Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
A new face in his position, and Martti Haukioja suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. VPS have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Niilo Pirttinen arrives at VPS with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jabir Abdihakim Ali signs something — a contract at VPS or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Martti Haukioja’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Simon van Duivenbooden may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
A new face in his position, and Jabir Abdihakim Ali suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. VPS have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” VPS have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
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.
Beaten 4 times, with 2 saves for company. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines on their record whoever actually caused them, which is the quiet injustice of the job.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what VPS 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.” VPS have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at VPS, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. VPS know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at VPS is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I watch every VPS game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at FC Lahti runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
The deal that would have taken Aleksi Piispa to HIFK has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to VPS with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at VPS, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. VPS have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee VPS could ask drops and the wages Will Wilson can ask rise.
FC Lahti go through and VPS go home, 0‑0 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
The offer from KuPS 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.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 5 of the 24 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at VPS has been clear about where Josep Nuorela stands, which is more than many ever get.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at VPS, another week without a signature from Antti-Ville Räisänen.
“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 VPS, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Atromitos for Simon van Duivenbooden 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.