Janne Palomäki
The handprint of HJK’s new head coach can already be seen in the club, writes Janne Palomäki.
Bojan Radulović will probably leave HJK before the start of the next season. PDO
HJK’s season finally ended on Thursday, when Georgian referee Giorgi Kruashvili’s game clock at Thessaloniki’s Toumba Stadium ran out.
The last 90 minutes of the Conference League group stage was “pointless” for both the home and away teams. PAOK had already secured a direct pass to the quarterfinals in March, while The club’s further chances disappeared in the home loss to Eintracht Frankfurt at the beginning of November.
It feels like it is it’s been forever since Toni Koskela got a shoe of the duties of the responsible coach. It was the 40-year-old Koskela’s first setback in his up-and-coming coaching career.
It was mid-July then – the peak season of the domestic football summer.
HJK was not slow in its movements. Toni Korkeakunnas took possession of the star midfielder and immediately opened the deadlocks within the team. Toke’s to-do list included both winning the domestic Veikkausliiga and making it to the group stage of the Eurocups.
The challenge seemed enormous even in the summer, but in the end Korkeakunnas and HJK’s players managed it surprisingly easily.
While Thursday’s away game in Thessaloniki ended, the Club’s glorious history book in the group stage of the Eurocups was also closed.
The adventure that ended on Thursday was the third time in a row that HJK challenged the bigger ones on the Euro courts. Starting next fall, the Conference League will also switch to the “Swiss model”, when the teams will have at least eight matches ahead of them.
Even now, the Aberdeen home match was enjoying quite wintry conditions. It remains to be seen what next autumn will be like.
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Niki Mäenpää (left) considered the club’s loss numbers tolerable in Greece. PDO
It is at least clear that HJK’s club management is still aiming for these kinkers. The clearest proof of that was the fact that Korkeakunnas, having met all the goals, said goodbye to the players in Greece.
Although the new head coach Ferran Sibila has not yet started at HJK, his handprint can already be seen in the team.
– We have a new coaching team and a new sports director who represent dynamic, youthful and modern football. It is not only based on ball control but ball control in the right area, There is a lot of running and moving forwardCEO Aki Riihilahti clarified.
– Ball control remains, but there must be a certain purpose. Based on that, the criteria for the players have been made. Not all of our current players were necessarily suitable for them. For those positions, players of a slightly different type are applied from outside the club or from the youth.
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Ferran Sibila will take over the Club for good at the beginning of January. Inka Soveri
Riihilahti emphasized that he is not talking about any individual player, but you certainly don’t have to be a psychic to understand that Jukka Raitala’s absence from the trip to Greece was probably due to Sibila’s policies.
Fortunately, Raitala found a new home in Oulunkylä. Perparim Hetemaj would have ended his football career regardless of the coach change.
Somehow it just feels like more changes are coming – and lots of them.
Thursday’s PAOK match was already the 49th competitive match of HJK’s season. The Greek host eventually forced their way past after first recovering from a shocker served by Bojan Radulović.
– The results are not satisfactory. We have played five games, in four of which we have fought evenly for victory, Korkeakunnas described before the start of the match on Viaplay.
– It would have been possible to get better results. This is a results sport. Of course, it is not enough that there is no stake in the last match.
The club collected only two points from this season’s Conference League. It remained the jumbo of its block. Sibil’s revolution is definitely expected to bring change to this.
Since childhood, the Catalan has dreamed of joining the Champions League nights.
However, to make the dream come true, new players need much more than running power. In PAOK’s winning goal, the ball technique of the Klubi players was particularly disappointing. With that, you could also forgive some physical shortcomings.
– And you would always need a little bit of luckthe Supreme Council decided.