There’s absolutely no way I’m getting back to sleep so I get out of bed and take a shower.
Stevie told me last thing last night to just grab whatever for breakfast out of the cupboard. Coco Pops and Cheerios it is. I look in all the kitchen drawers for a spoon. What passes for a cutlery drawer contains a load of wooden knives and forks and one teaspoon. Where the hell is everything? I look in all the drawers again. Nothing.
It takes me fully 15 minutes to eat a small bowl of cereal, by the end fishing about for the final few Coco Pops and Cheerios with the teaspoon, chasing them to the edge of the bowl before losing them in the final scoop.
Rich messages again asking me if I’m going to the Academy’s cup game tonight in Vaasa. They’ve been drawn against his local team Sundom IF who he played for after retiring professionally.
I enquire how I’m getting back to Seinajoki unless I stay over at his. He quickly shuts that option down by suggesting 42 other ways that don’t involve him. I consider a guilt-trip wind-up series of messages but for once in my life don’t bother.
Instead I open the laptop and put Wyscout on to try and finish watching a Finland u16 game I started on the plane yesterday. I have just considered trying to describe to the uninitiated what Wyscout is, but the blurb on their own website does it better than I can:
The world’s biggest library of football video and data. And it’s all available on one platform (i.e. their website)
I hesitate to praise it too much because in some ways it’s incredibly frustrating and far from being perfect, but suffice to say, it’s an essential tool for the vast majority (if not all) professional football clubs in the world. How did the club scout Jaime Moreno? Well we didn’t fly to Nicaragua and Paraguay to watch him, that’s for sure. We watched him and studied his data on Wyscout. Here’s a few sentences from the final scouting report:
- Physical approach makes it awkward for opponents in 1v1 duels
- Aerial style doesn’t win many clean headers but enables second ball wins
- Works hard
- Shot map graphic shows a ‘proper’ striker profile with the majority of efforts on goal in central penalty box areas. Good finisher – has beaten xG during his career
Anyone who’s seen Jaime play for us will know that description has absolutely matched what he’s been in Finland since he came. The phrase ‘physical approach makes it awkward for opponents’ would also raise an eyebrow from fans of said opposition here in Finland.
Off the field, Jaime, is an absolutely lovely, friendly guy who speaks softly, and warmly. His Christian faith is extremely important to him.
On the field, Jaime is an absolute warrior who gives absolutely no quarter. For this and his goals, Klopit, the hardcore section of SJK fans, love him. For this and his goals, fans of other teams in Finland do not.
Anyway, back to this u16 game…or not. Because Stevie comes out of his bedroom:
Morning, young man, you ok?
I am, but I’ve not been very productive. It took me half hour to eat breakfast. I can see you haven’t wasted any money on buying cutlery.
It’s in the cupboard drying!
What? Who puts cutlery in the cupboard to dry? The thingy would get wet and rot away?
Come here, Paul.
Stevie opens the cupboard to reveal the cupboard above the sink has no laminate base – it has a rack instead. The drips just go into the sink. It’s genius and seems to be a thing here.
We move onto the matter of the cup game v Sundom tonight and decide that Stevie will drive us to Vaasa and back later. While he gets ready I try and focus on the u16s game again but the lack of sleep is making it impossible to concentrate, not helped by the fact that the quality of the footage is poor. I pack it all in my bag and sit back on the sofa with my eyes closed until it’s time to go to OmaSp Stadion, the gorgeous new (ish) home of SJK.
The drive to the stadium doesn’t take much more than 5 minutes. On the way we pick up Assistant Technical Director, Adriel Gabilan. Adriel is a multi-lingual Brazilian who came to Scandinavia when he was younger to play football. He speaks Portuguese, Spanish, and English. He understands Finnish too but is not as confident speaking it.
He is one half of SJK’s Mr Fixit team (I’ll talk about the other half later). If there’s a job that’s needed to be done for the club, Adriel has done it. Negotiating with player agents, registering transfers on Fifa’s Transfer Matching System (TMS), managing the portfolio of properties the players live in, learning Python code to help run our data searches for player recruitment, translation services, dog-sitting, watching transfer targets with me. You name it, Adriel’s done it.
He gets in the back of the car and we clasp hands and say hello face to face for the first time after two years of working together. Once we get to the stadium I’m given a guided tour by Adriel and Stevie. One of the stand-out sights is a pair of goalkeeper Roope Paunio’s boots. They’re absolutely huge, bordering on basketballer size.
The first floor at pitch level houses all the staff offices, changing rooms, mini gym area, media room etc. The second floor houses a bar and canteen restaurant. The third floor houses the VIP and corporate entertain areas. Considering SJK’s yearly budget would barely rival your average League Two budget in England the quality of everything here is astonishing. League Two it ain’t. I think it’s fair to say that the OmaSp looks like a Premier League standard ground in miniature both inside and out.
We go off in search of Rich but he’s nowhere to be found. The only evidence he exists is his bag sitting on a chair in the media room. Stevie and Adriel are hungry so I dump my bag off next to Rich’s and we go to the second floor for food. We get up there and there’s a few of the players eating and chatting. Moreno is talking to Vinicius Ribeiro with Salif Ngom sat in the corner grinning and laughing at the conversation, despite I’m guessing, not actually understanding half of what is being said. Moreno has been given a rest from the cup games while the other two are recovering from small injuries.
A young man walks in dressed like an early 1980s Oxford or Cambridge graduate. It is Oskari Väistö our 18 year old defender. He isn’t the tallest centre back in the world but he is already built like a bull. Stevie talks with him briefly about his recovery while Adriel introduces me to the other guys.
Stevie and Adriel are dismayed by the lack of chicken option on the buffet. Adriel goes to enquire if there will be more coming out. There won’t be. They both briefly act as if their dog has died. Adriel suggests we drive to Torikeskus shopping centre as there is a lunch place there next to the SJK shop. I text Rich to tell him where I’m going. No answer.
It turns out this place is fully stocked with chicken and both Stevie and Adriel fill their boots piling up their plates. Stevie doesn’t like to eat much of an evening as he says it makes him more tired while he is trying to work on analysis stuff. Adriel on the other hand has been weight training for the past 12 months and is stacking up his protein intake. I was shocked when I first saw him as I’ve only ever seen his face on Zoom or WhatsApp. He is a budding Hulk. Stevie laughs when I say about it and recalls that in Tallinn when the team was there for a pre-season game with Paide, Adriel was popular with guys wanting to touch his muscles. Adriel bursts out laughing and a couple of minutes later announces his girlfriend Mariana is pregnant. We both congratulate him.
Inside I congratulate myself too, as it is possibly the first time in my life that other people have monstered a buffet more than I have.
We drive back to the stadium and the first team have finally arrived back from Lapland. They travelled to Oulu after the game and stayed overnight before completing the trip home this morning.
The staff are gathered around the ping-pong table and I say quick hellos to everyone. Lauri Laine walks in looking forlorn. He says his hamstring feels worse than it did last time. I ask Toni Lehtinen what minute Lauri came off last night. Toni shakes his head looking fed up and says it was 85 minutes in. Despite winning 8-0 everyone is more bothered about Lauri.
I go to find Rich again but he is now in a budget meeting with Elina so I quickly grab my bag back and go up to the 3rd floor. I have intentions to get my laptop out again but Ape (pronounced Ah-Pay) Aromaa and Ash Civil are taking training for the academy boys not involved in tonight’s game. Stevie has gone out to have a look and the door is open. I can hear Ape’s voice booming.
It’s possible that Ape has the loudest voice in Finland. At 29 years old, with his handsome face and still bearing the athletic build of the pro-footballer he used to be, you wouldn’t think he had it in him. But his voice reverberates around the stadium like a megaphone is in front of his mouth. Except there isn’t one.
Defeated, I put down my bag once more and go out to have a look. It is a small 4v4 session and Eemeli Honkola an 18 year old goal machine is banging them in for fun. Last season, when the oldest junior team was converted into the second academy team and was put in the mens’ fifth tier, Honks scored 26 goals in 1255 minutes. He’s now moved up to the main academy team at second tier level and has scored 10 league and cup goals for them already too.
By the time we need to start thinking about getting ready to go to Vaasa for the game, I’ve still not been able to speak to Rich as he is busy with other people. Our hunt for possible new players to come in this week is no further on than it was last night.
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