The blue and green faithful had been waiting patiently for a long time, and when the new player signings were finally announced at the end of last week and earlier this week, there was definite excitement in the air. We now have 15 players under contract for next year, so obviously there’ll be more announcements during the winter. However, the four announcements made recently will satisfy the supporters’ appetite for a while.

As I predicted in the previous blog post, the renewal of Anssi Saiha’s contract was indeed imminent. If he can stay healthy this year, he might be the number one creative midfielder on the team, and perhaps indeed in the whole league. So far things have looked good in team practice sessions, so it’s a wait and see situation for now. Personally, his heroics in Vaasa in the Regions’ Cup fixture last season have stuck in my mind. He was far from healthy, but played through back pain anyway as we otherwise would not have had enough field players to start with eleven players.

Also signed was Andrea Milanti, a player who is already reasonably well-known to the supporters. He played for us in the TAS friendly match late last fall, and has been on coach Mika Suonsyrjä’s

contact list for more than a year now. He even participated in team training a year ago, but eventually decided to stay with his fourth-tier (Kolmonen) team FC Tigers. Now he is ours though, and should be a great asset on the wing with both his speed and technique as well as his powerful shot. And as one supporter said tongue-in-cheek, he does have a footballer’s name.

The other two new signings are more unknown to me, but based on their backgrounds they should be more than adequate for any team in Nelonen. Jouko Turunen is primarily a right back, but can play any defensive position in a pinch. It is great to see more competition for playing time in the full back positions. He comes to us from Nokian Palloseura (NoPS) who were one of the top teams in Kolmonen in the Tampere region last season.

Juho Lehtovaara comes to us from Nekalan Pallo, a Tampere-based team in Nelonen. He seems to be most likely to find his spot in the upper midfield in our system. It is definitely a position where everybody expected new signings. He got the pass for two goals in the 8-0 win over FC Melody in the Nelonen Winter League fixture last weekend, already a good sign.

In addition to the new signings, some of the as-of-yet unsigned trialists are getting some attention as well. Eero Sointu scored four goals for us in the FC Melody match, Joona Kapanen got two, and Niko ”BB” Saarinen got one. Additionally Vesa Suonsyrjä lookalike Risto Niskanen had three assists. I did not see this match, but my humble suggestion is to sign them all.