– A week. At most.
I saw the ex-head coach of the A national football team Mixu Paatelainen answers the question, how long will the men of the old union who coached him in the 1980s and 90s be able to do their job in today’s Finland in the same way as they did in Scotland in their time.
– It was a real old school mood and a lot of fluff. I myself was mentally and physically so strong and a product of my time that I even enjoyed it. The criticism was not always just verbal, but I have also been kicked out after a bad opening episode.
Paatelainen played a stream of memories on the premises of a Helsinki publishing house on Thursday. His biography The Fighting Big Finn Jukka Lyytinencust. Tammi) will be published on August 27. The top soccer player of the second generation wants to call the book a soccer biography, because he has mainly limited his private life outside the text.
After all, it becomes clear that Paatelainen is now a grandfather and will marry for the second time this fall, with his current Scottish partner. The wedding will take place in the famous St. Andrews. The couple lives near Edinburgh on the shores of the North Sea.
Paatelainen has been absent from the Finnish public since the head coaching at HIFK 2022 ended after the club’s financial base was completely betrayed in the middle of everything.
An archaeological find
When Paatelainen left Valkeakoski Haka for the top Scottish club Dundee United in 1987, the journey was much longer mentally than geographically. Outside Pohjola, a very small number of Finnish professionals played football, such as Kari Ukkonen, What Lipponen, Marko Myyry and Pasi Rautiainen. The book’s descriptions of the “people-oriented” coaching of its time now feel like an archaeological find.
– If Koutsi didn’t say anything after the match, you knew you played well. Many times I heard that I was unnecessary human garbage, I guess I hadn’t played so well then, Scotland, English and Paatelainen, who has had a nearly 20-year career on the pitches of France and in the A national team, says with a smile on his face.
“Wonderful to see blood!”
The best of the anecdotes from the years of play in the book is a physical confrontation between the legendary Welsh tough face, Wimbledon Vinnie Jones with in the FA Cup match in the 1997-98 season. Paatelainen played in Wolverhampton at the time. For example Paul Gascoigne genitals compressed Jones crushed Paatelainen’s nose with his elbow, with harsh consequences that led to the operating table. After this, he came to the treatment facility to abuse his victim:
– Great to see blood on your shirt, big boy!
Suffering from immense pain, Paatelainen says that he jumped off the bench and attacked Jones, but the medical staff and other players prevented the situation from escalating.
– The end result would have been a knockout win in the opening set, says Paatelainen now, but refuses to guess which one will be in favor of.
Although he played for the A national team for 14 years and 70 times, the striker is best remembered today for his stint as the head coach of the A national team from 2011-2015.
In the book, Paatelainen recalls the difficult moments of the fall of 2015, when he was waiting for the call of the Football Association in the head coach’s employment apartment in Kruununhaa, Helsinki, after Finland’s European Championship qualification project had failed.
You kick with tears in your eyes
Chairman Pertti Alaja was a good friend of Paatelainen and already this one Checkmate-father’s old teammate from the A national team. Alaja called, suggested a meeting, and with tears in his eyes told Paatelainen that he was the former head coach of Huuhkajie.
– Unfortunately, we didn’t talk anymore after that. “Pera” was a very important and close person to me, and I am not bitter towards him or Pallloliito. Such decisions are made in professional sports when the results are not as expected.
Alaja died of cancer in 2017.
– I’ve also often been asked if I was left traumatized by the A national team defeat. As many times I have answered that there was no left.
Being left out of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil was a completely expected performance from the A national team in the forecasts of the Finnish Football Association, but Paatelainen admits that his eyebrows were raised when he got to know his employer’s marketing materials for the EC qualifiers that started in the fall of 2014.
All the way to the European Championships
The association saw that in the middle of a massive rejuvenation surgery, one truly international top player lived Roman Eremenko confirmed by Huuhkajat would push France to the 2016 European Championship by a hair’s breadth. Nothing came of it.
– However, we go according to the guidelines of the payer in working life, even though I tried to describe the challenge of the goal a little in the side sentences. If there had been such goal spitters of the 2020s as Teemu Pukki and Joel Pohjanpalowith such created scoring probabilities, the competition venue would not have been a utopia even then, says Paatelainen and emphasizes that it is only a game of thought.
His 4-3-2-1 formation would have become a concept with the most winning results. Now it became a joke called the Christmas tree.
– Even harsh criticism never seemed boring, if it was deserved.
Part of the rejuvenation surgery was to announce To Jari Litmasthat the National Football Association will no longer send national team invitations. In the book, Paatelainen, 57, recalls that announcing this was difficult.
– It wasn’t nice when everyone knows how much I respect him. I told Jari that I knew very well that even in his forties he could make that crucial dream pitch, but that I had to think about things 4-5 years ahead.
Paatelainen became the head coach at a time when fans already came to the Olympic Stadium to watch the Finnish team and not to admire its famous opponents, such as England, Germany or Italy. During his active years, the situation was certainly not always this.
When Finland finally, in 2021, played in the prestigious tournament, there will be several regular players in the ranks who, during Paatelainen’s time, were just learning the ways of the A national team. The head coach Markku Kanerva was then part of Paatelainen’s coaching team.
Still needs daily coaching
– The competition venue felt extremely good for both the players and the entire background team.
Paatelainen, who last coached 2022, currently works as an analyst for the European football association Uefa in Euro matches and prestigious competitions, including men’s prestigious competitions. He is mostly employed by the Scottish Football Association.
– I run Uefa B and A coach trainings, which are many, and I also participate in the highest, i.e. Pro, level trainings. There are just enough jobs.
A few well-known agents have promised to let me know if interesting coaching positions arise from around the world. Paatelainen has not done daily coaching since the 2022 season. He doesn’t actively look for day jobs, but he is honest with himself.
– If I said that I don’t miss the huge and intense emotions generated by the training ground and the match, no one would believe me. And it wouldn’t be worth it.