From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Sep 2026
Václav Ondřejka damages knee ligaments — 88 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 88 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market14 Sep 2026
Akon Kuek has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around VPS they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at VPS training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel Okereke 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Will Wilson in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at VPS this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Emil Yanchev
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market14 Sep 2026
VPS and Will Wilson are talking past each other
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Sep 2026
Václav Ondřejka damages knee ligaments — 95 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 95 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match5 Sep 2026
VPS win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 92th minute. RoPS will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Market7 Sep 2026
Will Wilson has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around VPS they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
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 7.23 for the rest of it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Emmanuel Okereke 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Tempers go at VPS
Will Wilson 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 terraces7 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Emmanuel Okereke 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Azat Bairyev, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 Aug 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Václav Ondřejka
103 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. VPS lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match29 Aug 2026
Nowhere to hide for VPS
0‑4 against IFK Mariehamn, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market31 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 9 of the 24 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Market31 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Antti-Ville Räisänen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around VPS the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match29 Aug 2026
4 matches without a win for VPS
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around VPS are no longer polite ones.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Tempers go at VPS
Martti Haukioja 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at VPS training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Azat Bairyev 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Simon van Duivenbooden, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Aug 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Václav Ondřejka
110 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. VPS lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match19 Aug 2026
VPS out of the cup
KuPS ended it 2‑3. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Will Wilson has agreed terms with HJK for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad24 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at VPS this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
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 ratings24 Aug 2026
Defensive actions: 17. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Shots: 9. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match12 Aug 2026
VPS march on in the cup
FC Lahti are out and VPS go through, 2‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.40 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market17 Aug 2026
VPS say no — this time
The offer from SJK for Will Wilson 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A defender's afternoon for Emil Yanchev
Defensive actions: 26. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Market17 Aug 2026
Akon Kuek has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around VPS they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Akon Kuek has agreed terms with Inter Turku for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tempers go at VPS
Martti Haukioja 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.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
HIFK will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Niilo Pirttinen has pre-agreed a move to VPS, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Tempers go at VPS
Martti Haukioja 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Jonathan Muzinga again, and this time the name on the line is IFK Mariehamn. VPS are listening politely and promising nothing.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Elias Kaukamo has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means VPS have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Václav Ondřejka 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.
Match8 Aug 2026
FF Jaro take the points off VPS
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match8 Aug 2026
No time for FF Jaro to settle
The goal that put FF Jaro ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when VPS equalised, 3 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
Market10 Aug 2026
The Luka Smyth conversation is coming
Everyone has stopped pretending: IFK Goteborg will make the call about Luka Smyth this week. VPS have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces3 Aug 2026
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 8 of the 23 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Market3 Aug 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around VPS they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom3 Aug 2026
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Antti-Ville Räisänen 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Martti Haukioja and VPS agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at VPS this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market3 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. VPS have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
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 ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match1 Aug 2026
VPS come up short against KuPS
KuPS left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.