Sakari Mattila

[Denver Fulham]

The guy recently started two Euro qualifiers for Finland. Heaven forbid we take a flier on a mid-20s senior national teamer instead of paying 250% of market price for a mediocre Englishman. If he isn't good enough, so be it. It cost us pennies. I like that the club is starting to expand its view on where we can find players that can help us in our current league.

Do you know what position he played for Finland ? DM or CB ?


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He played DM vs. Hungary. I didn't check where they played him in the March qualifier.

If he can potentially provide cover at both DM and CB, what's the harm? If he's not good enough, we're no worse off than we were before, and it's not like his arrival is going to make the club not buy a legit CB or two

[Northern Cottager]

The guy recently started two Euro qualifiers for Finland. Heaven forbid we take a flier on a mid-20s senior national teamer instead of paying 250% of market price for a mediocre Englishman. If he isn't good enough, so be it. It cost us pennies. I like that the club is starting to expand its view on where we can find players that can help us in our current league.

Do you know what position he played for Finland ? DM or CB ?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

He played DM vs. Hungary. I didn't check where they played him in the March qualifier.

If he can potentially provide cover at both DM and CB, what's the harm? If he's not good enough, we're no worse off than we were before, and it's not like his arrival is going to make the club not buy a legit CB or two

Really?! I think Fortheringhams arrival meant we were left light in midfield.

[sunburywhite]

I have only one thing to say

David Elm

[Denver Fulham]

The guy recently started two Euro qualifiers for Finland. Heaven forbid we take a flier on a mid-20s senior national teamer instead of paying 250% of market price for a mediocre Englishman. If he isn't good enough, so be it. It cost us pennies. I like that the club is starting to expand its view on where we can find players that can help us in our current league.

Do you know what position he played for Finland ? DM or CB ?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

He played DM vs. Hungary. I didn't check where they played him in the March qualifier.

If he can potentially provide cover at both DM and CB, what's the harm? If he's not good enough, we're no worse off than we were before, and it's not like his arrival is going to make the club not buy a legit CB or two

Really?! I think Fortheringhams arrival meant we were left light in midfield.

We were left light at every position other than "Where Ross played" last season. Our roster was garbage.

Right now, Mattila would be in the mix with Tunnicliffe to "cover" behind O'Hara (and assumedly Parker comes and plays a few matches at some point)? I don't see these situations as remotely comparable.

[WONKYTONKY]

We were left light at every position other than "Where Ross played" last season. Our roster was garbage.

Right now, Mattila would be in the mix with Tunnicliffe to "cover" behind O'Hara (and assumedly Parker comes and plays a few matches at some point)? I don't see these situations as remotely comparable.
[/quote]

I'd hope we're looking at hyndman ahead of tunni in there as well. Think this will be a reserve team signing and just keep fingers crossed he turns out to be mustard. Cant see it effecting the sort of players we're targeting at all.

[The King]

Hey, for once I can be relevant.

I watched Sakke play for two seasons in 2012 and 2013. He's a product of HJK's youth system. He's a solid central midfielder, I don't recall him ever playing in central defense in recent times. He's a very good passer of the ball when it comes to long passes and can shoot really well. He nearly scored from the halfway line for us against Athletic Bilbao in the Europa League qualifiers in 2012. It would have been GOTY material. He likes to shoot from far away, has a really powerful shot and he can hit some beatiful free kicks too. Go look them up on YouTube, I can't right now. On the other hand, he has a tendency to mess up easy short passes every now and then. He's played for the national team recently, but don't look deeper into those performances, they won't tell you anything worthwhile about any player in the team.

This season he hasn't played that well as far as I'm aware. He was given the captaincy for the season but gave it away a few days ago, I guess due to him going to Fulham. This would be a pretty interesting signing, both for him and for Fulham. He's got a chance to prove himself and if he does, Fulham get a solid player for a small fee.

To me, if he hasn't made it out of Finland by the age of 26, then a lot of scouts have already passed him over. He could be a late developer I suppose but it sounds like a gamble, albeit a cheap one as I can't imagine the Finnish league is anywhere near as competitive as the Championship and the step up would make it difficult enough.

But why has Guy Moussi with almost 150 Championship matches been really weak for us in Helsinki then? :<

[WayneKerrins]

Hey, for once I can be relevant.

I watched Sakke play for two seasons in 2012 and 2013. He's a product of HJK's youth system. He's a solid central midfielder, I don't recall him ever playing in central defense in recent times. He's a very good passer of the ball when it comes to long passes and can shoot really well. He nearly scored from the halfway line for us against Athletic Bilbao in the Europa League qualifiers in 2012. It would have been GOTY material. He likes to shoot from far away, has a really powerful shot and he can hit some beatiful free kicks too. Go look them up on YouTube, I can't right now. On the other hand, he has a tendency to mess up easy short passes every now and then. He's played for the national team recently, but don't look deeper into those performances, they won't tell you anything worthwhile about any player in the team.

This season he hasn't played that well as far as I'm aware. He was given the captaincy for the season but gave it away a few days ago, I guess due to him going to Fulham. This would be a pretty interesting signing, both for him and for Fulham. He's got a chance to prove himself and if he does, Fulham get a solid player for a small fee.

To me, if he hasn't made it out of Finland by the age of 26, then a lot of scouts have already passed him over. He could be a late developer I suppose but it sounds like a gamble, albeit a cheap one as I can't imagine the Finnish league is anywhere near as competitive as the Championship and the step up would make it difficult enough.

But why has Guy Moussi with almost 150 Championship matches been really weak for us in Helsinki then? :<

Cheers. Of the various CMs we've had in the past few years who is he most like? Etuhu/Boateng/Kvits ie DCM or murphy/Parker/Diarra (more allround Cm) or Kara (passing more offensively minded) etc etc

[The King]

I would say he is an all around CM much akin to Murphy. He likes to tackle, get stuck in, but also contributes greatly to attacks, getting forward himself. He strikes a mean penalty too, doesn't really take them though.

E: Obviously more defensive-minded, but he can be a force further up the pitch as well.

[WayneKerrins]

I would say he is an all around CM much akin to Murphy. He likes to tackle, get stuck in, but also contributes greatly to attacks, getting forward himself. He strikes a mean penalty too, doesn't really take them though.

E: Obviously more defensive-minded, but he can be a force further up the pitch as well.

Cheers, appreciated.

[Skatzoffc]

The guy recently started two Euro qualifiers for Finland. Heaven forbid we take a flier on a mid-20s senior national teamer instead of paying 250% of market price for a mediocre Englishman. If he isn't good enough, so be it. It cost us pennies. I like that the club is starting to expand its view on where we can find players that can help us in our current league.

:plus one:

Its buttons. What's the risk?

[gang]

He will be no good for us, he keeps taking shots.

[ToodlesMcToot]

Don't need to go abroad for mediocre players, the players we need are here in England.

If he can shoot from distance, hit a free kick, and most importantly get a corner beyond the first man, I don't care what his nationality is. Add to that, he's a midfielder that isn't afraid of a tackle, then 250K is peanuts.

[Steven Ageroad]

Like it or lump it, the BBC website says we've bought him for an undisclosed fee. With the amount of mid fielders we've brought in I think the formation will be 3 -6 - 1 !!

[cmg]

I would say he is an all around CM much akin to Murphy. He likes to tackle, get stuck in, but also contributes greatly to attacks, getting forward himself. He strikes a mean penalty too, doesn't really take them though.

E: Obviously more defensive-minded, but he can be a force further up the pitch as well.

Thanks for your input. It's good to get some information from somebody who actually knows something about the player - unlike some of the uniformed, knee-jerk garbage which has greeted his arrival.

Finland is well into its season, I believe, so he should be fit enough. I notice he missed three matches in June/July. Do you know if he was injured?

[Deeping_white]

I know YouTube is never a good indicator of how good a player is but this video shows at least that he's got a decent right peg.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cpmhHURl5Vg

[RaySmith]

He seems a very good signing- welcome to Fulham Sakari.

[ffc73]

To me this signing says
McDonald is not coming
Hyndman is off
Tunnicliffe is on the way out if we can find someone to offload him to

Otherwise I do not see any purpose in the signing. But we have had a fair few of those in recent years too

[ChesterTheTabby]

From what I have seen on good old YouTube, he reminds me more of Zoltan Gera than of Danny Murphy. Not a bad resemblance to have, and a nice right peg as stated above.