Aapo Virtanen: Don’t Look Back In Anger

Wow, that S.O.B!

What the...

Scott T: I try please my loyal fans every time

Justice: The world is full of 'em I'm afraid

Jim: Has certainly put Aapo under a bit of pressure

Griffin: Wrong place at the wrong time?

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Board officials of AC Oulu were called into an emergency meeting this morning as a video was leaked of new Oulu manager Aapo Virtanen seemingly assaulting a male in an alleyway just yesterday.

Virtanen was only made head coach of AC Oulu at the back-end of December after the club decided to approach an internal appointment strategy for the club, and after current player-assistant manager Markus Heikkenen rejected an offer to become manager in the winter, Virtanen was appointed just shortly after.

The video in question depicts the AC Oulu boss charging at a male aged between 21 and 25 according to reports before rugby tackling the man into a wall, with his head banging the side of the building and subsequently knocking the victim unconscious. The source of the video came from a man at the scene who saw the whole situation unfold, but refuses to be named publicly for the fear of his own safety according to the outlet that first reported the story nationally.

As a result of the leaked video, Virtanen's role at the club is being called into question, with people around the victim and Virtanen still unsure if the man will press charges against the Oulu boss, who has only been in his post at Raatti Stadium for just over two months.

However, it has been discussed since the footage emerged online that Virtanen was actually coming to the defence of a victim of a racist attack at the hands of the man that Virtanen took down in the alleyway. This perspective comes from a respected source that has reportedly seen the police surveillance tape of the incident and the alleged assault coincided at a time when the Nordic Resistance Movement - an infamous fringe racist organisation - was holding a march through the town centre of Oulu, near the scene of where Virtanen took the man down.

Aapo Virtanen was asked for comment, but he refused to talk about the subject in the public sphere and the club simply said that an internal investigation was going on along with the help of the local authorities to resolve this case.

The media can be a curse! I don't think the saying 'any publicity is good publicity' can be applicable to this situation, unfortunately.

At least the paper makes reference to the victim's actions, which will protect Aapo a little. Looking forward to seeing what the club does in response to the footage - hopefully a sacking isn't on the cards.

Justice: Just need Donald Trump to post 'FAKE NEWS!' on my behalf and I might be OK

Scott: I'm sure you'd love to be a fly on the wall at the disciplinary

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With the Finnish footballing season causing a very lengthy preseason campaign, we played twelve friendly matches on top of six competitive Finnish Cup group phase matches from the January period all the way through to the end of April. I can proudly say that out of the total eighteen fixtures we played, we only lost one game - the very first game in the Finnish Cup against our divisional rivals Kajaani.

Throughout the course of preseason, we played six times against top-flight teams and didn't lose to a single one, even scoring three against the team dubbed to be one of the front-runners in the Premier League in the form of SJK.

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I started my managerial career up against our divisional rivals AC Kajaani away from home and start off poorly with a 2-1 loss to Mika Lumijarvi's team. Straight after that loss we bounced back in the same competition with a great victory against Finnish Premier League mainstays VPS with Ramadingaye and Moore providing the source for a 2-0 victory in the cup match.

From the victory against VPS at the end of January, we refused to be beaten all the way through preseason, including another victory against VPS in a non-competitive match at home in March. Aleksi Gullsten staked his claim for a starting spot for the upcoming season with a heroic hat-trick against Rollon Pojat in a friendly match.

In the Finnish Cup, it was the opening loss to Kajaani that refused us entry to the next round as the competition ruled that the group was sorted by results between teams rather than goal difference, so despite having a two-goal advantage on Kajaani, we missed out on cup progress due to our 2-1 loss to them in January.

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The most impressive player throughout preseason has been our defensive midfielder Jair who has made his place in the starting eleven his own with his quality performances against some good sides. In the media, Jair is being dubbed as one of the best players in the league and whilst the transfer was open this winter, there were plenty of clubs snooping around the £50K-rated player, but fortunately we managed to keep ahold of the player and he will be a very important player for us.

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After bringing in English keeper Matt Jones earlier in the transfer window, we managed to negotiate what I believe as a massive coup in bringing in 21-year-old French centre-back Safwan Mbae on a free transfer. The defender was on the books of Ligue 1 giants AS Monaco since 2012. Since being released in June 2017, Mbae has been without a club. Looking at the player's attributes, it seems to me like he is a huge signing that will benefit us for years to come. Mbae signed a contract until Winter 2020, so we have him for a good amount of time to develop the player even more.



With improvements in both the goalkeeper department and the centre-back area, my last movement in this transfer window was the arrival of Colombian poacher Jhonatan Donado. With Morin and Belov being our only options up top, I believed that they weren't good enough for what I am trying to achieve with the club. Donado, 27, is best known in Nicaragua for his spell with Universidad UNAM where he netted 23 times in 70 appearances in Central America. His most recent spell was in Finland with our divisional rivals KTP last season as he scored once in 9 appearances in their promotion season last term.

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We begin our league campaign up against the recently relegated Helsingfors, who have come down from the Premier League with a relatively strong squad. This season they are the league favourites at 2/5 odds to win the title. We play them again in June at our home ground so if we lose then we can redeem ourselves on our own turf. For me, they are the most important fixtures in the coming two months.

All the credit you give me for my graphics mate is completely undeserved when you post such beautiful pieces like this

Pleasing start to the season overall. How dare you beat Santa Claus though

Those graphics still satisfy me greatly. <3

Two good signings, particularly Mbae! His physicality will be a big boost in the months of many games. May bringing nine fixtures reminds me of why I miss playing in the Finnish divisions. Once the league campaign begins, you become immersed in game-after-game!

Griffin: Competition creates better product

Scott: I couldn't have asked for much better to be honest, some tough tasks in there but that shows that Finnish football really lacks in quality when not even top-flight teams are beating the lower league teams on any occasion. I'm glad you're loving it as much as I enjoy making it

Justice: Honestly, I was shook when Mbae not only agreed to negotiate but also agreed to one of the lowest contracts we can offer to key players! I think a little more development on his marking and jumping and he will be an absolute unit for us for years to come! The whole Finnish structure really does draw you in with the short seasons and it's a massive reason why I enjoy managing around Scandinavia in FM so much

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This had been a long time coming, but I knew that it had to happen. Today was the day of my disciplinary for the incident that had happened after the Kemi Kings friendly match with the members of the Nordic Resistance Movement. It had taken a few months but that was because of other business taking priority for the club chairman.

The delay had been to my benefit as it has allowed me to establish myself as the first-team manager, with seven wins out of my first nine games in the Finnish First Division. I pulled up in my Skoda Octavia at our home stadium - Raatin Stadion - dressed in my suit ready for what could be a stern telling off from the men above in the boardroom.

Approaching the reception at the stadium, I saw the receptionist, Leena, giving me a nice big grin as she usually did on my way into the arena. I was dead certain that she had an attraction to me, but as my father always told me: office romances are never a good idea.

"Mr. Virtanen! You are looking very smart today, sir!" Leena said to me as I landed at her desk, about to check in on the system. I thanked her and she let me know that the chairman and directors were ready and waiting for my arrival in the boardroom. Making my way down the corridor of the corporate suites I started thinking about what could possibly the worst outcome of this disciplinary procedure. There was always going to be the threat of a dismissal in this occasion. A fine perhaps?

I arrived at the boardroom and I gently knocked on the door to make the directors aware of my presence outside. I slowly opened the door and peeked my head around the corner, seeing all four members of the board sat in a semi-circle around the rectangular table. "Good morning, Aapo," the chairman, Risto Ihalainen said with an unexpectedly gleeful smile, as if he was happy to see me. "Please, come in and take a seat!"

"We are sure that you know what will be discussed throughout the course of the meeting and we will be recording this just for future reference, is that OK Aapo?" the managing director, Petteri Haapala enquired, in a very authoritative and official tone.

I responded with agreement to the procedure. The meeting carried on for anywhere between 45 minutes and an hour of back-and-forth questions and answers, mostly irrelevant things that were asked to make sure that the club were following the correct legal guidelines.

As the meeting began to draw to its conclusion, the final verdicts and level of punishment were laid out to me. The club said that seeing that it is my first offence, and it was done away from the football club that they didn't feel like they could sack me on that basis. However, the directors stated that they were going to make out in the press that they had made an example of me and slap a two-week fine on my wages. The club had found a way around this to keep me happy, though, and agreed to introduce a two-game win bonus into my contract that would compensate for the money lost in my fine once I had won two more matches in the league - a simple task for a squad doing so well in the league at the current moment.

In conclusion, the club tried to publicly show that I had been reprimanded for the evidence of my offence but privately they had thrown in a sweetener for me with the win bonus to keep me happy. I still had no knowledge whether or not the man I had taken down would press assault charges, but while the evidence was available that was always going to be a threat against me. For now, though, I was a happy man walking out of the Raatin Stadion today.

Things got serious but hopefully you can move on from this and enjoy success from here on in

A well-handled approach from the club, allowing for the club's profile to remain clean - whilst not being too harsh on Aapo and adding a win bonus to counteract the fine, potentially.