This week the club has been very active in reporting news from the team. First on Monday it was announced that goalie Ilkka Innola will be the team captain in 2013, assisted by the back-line big man Sami Kriikkula and newcomer Joonas Kupiainen. All are excellent choices. Innola and Kriikkula showed exceptional leadership even last season without the need for the captain’s armband, and Kupiainen seems to fit in that mold too.

On Wednesday the club published an overview of the player situation. It was revealed that two new defenders, Otto Pitkänen and Timo Kauppinen, will join the 17 players that are already signed, pending the finalization of some paperwork. Both come from the second team of Tampereen Pallo-Veikot, or TPV/2 for short. I heard both of them were assistant captains in that team in Kolmonen (fourth tier) last season, so these are major acquisitions for us. In addition to these two, two additional ex-TPV/2 players, Mika Kytöviita and Otto Kurjanen, are also training with the team. In case you are wondering, yes, word around town is that TPV/2 is done for. I suppose we shall see in the next few weeks or months.

Another player that looks like a likely signing is Anssi Saiha, who is a midfielder that played for Musan Salama in Kolmonen last season. He has some issues with his knee, but has been training with the team. Winger Andrea Milanti is another player that the club would like to sign, but he has not decided whether he will play for us or his team from last season, FC Tigers (Kolmonen). He would be an exceptional player, especially for a team in Vitonen, and all supporters are following with mouth-watering anticipation what this Italian ball wizard will do. In the winter he has trained with both TamU-K and FC Tigers, so both options seem to be truly open.

Repe Ahonen is another player that was announced for the winter training camp back in October, and he has been training eagerly with the team. He does not seem likely to get a lot of playing time if he is signed, but he seems to want to sign anyway. A few players that played for us last season are in a similar situation: Martti Pelttari, Mika Oksanen, and Joonas Niemelä are all facing the decision of whether to play small minutes for TamU-K in 2013 or to go somewhere else to find more playing time. All these four players will be seen in TamU-K matches next season I think, the

question is whether that will be on the field/bench or in the stands.

The supporters are of course eagerly waiting for news about Jose Chemlal, the top scorer from the 2012 season with 19 goals in 17 matches. The club declines to comment in detail, but says that negotiations are still going on.

Finally, last season’s team captain Tomi Lahtinen is in the progress of making the decision whether to play one more season or to end his playing career. Personally I would love to see him play this season, but understand very well why he might want to retire. A Tampere United man through and through, leading his team to a crucial promotion would be a nice way to finish, and I hear all the years of playing are taking their toll on his body. My respect is immense either way he chooses.

The conclusion from all this is that our starting eleven is extremely strong, especially considering that we will be playing in the sixth tier league. Most of our projected starters have very solid experience from a higher level, all the way up to the third tier. But what really strikes me is the realization that even our second eleven behind the starters looks stronger than the team that started last season in April 2012, assuming of course that we will sign the majority of the unsigned players that are training with the team. The team that started last season obviously did not have several players that were signed during the season (Ilkka Innola, Sami Kriikkula, Henry Friman, Alaa Adeeb, and Nawar Karikuss), but that does not take much away from how amazing that realization is. The depth that this fact illustrates might be very important over the course of the season. Our season in Vitonen alone will have more matches than we had in Kutonen last season (22 vs 16), and also we are likely to do better in cup competitions than we did last year (we literally cannot do worse), which will add a few matches as well.