascimento is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Lassi Lappalainen is on it.
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. HJK have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
Rachide Gnanou 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 had been thinking. Saikou Touray 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.
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.
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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and HJK know it.
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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Kaan Kairinen is on it.
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.
Tòfol Montiel 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 had been thinking. Saikou Touray 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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at HJK, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at HJK has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Position 4, 36 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saikou Touray 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.
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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Miska Ylitolva trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at HJK has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at HJK. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Kaan Kairinen 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.
20 games, 3 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at HJK now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Mouhamed Guèye 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
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.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around HJK they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Teemu Pukki 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 had been thinking. Saikou Touray 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at HJK pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Nikolai Hakola could afford to be generous.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Kaan Kairinen wants continental football; whether HJK can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at HJK is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Saikou Touray was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Ángel Rodado is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at HJK, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Position 4, 36 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. HJK know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Rachide Gnanou 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.
“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; HJK are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at HJK, and 1 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustav Engvall 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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and HJK have no good answer.
Rachide Gnanou 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 Saikou Touray was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Ville Tikkanen and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Saikou Touray trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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.
Tòfol Montiel 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
Saikou Touray 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.
“I watch every HJK game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at IFK Norrkoping runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Lassi Lappalainen is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at HJK. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ville Tikkanen signs something — a contract at HJK or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutAlfie Cicale knocks on the manager’s door
At 22 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at HJK can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Tòfol Montiel 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Ángel Rodado is on it.
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.
Position 4 on 36 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. HJK know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Mouhamed Guèye’s exile
Position 4 on 36 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.81 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Kaan Kairinen 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.
At 19 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.
At 22 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ángel Rodado. 2‑0 against FF Jaro, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Tòfol Montiel was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.48. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
In brief
SquadWords at HJK training over how hard people work
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what HJK can pretend not to have heard.
“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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around HJK they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at HJK hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Saikou Touray 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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at HJK is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad30 Aug 2027
6 new faces, and HJK are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The match ball belongs to Ángel Rodado, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Boardroom23 Aug 2027
Deadline passes with 20 signed and 8 gone
That is the business done at HJK 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.
The offer from KTP for Roni Hudd 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at HJK is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
$980.0K was the most the club would pay and FF Jaro were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ángel Rodado. 3‑1 against Ilves, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
HJK and Antequera have settled on $4.0M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what HJK can pretend not to have heard.
$980.0K on the table at FF Jaro. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether HJK can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
HJK offered $1.1M; FC Lahti said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Rachide Gnanou 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.
HJK asked and Cagliari said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Oskari Väistö has, at HJK, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
SJK did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $880.0K for Oskari Väistö, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
The shirt still fits. Samuel Anini Jr. is back at HJK, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $94.6K — a club that wants Amidou Traoré enough to be asked twice.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and JIPPO waiting with a shirt. Nobody at HJK is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
A brace, and Ángel Rodado takes the afternoon — 8.72
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ángel Rodado provided it, and the 8.72 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have shaken hands with SJK; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. HJK have paid $1.9M for Saikou Touray, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
HJK have gone to TPS with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $111.2K — a club that wants Nikos Dosis enough to be asked twice.
Tòfol Montiel 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and SalPa waiting with a shirt. Nobody at HJK is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
$1.9M settles it between the clubs for Saikou Touray
KuPS have accepted the money. What HJK do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
IF Gnistan did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $3.2M for Rachide Gnanou, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
The offer went to IFK Mariehamn this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
HJK have gone to IFK Mariehamn with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
In brief
The terracesHJK spend $3.2M on the signing the town wanted
SquadWords at HJK training over how hard people work
Pyry Mentu, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.18
A mark of 8.18 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
HJK have gone to IF Gnistan with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The offer from SalPa for Liam Rippon 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.
HJK have gone to IF Gnistan with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The offer went to TPS this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“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.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.91 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at HJK is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leonel Montano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Tòfol Montiel scored in the 89th minute, AC Oulu had already begun thinking about the journey home, and HJK took the lot.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Tuomas Collin has just signed for HJK, and for once the answer mattered.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leonel Montano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Teemu Pukki and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Martin Kirilov provided it, and the 8.54 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jay De Nascimento is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
At 19 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.
“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 the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Kaan Kairinen wants continental football; whether HJK can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leonel Montano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.23 — 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.
Position 4, 17 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
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.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Nikolai Hakola chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at HJK, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
The dugoutMads Borchers dropped after a run of poor form
At 37 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.43, and nobody on the pitch better.
Player ratings14 Jun 2027
Up for the corner, and Lucas Lingman delivers — 7.90
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Lucas Lingman scored, was marked 7.90, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Martin Kirilov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around HJK the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. IF Gnistan tried to reorganise, HJK did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
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.
Marked 8.02 — 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.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Nikolai Hakola, on a 3‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
The dugoutTeemu Pukki has become a man the manager trusts
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at HJK hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and HJK know it.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Nikolai Hakola to a room that had heard them before.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. HJK will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.15 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at HJK is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Teemu Pukki 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 Leonel Montano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. HJK told Ángel Rodado something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. VPS kept coming because nothing stopped them, and HJK will be asked about the last half hour all week.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.87 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
A performance of 8.46 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings24 May 2027
Tòfol Montiel was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.46. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
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 needed Teemu Pukki to find the net to bring anything home at all: 3‑3 against VPS, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad24 May 2027
6 new faces, and HJK are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
In brief
The dugoutPyry Mentu has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
The dugoutMads Borchers dropped after a run of poor form
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Martin Kirilov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around HJK the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Nikolai Hakola on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
The dugout17 May 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Mads Borchers
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against VPS in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lucas Lingman signs something — a contract at HJK or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
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.
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout10 May 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Nikolai Hakola to a room that had heard them before.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leonel Montano 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.
“I watch every HJK game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at IFK Norrkoping runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. John Mellberg is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
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.
9 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.
“I watch every HJK game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at AC Oulu runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Nikolai Hakola after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Matej Marković
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around HJK they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Ángel Rodado 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.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
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.
Minute 86, against AC Oulu, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“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.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
A brace, and Ángel Rodado takes the afternoon — 8.47
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ángel Rodado provided it, and the 8.47 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
$2.3M was the most the club would pay and Chesterfield were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
HJK ran out of time with KuPS. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Teemu Pukki 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.
5 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.
$2.0M settles it between the clubs for Calvin Kabuye
KuPS have accepted the money. What HJK do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and SalPa waiting with a shirt. Nobody at HJK is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
$2.3M on the table at Chesterfield. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
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.
Boardroom5 Apr 2027
HJK close the window on a squad of their own making
9 in and 5 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at HJK is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. HJK have paid $910.0K for Juhani Pikkarainen, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
HJK asked and Raków Częstochowa said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
$69.0K was the most the club would pay and TPS were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Add another name to the list: JIPPO have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Mihailo Bogićević. The answer from HJK has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leonel Montano 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.
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.
“I watch every HJK game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at AC Oulu runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and SalPa waiting with a shirt. Nobody at HJK is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Portuguesa keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Ville Tikkanen 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 Leonel Montano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8 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.
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.
$9.7M was the most the club would pay and HNK Rijeka were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The offer went to Portuguesa this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The offer went to Degerfors this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $89.0K — a club that wants Samuel Pasanen enough to be asked twice.
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.
A club from his own country has asked the question, and he has never pretended he did not want to be asked. HJK have a conversation ahead of them that they will not win with money.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Pyry Mentu is on it.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and HJK know which stage they are at.
HJK have gone to HNK Rijeka with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what HJK can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Östersund for David Ezeh 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $89.0K — a club that wants Väinö Vehkonen enough to be asked twice.
The offer went to KuPS this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Wigan Athletic have kept their man, and HJK go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and JIPPO waiting with a shirt. Nobody at HJK is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from SJK for Kaius Simojoki 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.
KuPS did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $620.0K for Gustav Engvall, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Ángel Rodado 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 offer went to FC Lahti this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
At 18 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leonel Montano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and SalPa waiting with a shirt. Nobody at HJK is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Ángel Rodado from Wisla Krakow for $2.9M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cremonese have kept their man, and HJK go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A loan enquiry to Red Bull Salzburg: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
5 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and FF Jaro waiting with a shirt. Nobody at HJK is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
HJK have gone to Wisla Krakow with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The fee is $320.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. FC Lahti drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Teemu Pukki 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.
$81.0K was the most the club would pay and KuPS were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leonel Montano 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.
$320.0K settles it between the clubs for José Müller
FC Lahti have accepted the money. What HJK do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $33.4K — a club that wants Jesse Kilo enough to be asked twice.
The offer went to Ilves this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The phone has started ringing about Mihailo Bogićević again, and this time the name on the line is JIPPO. HJK are listening politely and promising nothing.
Kaius Simojoki 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.
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.
“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.
Ville Tikkanen 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at HJK can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Pyry Mentu is on it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at HJK has been clear about where Mitja Haapanen stands, which is more than many ever get.
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 HJK would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Matej Marković signs something — a contract at HJK or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at HJK. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at HJK, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The least glamorous thing a foreign signing ever does and the one that decides most of them. A player who can hear the shout behind him is a different footballer from one who cannot.
In brief
SquadVille Tikkanen is training like a man with a point to make
Tòfol Montiel 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
Till Cissokho 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at HJK. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mouhamed Guèye is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Tòfol Montiel 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Juhani Soiri is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Lassi Uronen 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Saku Granlund is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Teemu 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Till Cissokho 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at HJK, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
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.
“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; HJK are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Pyry Mentu is on it.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Till Cissokho 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.
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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Lucas Lingman has written the date down.
Kaius Simojoki 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.
At 17 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Till Cissokho 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ville Tikkanen trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at HJK. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. HJK know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Kaius Simojoki 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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at HJK, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
Santeri Haarala has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Till Cissokho 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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Nikolai Alho is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mihailo Bogićević trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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.
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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Till Cissokho 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at HJK can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
Tòfol Montiel 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Liam Möller is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at HJK. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. HJK know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Liam Möller trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Teemu Pukki 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 Till Cissokho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lassi Lappalainen trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Santeri Haarala signs something — a contract at HJK or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Emmanuel Boateng has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee HJK could ask drops and the wages Emmanuel Boateng can ask rise.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Teemu Pukki has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at HJK is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Till Cissokho 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lassi Lappalainen trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Pyry Mentu is on it.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and HJK have no good answer.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at HJK. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at HJK, another week without a signature from Lassi Lappalainen.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Something was said to Teemu Pukki and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. David Ezeh is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Teemu Pukki is on it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at HJK is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Till Cissokho 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Liam Möller is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at HJK. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mihailo Bogićević will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around HJK the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Tòfol Montiel 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Till Cissokho 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Mihailo Bogićević is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at HJK. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Santeri Haarala signs something — a contract at HJK or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Emmanuel Boateng will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around HJK the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and HJK know it.
12 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.
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.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Brooklyn Lyons-Foster will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around HJK the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Till Cissokho 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.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at HJK, another week without a signature from Emmanuel Boateng.
Teemu Pukki 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 17 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at HJK, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. HJK know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee HJK could ask drops and the wages Mihailo Bogićević can ask rise.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Jesse Öst has written the date down.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mihailo Bogićević will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around HJK the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Teemu Pukki 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.
At 19 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Mihailo Bogićević is on it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Lucas Lingman has written the date down.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Santeri Haarala signs something — a contract at HJK or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Emmanuel Boateng will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around HJK the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Emmanuel Boateng has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mihailo Bogićević was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
12 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at HJK, and 1 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at HJK is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Nikolai Alho 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mihailo Bogićević 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Matej Marković has come out of that comparison in the side, and HJK have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
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.
FF Jaro next, and one man in the HJK dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
1 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.91 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Lucas Lingman has agreed terms with TPS for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Banik Ostrava have kept their man, and HJK go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Tòfol Montiel 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 offer from IFK Mariehamn for Mihailo Bogićević 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around HJK they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
1 for Pyry Mentu, marked 7.48, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Liam Möller reports back to HJK 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alexander Ring provided it, and the 8.32 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.91 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Deadline passes with 1 signed and 7 gone
That is the business done at HJK 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.
The deal with Southampton is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Mihailo Bogićević has agreed terms with TPS for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
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.
HJK 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.
In brief
Player ratingsTòfol Montiel was on a different afternoon to everybody else
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Benevento keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Ville Tikkanen has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. HJK have paid $330.0K for Tòfol Montiel, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Teemu Pukki 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.
Ekenäs IF will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. David Agbo has pre-agreed a move to HJK, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
HJK asked and Hammarby said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Player ratingsThe game went through Alexander Ring — 6.80
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Lucas Lingman
1Edition
The HJK Courier
3 Aug 2026
From our football correspondentTriumph
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A brace, and Teemu Pukki takes the afternoon — 8.80
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Teemu Pukki provided it, and the 8.80 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Teemu Pukki. 2‑1 against SJK, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces3 Aug 2026
HJK supporters have found a favourite in Roni Hudd
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Roni Hudd has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leonel Montano 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.
In brief
BoardroomNobody left the HJK dressing room in a hurry