[Link] Teemu Pukki

Hope you're right mate. I've never thought we would get Finnbogsan personally but I still feel we need two strikers in.

 

Get other Finn Tim Väyrynen as Pukki's backup then. Heerenveen are considering him as Finnbogason's replacement at the moment, so it would be a good way to f*ck them up too. Väyrynen is even a bigger prospect in Finland at the moment than the much hyped Joel Pohjanpalo. Väyrynen scored a hat trick against Wales U21 two nights ago and I think is the leading scorer in the Finnish league at the moment, which believe it or not is a very good achievement for a 20 year old kid. 4-5 Eredivisie clubs have been watching him, Heerenveen's coach was even personally in Finland a bit over a week ago.

e. He's going on this transfer window, so be fast.

 

Yeah Vayrynen seemed to be getting talked about. I watched a vid and i just couldn't sit through it. He was absolutley terrible in it, but it was from last season, maybe a development level game.

He's a big dude and i do like the idea of having the option of going with two big guys up front, him and Balde. Looks to have kicked on a bit. 6ft 2. Fast decent "touch and finish" kind of specialist, plays off the shoulder good in the air?

I'm all for * over those * at Heerenveen.

How much are we talking here Kiefer £450,000?

 

That would be the maximum sum, but I think it's possible to get him for 400k or even 350k depending on other offers. Hard to say, there's a good hype around him at the moment and big strikers are always wanted, and it's actually hard to say if Väyrynen would even prefer Celtic over a mid-table Eredivisie club. Holland has historically been a very good place for young Finns (if anyone, they know how to develop players further), whereas Scotland has been kind to more experienced and older Finnish players.

 

Interesting note on the Pukki and Finnbogason situation which I stole from another forum and that is the fact that Pukki has scored 8 goals in 36 games for Schalke which we have said he only started a small amount of games.

There are two other strikers in that league who had similar season to Finnbogason in the Eredivise and have the same strike rate in the Bungesliga as Pukki and that is Bas Dost and Luuk de Jong.

Bas Dost scored 47 goals in 67 games for Heerenveen and moved to Wolfsborg for 7 million euros and has scored 8 goals in 28 games for Wolfsborg and plays a lot more than what Pukki has.

Another one is Luuk De Jong who scored 39 goals in 75 games for FC Twente and moved to Borrusia Monchengladbach for £12.9 million euros and has only scored 6 in 23 games.

Both Luuk De Jong and Dost have had more time on the pitch than Pukki so people don't write him off. Also those two mentioned would be worth well more than 2 million euros and no doubt people would be more excited about them even though their record is almost the same as Pukki.

 

Not really though. If you're coming on as a sub most of the time and you're relatively pacey you're going to have a bit more chance of scoring against tired and leggy opposition.

 

Excellent post!

Only a few snippets off YouTube to look at personally, but think he has a fantastic first touch - one of the things that made Hooper really good (relative to Stokes whose is generally not good).
Honestly this guy actually excites me more than Finnbogasson and fact that we are a bit more public on it makes me think we are in the conclusive negotiation stage.

 

Why is it that top players from the Scandinavian leagues (Finnish in particular) go for such low fees?

Even good SPL prospects from clubs other than Celtic can go for £1-2 million or more on occasion (£9 million for Craig Gordon from Hearts was one crazy one)

Does it frustrate you guys to see other european clubs taking players on the cheap and reselling them for millions?

 

Joseph Ruddy ‏@joebhoy2412 2m
Pukki: “I heard that they (Celtic) were watching our game against Slovenia on Wednesday, & I heard they were pleased with the way I played.”

Joseph Ruddy ‏@joebhoy2412 1m
Pukki: “I have also heard they are interested in signing me. These are the only things I know. For now, my thoughts are on the next game.”

 

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Interesting. I can't see Lennon speaking so openly about this guy if Schalke had rejected an offer, would only serve to annoy them.

I think he's keeping the media one step behind what's really going on. Could be a second offer has been accepted and the deal is close to being done.

 

Finny and Pooky. Like the sounds of that.

 

I feel fairly confident we'll sign him as Lennon has spoken so openly about it.

The bit he says about there's a chance of getting both him and Finn...what a * tease. I can't see it happening but it was encouraging.

 

Yes. Finnish players are undervalued for various reasons. Finnish clubs are very poor financially and HJK is pretty much the only club that can say "no" to a transfer offer from abroad (and FC Honka to some extent). Also many Finnish clubs want to give their young players the chance to move abroad and improve, so they sell for a low price. "We don't want to be an obstacle" is a common phrase from clubs after a transfer, as crazy as it sounds.

A huge Finnish talent like Joel Pohjanpalo might be sold for 1M, while a talent of similar level from Croatia is sold for 5-6M (when the player is obviously NOT 6 times better). That's the reality we have to live in. Of course one would think more foreign clubs would buy Finnish players since they're very cheap, but then again we're a small country and there aren't that many players who can cut it on a higher level. The ones who can are usually always bought (for a low fee).

edit: Sweden and Norway are not on the same boat with Finland. Their talents go for a much higher price. Semi-talented Finnish players actually usually move first to Sweden or Norway before going on to Central Europe.

 

Sums it up. Good post Kiefer

There are loads of finnish players playing in Sweden. Especially Djurgården How big is football in Finland these days? Dosnt Hockey dominate ?

 

Lets all do the hockey pukki

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

 

Actually Djurgården is now emptied of Finnish players, for the first time in ~10 years. Hämäläinen moved to Lech Poznan, Toivio to Molde, SJölund to Åtvidaberg. But Allsvenskan still has around 7-8 Finns. Good place for young Finns but definitely should not be enough to get a place in the national team.

Hockey dominates, but football is big in Finland. Problem is that people care more about the English league or La Liga etc. than the Finnish one, so not enough people go watch our games, which starts a chain reaction that results in Finnish football's bad competitiveness. The national team is doing relatively well now, but Veikkausliiga has suffered. I could imagine we're having similar difficulties than Ireland and their own league.

 

Teemu Pukki Not Starting for Schalke ! On the Bench again wolfsborg

 

Can see him pushing for a move.