Janne Palomäki
Toni Koskela’s appearance after Wednesday’s match against Larne strongly foreshadowed the sacking, writes Janne Palomäki.
Toni Koskela’s time at HJK ended. Tomi Natri / AOP
Of course, it’s not a journalist’s job to question anyone’s passion.
Toni Koskela, who was fired on Thursday, showed his worth to HJK. He is the only Finnish coach who has led his team to the group stage of the Eurocups twice.
He is already now probably the most successful Finnish club team coach or at least he wrestles in the same category as Martti Kuusela, who piloted Honvéd to the Hungarian championship.
Against that background, it was confusing how relaxed Koskela was about the club’s snub on Wednesday. Larne was on the ropes immediately after the early opening goal, and the pair of matches could have been decided within the first 45 minutes.
However, the opposite happened. HJK did not take advantage of the search time and now faces a difficult gig in Belfast with a disappointingly thin lead.
That didn’t seem to faze Koskela either. The press conference after the match was over in three minutes. The head coach couldn’t really find anything to criticize about his players or even the referee.
It even seemed that he was not interested.
The news of the firing on Thursday put the performance in a new light. Did Koskela already know at that point that this was here?
However, the truth is that, for example, the Greek reinforcement Geórgios Kanellópoulos, who was acquired in the winter, did not get on the field, even if the Midfield was in desperate need of new energy.
That again gives rise to a new question. Was Kanellópoulos at all the player Koskela wanted?
And what does it mean for the club if the head coach’s word is not decisive when acquiring players?
So much has been written about the tensions of the HJK management that it is pointless to speculate on the meaning of personal chemistry.
On Thursday, at least one tension was released, and now the era of Toni Korkeakunnas begins in the club.