The Tampere club will operate in a new stadium next season, but in the worst case, the men will lose their league place, writes Urheilu’s news manager Pekka Aalto.
Ilves challenges HJK for the position of the number one club in Finland! The people of Tampere are fighting for the gold in the men’s football league, rolling in the juniors and producing talent from the assembly line.
A few years ago, all this seemed possible, but now it’s utopia.
Ilves has drifted into a downward spiral, where even the club’s flagship league place is threatened. Who would have believed?
If everything goes in the same direction as last months, Ilves will play as the number one divar next season in the new almost 40 million euro stadium. It would be an unexpected and incredible setback for the Tampere club.
Ilves was already in trouble Jarkko Wissin in the last remaining season of 2021. Talks of internal conflicts and mistrust swirled for a long time before Wiss got his starting passes in August two years ago. During his time, the sports and financial side produced results, but personal relationships deteriorated badly. Along with the cheeky Wiss, Ilves left a lot of know-how, and the gap has still not been patched.
The atmosphere improved and the results also improved for a while in the fall of 2021, which is why the club management was a little forced to give a head coach contract Toni Kallioto a long-term married couple from Wiss.
Bad game and a lot of anger
Now two years later, Ilves is completely lost on the field. The players have lost their confidence, and Kallios doesn’t seem to be the one to change the course. Last Friday, Ilves played a large part of the Haka game miserably. A five-meter pass could go three meters and it didn’t work either way. Only Haka’s waste gave Ilves a chance to grab a point, which was missed in overtime by cents. Pirkanmaa’s other club in crisis, Haka, won 2–1.
The bigger thing than a single loss is that the Ilves fans carefully drag head coach Kalliot, a former national team rider and top player, under the keel. V-style screams have been heard for weeks already, and yesterday in Ratina, even the usual chubby people started to get nervous about the hapless home team.
The anger is aimed at Kallio, who must have heard the shouts and chants on the bench, from where he finally got up in front of the crowd to give instructions to the players amidst the insults.
There was a lot of good in Ilves’ game in the early season. The defense was better last season and the team was able to initiate even against the top teams in the series. In recent matches, there has been nothing left of that look.
Petteri Pennanen going to India has underlined the weaknesses, i.e. the lack of leadership and global lack of perspective.
There are too many tourists in the group. Many “reinforcements” against Haka had been left on the bench, but the coaching’s decision took it from the ditch to the source. Ilves junnuputki hasn’t been of decent quality for a while now, so the path doesn’t lead anywhere either.
Game-wise, Ilves’ biggest problem during Kallio’s tenure has been defending with the ball. The team does not know how to keep the ball without running into problems. In the beginning of the season, Ilves lost its lead numerous times, but that problem is no longer there, because they have given up on scoring lead goals.
Bosses between wood and bark
The training was recently supplemented Pasi Tuitt, who was allowed to step down from the position of chief pilot of KuPS in the spring. Tuuti’s recruitment hasn’t helped at all.
Ilves’ club management is in a tight spot. It has trusted Kallio like a foundation stone, but trust may cost a place in the series. Ilves’ last win in the league was at the end of May.
I find it really special, unless the Ilves bosses have at least mapped the head coach market with real intent. There will be player news on Monday, but no one would be surprised by coach news either.
In the big picture, a joint game with the pike-Ilves can bring more professionalism to the football side, but it won’t help us get out of this hole. You have to bear the responsibility yourself.