A pretty awful year for the national team, winning only 2 games against minnows Andorra and Luxembourg. Failing to beat Latvia was a big disappointment and I think Mixu Paatelainen should be having his position reviewed, however the Finnish FA do not agree!
World Cup Qualifying Group:
4th in the group is probably where they should have finished, but I think they should have been getting a minimum of 12 points from that group.
World Ranking - 97th
A disappointing 1st leg defeat. After we managed to pull it back to 2-1 midway through the second half I was hoping we'd hold out as that would have been a decent result, however two more goals from Zenit meant we'd need an unlikely 3 goal swing in the home leg.
2nd Leg - FC Inter Turku 3 - 2 Zenit
We showed great fighting spirit to win the 2nd leg after falling behind to two early goals. 10 minutes after their second goal we'd scored an equalizer through on loan midfielder Hekkinen and we scored the winner through Coulthirst in the 70th minute. Unfortunately, we couldn't turn around the 1st leg defecit but to reach the 1st knockout round at this stage of the save was an amazing effort and is one I doubt we'll be able to repeat in the next couple of years.
The big news here is that we moved on the young 4 and a half star potential striker we got in last years intake for ?3,500,000 + 50% of his next fee. I would normally be reluctant to move on a young Finnish player with high potential, but his stats just didn't seem to fit my tactic and I already have Vilnajen who has the same potential and is a better player. Hopefully he develops well at Valencia and it isn't too bad of a move for the player's career, but I feel it was a good sale for the club.
Onto the incomings, we brought in a young Finnish midfielder on loan from Bayern Leverkusen who I would love to get on a permanent basis, but that is probably never going to happen. We also brought in a young Brazilian winger on a free to provide backup/competition on the left and raided rivals HJK for a backup left back, a position I found tricky to fill!
Unfortunately we could not retain our League Cup as we bowed out at the semi final stage to eventual winners MYPA. We were missing quite a few key players who were still travelling back from international duty, however I feel we still had a team which should have been more than capable of winning the game!
Squad:
Not too much change from last year apart from the fact a lot of the players are a year older and therefore much improved. The backup center backs aren't great and may struggle in Europe, but they both have good potential and are Finnish so it's important for them to get game time to develop. Out of 23 players in the first team squad, 11 of them are Finnish which is nice to see. Going to try to keep at least 10 Finnish players in the squad at all time.
Other News:
1) Not sure if I've already wrote about this, but we're getting improvements to both our youth and training facilities.
We remain unbeaten in the league, meaning we have now gone 44 game. Dropped 4 points with 2 draws against IFK Mariehamn and HJK Helsinki but overall it's been positive. We've really flopped in the cups this year though as we got beat in the Finnish Cup quarter final against FC Lahti, meaning we will only win one trophy this season!
Lalkovic continues to be outstanding on the right wing, with 12 goals and 12 assists in 16 starts. If anyone follows my Sunderland story they will see Vitinho has a similar record in that team so it seems I have a good eye for a right winger.
League Table:
Only 1 point ahead of resurging VPS, who after winning the title in the first 2 seasons, have finished 8th and 10th in the two previous seasons. Only time will tell whether they will be able to keep it up though...
Other News:
1) 3 players called up for the WC, Lalkovic for Slovakia, Sterling for the USA and backup keeper Mercado for Colombia. Sterling and Lalkovic have our highest average ratings so far this season so it will be interesting to see how we get on without them. Ameobi also made the 30 man Nigeria squad but was dropped when it got cut to 23.View attachment 374253
2) Shaquile Coulthirst becomes our all time top league goalscorer. Only another 777 days before he qualifies to gain Finnish nationality, that's if he actually wants to take it up!
100% domestic record over the two months, proving we don't completely rely on Lalkovic and Sterling who missed most of June being away at the World Cup.
Player Stats:
Ojala really stepped up in the absence of Lalkovic. Vilnajen also filled in for Coulthirst really well who was injured and out for a period of about 6 weeks.
League Table:
18 points clear now, a combination of our great form and the other teams starting to slip up has really opened the gap, giving us more room to rotate the squad either side of the European sides.
Other News:
1) Spain win the 2018 World Cup, beating Romania in the final!
After winning the first leg 1-0 at home, we nearly messed up the away leg by playing a tired backup side by being too over excitable with the space button! We got beat 1-0 in the 2nd leg but luckily managed to win the penalty shoot out.
An easy win in both games against the Swedish champions means we'll be in Europe this season, but whether it will be the Europa League or Champions League is yet to be seen.
Playoff Round - FC Inter Turku 3 - 0 Ludogorets
Champions League Group stages for a second year running! A 3-0 win put us in a commanding position in the tie before we drew 0-0 away and put us back in the CL group stages.
A much harder group than last season, with CSKA Moscow and Ajax fighting more than likely for 2nd place, I feel as though we will do well to finish 3rd and progress into Europe in the new year.
Next update will go over the the last 3 months of the season, can we stay unbeaten in the league for the entire season...
The title was never in doubt but the main question to be settled was to be whether we could go the whole league season unbeaten, and we did! This somewhat makes up for the disappointing effort in the two cups, which we will aim to win back next year!
Player Stats:
Lalkovic dropped off a bit in the second half of the season as a couple of injuries affected the flow of his season. Fortunately, Argentinian left winger Arza took up the reigns and managed to carry the teams main attacking threat. USA international right back Adrian Reed only has one year left and is refusing to sign a new contract, I really want to keep him but if he doesn't change his mind soon I may be forced to sell. We have also reknewed the loan of Leverkusen's Finnish midfielder Heikenen for another 12 months.
League Table:
****! An injury time winner from the Russians sees us travel home with nothing from the game, despite having our fair share of the ball and the chance!
FC Inter Turku 1 - 1 Ajax
4-0 down at half time in Turin and I was really fearing the worst! Luckily, we held our own in the second half and managed to win the 2nd half 1-0. A small moral victory I suppose...
FC Inter Turku 0 - 2 Juventus
Another game of two halfs in the home tie against Juve. The first half was a very tight affair, with neither side able to carve out any chance whilst in the second half they could have put 5 or 6 past us and we missed a couple of chances ourselves. Overall, a 2-0 defeat is better than it could have been!
FC Inter Turku 3 - 0 CSKA Moscow
This is more like it! We put the Russian League runners up to the sword with a deadly last 15 minute period where we managed to score 3 times in the last 15 minutes to take a 3-0 victory, putting us ahead of the Russians on the H2H rule on 4 points. If we bettered their result on the final matchday, we would finish 3rd and get into the EL knockout rounds.
A great comeback victory in Amsterdam sees us finish 3rd in the group and move into the EL knockout rounds. Looking back, if we hadn't conceded the late winner in Moscow we would have qualified in h2h in 2nd place!
Next up will be an end of season review! We have been drawn against Shaktar Donetsk in the 1st Knockout round, with the winners playing Monaco or Parma...
A great result away in Russia in the 1st Leg, a Drew Sterling grabbing an equalizer in the first half and sending us back to Finland with hope of progressing.
2nd Leg - FC Inter Turku 1 - 2 Zenit
Unfortunately we couldn't build on the result from the 1st leg as the Russian's extra class led them to a 2-1 victory in Finland and our European journey for the season is at an end.
Unfortunately, Adrian Reed did not budge in wanting to sign a new contract and so we decided to move him on as he was entering the last year of his contract. We got ?4,800,000 for him and then went on to spend a similar amount on his replacement, an Argentinian full back who will join us in August for an initial ?2,500,000 raising to ?5,000,000. Might seem a waste to spend so much on a full back at a club of our size but I really wanted to make sure we didn't regress. Also, youth academy graduate Sarjovaara was allowed to move to Lahti for ?375,000 as he wasn't going to be getting much game time and we had progressed him to most of his potential.
Onto the incomings, we brought in a South African international center back to play alongside Sterling at the back and a stop gap replacement for Reed, as the Argentinian doesn't join for a few months. Also, a New Zealand international right winger was brought in to provide competition for Lalkovic on the right wing.
We get our League Cup back, remaining unbeaten throughout the competition. We were missing a few players due to internationals for the final, however we were not to worry as we ran out comprehensive 3-0 winners and brought the trophy back to Turku!
Squad:
With our success in European competitions the last couple of seasons, we now sit with a healthy ?19,800,000 in the bank!
Next update will be an April and May review. Can we get the season off to a good start and can we keep our unbeaten run in the league from last season going?
Only 2 points dropped in the league so far in a draw against IFK, and we have progressed into the semi finals of the Finnish Cup, so the domestic treble is still a possibility.
Player Stats:
Arza has been brilliant on the left so far, whilst club icon Coulthirst is providing his fair share of goals as usual. Club legend Milan Lalkovic has not been his usual self, only getting 4 assists and 4 goals in 17 starts. Hopefully he can pick his form up before the CL qualifiers start...
League Table:
5 points clear of our nearest challenges IFK, we should win the title pretty easily. Surprising to see that HJK have started so poorly, hopefully they can pick up a bit of form before their Europa League qualifiers...
Nooooo, we lose our 85 game unbeaten streak at home to city rivals TPS! Still, we were unbeaten for over 2 seasons worth of league games and although it's disappointing to not make 100 games, it's still a pretty impressive run.
Player Stats:
Only 6 points ahead of Lahti as we have been drawing a few to many games for my liking. An injury crisis would probably put our title bid at jeopardy at this stage of the season. Other News:
1) We move up 59 places to 55th in the European club coefficient rankings.
View attachment 372946
2) Finland moves up 3 places in the nation coefficients and therefore we will now get 1 team entering the Europa League in the 3rd qualifying round and 2 in the 2nd round.
View attachment 372944
4) Former youth intake striker bags us ?2,400,000 due to a 50% sell on clause when we sold him to Valencia, as he moves to Tottenham for ?4,800,000.
A 7-0 victory away in Estonia was followed by an 8-0 victory in the home tie to give us a comprehensive 15-0 victory on aggregate, a great way to start our Champions League campaign.
3rd Qualifying Round - FC Inter Turku 4 - 3 FC Midtjylland
A Scandinavian battle awaited in the 3rd leg, and we lost the first leg away in Denmark 2-1. We looked to be heading through in the return leg as we had a 2-0 lead for most of the game but they got a late equalizer to take the game to extra time. Luckily, we went again in extra time and Serbian full back Marinkovic managed to score from a lucky cross to set up another Scandinavian battle in the playoff round against Swedish side Kalmar!
Playoff Round - FC Inter Turku 6 - 0 Kalmar FF
Two convincing 3-0 victories over the Swedish side sends us to the Champions League for the third year running! And here is the group we were drawn in...
Probably as tough a group as we were drawn in last year, if not tougher. We finished 2nd 2 years ago and 3rd last year, but I feel we will do well not to finish bottom of the group this year.
Next update will go over the last few months of the season, can we secure a domestic treble? Also getting a lot of interest from other clubs for players, especially Finnish player Byskata. I really want to keep him as he is my best youngster through my academy so far but he is refusing to sign a deal with 1 year left on his contract so I may have cash in on him...
We drew the first game of the 3 month period but after that it was a 100% record in domestic competitions, making up for a few too many draws earlier in the season. We also completed the Finnish treble, beating FC Lahti 1-0 in a tight scrappy final with a late goal from Walter Arza.
Player Stats:
Drew Sterling tops the average ratings but is now wanting a move to a bigger club, claiming that we broke our promises after we told him we would win the league this season... Obviously some sort of glitch but I'm not overly concerned as we have him tied down until November 2022. The biggest concern is 4 and a half star potential midfielder Marko Byskata who only has a year left on his contract and is still refusing to talk to us.
Youth Intake:
Our 4th league title in a row is sealed but we were 5 points down on last season's total. The 3 teams in behind us are all improving little by little in my opinion, and hopefully we will see one of them qualify for the Europa League in the next few seasons...
Next update will be a Champions League group stage update, will we still be in Europe come the new year...
A fantastic start to the group stages as we hold Madrid to a draw at the Bernabeau. Club legend Lalkovic grabbed an equalizer late into the second half and despite being second best for most of the game, we had the best chance to win it 5 minutes to go through Coulthirst but he missed it!
Match Day 2 - FC Inter Turku 2 - 0 Celtic
4 points from 2 games is a great start to the group stages as New Zealand international winger Paul Robertson bagged a brace to see off Celtic in Turku!
Match Day 3 - Leverkusen 3 - 0 FC Inter Turku
Leverkusen dragged us right back down to earth on our third match day with a comprehensive 3-0 win. Despite the stats showing us to have dominated possession, we were never really in the game and the scoreline actually flattered us a bit going off of chances.
Match Day 4 - FC Inter Turku 1 - 1 Leverkusen
The home tie against Leverkusen proved to be a much tighter as we picked up our 5th point of the group stages with a draw. We did take an early lead through Lalkovic, however we could not hold out for the victory...
Match Day 5 - FC Inter Turku 2 - 5 Real Madrid
Amazingly this is our first defeat in 4 games against Real Madrid. We put up a good fight but ultimately their extra class showed and we were never really in the game.
Match Day 6 - Celtic 3 - 1 FC Inter Turku
We needed to win this game to have any chance of qualifying, but we conceded a goal after just 20 seconds and then got a player sent off 10 minutes later for an absolutely stupid tackle. We started chasing the game and Celtic picked us off at ease, ending any hopes of qualifying.
Final Group Table:
We finished bottom of the group and therefore are out of Europe. Overall though, I'm pretty satisfied with our performances and hopefully we are pushing closer to becoming third seeds in a group instead of 4th. Surprisingly, Celtic pipped Real Madrid to 2nd place and therefore Madrid will drop into the Europa League.
Next will be the end of season review, followed by how Finland got on in 2019...
