Roope Riski 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. Jardell Kanga 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.
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.
Roope Riski and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Jardell Kanga 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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Ville Kumpu is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Nobody at Ilves 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ilves know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Ilves the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ilves this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christ Wawa 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.
Jardell Kanga 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Petteri Ojala 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Joni Jensen 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.
“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 Ilves, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Ilves told Kalle Wallius something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Andre Raymond signs something — a contract at Ilves or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutOsku Maukonen knocks on the manager's door
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Teemu Hytönen
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jardell Kanga is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
A 2‑1 win over IFK Mariehamn, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Christ Wawa 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Christ Wawa 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.
6 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
Squad7 Sep 2026
8 new faces, and Ilves 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.
Rasmus Nehrman is 19, and Ilves have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.58 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Sebastian Suvanne 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.
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.
Goudouss Bamba was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Christ Wawa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Faris Krkalić
The dugoutVille Kumpu is still paying for one afternoon at Ilves
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ilves this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ilves offered $68.0K; HJK 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.
Add another name to the list: KuPS have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Jesse Kilo. The answer from Ilves has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jardell Kanga was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Joni Arajuuri to a room that had heard them before.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Successful dribbles: 32. 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.
Match12 Aug 2026
Oskari Paavola wins it after the whistle should have gone
103 minutes played. Oskari Paavola found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and FF Jaro went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Oskari Paavola provided it, and the 8.91 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Elias Tamminen did not need any: 7.76, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.00 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 18 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Successful dribbles: 32. 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.
Ilves and FC Lahti have settled on $33.0K. 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 offer from HIFK for Elias Tamminen 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 offer went to HJK 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. Inter Turku have kept their man, and Ilves go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Lassi Kamara 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. Robin Forss 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. Riku Kamara 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.
The offer from Breidablik for Teemu Hytönen 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.
Roope Riski 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.
Ilves asked and Morón said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.