I stuff my coat, hat and gloves into the back of Stevie’s car and we begin the journey to Vaasa. Once we are out of Seinajoki town I am surprised to see ploughed field after ploughed field with somewhat worse-for-wear farm and out houses. What on earth grows here in this weather? Who lives this farming life in this weather
It’s time for another quick Google. Turns out that Finland is the only country in the world with a significant agricultural sector this far north. Barley, oats, potato, wheat and sugar beet are the main crops but it looks like a whole load of it goes towards animal fodder as well as human consumption. The Atria slaughterhouse is near here – a big centre for the meat industry in Finland.
We drive past miles and miles of farm land and barely see another car on the way. The sky is a mysterious grey colour, cloud shrouded but with light still trying to get through that makes it all look elven and ethereal.
Stevie switches the radio to some Finnish rock station and I am snapped out of my wonderings. We chat about the football again.
Once we arrive in Vaasa, we park in the wrong bit of the sports complex twice before getting third time lucky. We pile on hats and coats and walk into the complex where the game has already started. Rich (now known as The Scarlet Pimpernel) is nowhere to be seen so we pick a spot next to a huge wall made of snow swept off the pitch and compacted on the side. See if you can spot our little and large combo below…
Within a couple of minutes 16 year old Aniis Machaal has smashed in a half volley into the bottom corner. A minute later 17 year old centre back Eero Lehto is on the ball at the back. 18 year old forward Onni Hanninen comes short to receive and Lehto plays the ball into his feet. Hanninen mis-controls it giving possession away. “Onnnnnni!” growls Lehto. I immediately see why a lot of the staff feel Lehto has what it takes to make it to the first team one day. Hanninen, having already played top level Veikkausliiga for his previous club Lahti and been at Ferencvaros in Hungary as a youngster, almost counts as royalty here but Lehto isn’t afraid to let him have it. I laugh inwardly.
A minute later, 19 year old Elari Hautamaki tries to go between two defenders in the box. He falls and the referee gives a penalty. We are right behind the eyeline of it. It’s never a penalty and this time I laugh outwardly.
Hanninen scores from the spot. Four minutes later he taps home from a yard for his second. The game is done and we’ve only been here ten minutes. I get my phone out and message Rich.
Are you here?
Aye. Other end.
We walk up to the other end where Rich is sat on the wooden benching. We join him sitting down and the mood is relaxed. It’s not often as an employee of a football club where you can sit and just enjoy the game and chat while you watch. However, Stevie, who has already been sent off and booked a few times by the referees in his short time in Finland, still finds time to have an altercation with the linesman over a decision…and he’s not even the one coaching today.
Considering Rich’s mood in his messages last night about needing players this week, he is actually calm. While I’ve been looking for him all day he’s actually got some work done. A couple of the SJK Juniors will move up to play for the Academy 2 team for this weekend. It also turns out that Emmanuel Anokye’s visa confirmation came through today finally. He is coming from Sporting Club Accra academy where another of our young guys Bob Nii Armah is from. Emmanuel’s flights will be booked tomorrow and he will be here in the next few days. The lack of preparation time all round is less than ideal but at least a crisis has been averted.
The visa situation with several African players arriving to the club has been a bit of a nightmare in general this window. I first spoke to Senegalese defender Fallou Ndiaye back in December about coming to SJK. Paperwork that normally takes three weeks has taken three months this winter and Fallou only arrived at the end of March a week before the season started properly.
At SJK we work on the basis that the coaches have a game model that matches the attacking football the club has decided it wants to play. The players in each position have to suit the style but the squad in general needs to have flexibility to adapt to different game situations.
We want to play fast, aggressive football as much as possible, playing out from the back if we can. Captain Ville Tikkanen is a warrior type old school centre back who will just kill you in 1v1s, new boy Kelvin Pires is a classy type of centre back that does things that make your heart skip a beat…he won’t just head the ball out for a throw, he’ll nod it back inside towards Tikki while under pressure from the opposition forward so the team can get going again more quickly. He won’t smash a difficult long ball back where it came from, he’ll take it down on his instep. Will he make mistakes through the season? Probably, but we’ll have a lot of fun watching him.
Pre-season, the coaching staff were worried about the lack of height at the back, especially when defending set pieces. “Big” Fallou is nearly 2 metres tall and had already played in Finland for Haka last season. He started well but a couple of mistakes and the doubts obviously started to come in about a young player as they do.
Haka’s doubt was our gain. To my eyes and definitely on the data, Fallou was the best defender at set-pieces in all of Finland last season. Some guys are 6 ft tall and jump 5ft 5. Fallou is 6 ft 6 and jumps 7ft 7. I’m just checking the data now and he is contesting 7-8 aerials a game this season (more than anyone else in the league) and wins over 75% of them (more than anyone else in the league).
This is effectively my job – find the types of players the coaches want to implement various aspects of the game plan. They don’t just say “get me a new centre-back”, they tell me what kind to find. The attributes should check out to the eyes but also on the data. It all sounds very simple and logical, but you’d be surprised at the number of clubs where the thinking isn’t clear and the coaches do just say “find me a new centre back”, or the right player doesn’t come along and they just sign a “body” anyway just to get someone in to fill the squad.
People in football clubs LOVE signing players. It’s also part of my job to stop this happening here and be prepared to stand firm and say “no” when it’s necessary. This also helps to keep our player pathway clear for the younger ones to come through and get a chance.
Anyway…back to Vaasa. The game tonight v Sundom IF eventually ends up 6-0 to us. With the need to sign players right now gone, I am free to carry on with my original plans for the week. Part of that is meeting up with Jani Uotinen. He is the regional FA coach for boys in this part of Finland and was previously an academy coach at SJK. One of our aims this year is to get a far better grip on the levels of youth talent in younger age groups than we do currently. No one round here knows more than Jani about the youth football scene in Ostrobothnia so I will text him in the morning to arrange to meet up.
I’ve been in the country barely 24 hours and it’s just started to snow. Rich says he will see us at breakfast tomorrow at the stadium. We get in the car, get some petrol and a drink for ourselves, and drive back to Seinajoki. The road is even emptier than it was on the way here.
We get back and Toni Lehtinen calls Stevie to discuss something he’s noticed about how Ilves play that we can hopefully exploit. The first team play Ilves on Friday. Toni has barely had a few hours to rest from the Lapland trip but he is already all over the next opponent. It’s late and I’m exhausted so I go to bed.
I’m still lying awake an hour later…
DIFFERENTGAME ANALYTICS 