Intervju med Vayrynen i YEP....
By Phil Hay
Published on Monday 17 October 2011 13:17
Mika Vayrynen is talking about tattoos, of which he has several.
Which footballer doesn’t these days? Leeds United’s dressing room is awash with bizarre ink but, Vayrynen says, “you always think yours are bestâ€.
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In much the same way, players are never shy when it comes to assessing their own position in a club’s pecking order. They all want a shirt and all believe they are worthy of one. The problem is one of simple mathematics: 20-plus professionals into 11 starting places – or, for that matter, a squad of 16 – never goes.
Vayrynen is as assured and as confident as you would expect a 30-year-old with his CV to be. But on the subject of congestion in the centre of United’s midfield, he is also philosophical.
“It’s a hard team to get into,†he said, lodged behind two fixtures in Simon Grayson’s side.
The Finnish international has appeared and is happy to play in a variety of positions – “I was a shadow striker for a while†– but his preferred role would be in the middle of United’s team.
As he admits without prompting, he can expect no promises when Grayson’s current preferences are his club captain, Jonathan Howson, and Adam Clayton, a 22-year-old who Vayrynen goes so far as to call “one of the better players in the teamâ€. He will find no arguments with that.
“It looks difficult when you have the club’s captain in there and one of the better players in the team in Adam,†Vayrynen said. “The first game I saw was against Bristol City and Adam caught the eye right away. His passing is skillful and clever, and he’s brave – not afraid to go forward. With his mentality he’ll have a very bright future.
“But there are a whole lot of games this season, far more than we played in Holland. You’ll see injuries and suspensions and other players will step forward. When that happens, it’s in your mind to make something of it.â€
In all, United will contest no fewer than 50 competitive matches this season and 46 in the Championship alone. Last season, the 10th in succession which Vayrynen spent in the Dutch Eredivisie, his club Heerenveen played only 34 league games.
It is true to say that the Championship, and the Football League in general, provides one of the most demanding domestic schedules for professionals.
It was, nevertheless, Vayrynen’s choice to join the division and sign for Leeds. The club were one of two who presented him with an offer last month and his transfer to Elland Road was made at the expense of an opportunity at Austrian side Red Bull Salzburg.
“They had an offer ready and waiting for me,†he said. “But, football-wise, it seemed to me that coming to England was the right thing to do.
“Leeds were a great Premier League club and I watched a lot of their league games when I was younger. They had good players in the past and they’ve got good players here now. They look like they’re getting better again and in the end it was an easy choice.
“Playing in England has appealed to me for a while. I’ve heard a lot of good stories about English football and the English crowds. I used to dream about playing in Spain but lately, for me, England has been the number one place to be.â€
He is not the only player or the only Finn to have taken that view recently. International team-mate Mikael Forssell joined Leeds a week before Vayrynen after undergoing the formality of a trial at Thorp Arch.
In Forssell’s case, a club in Greece were offering him a viable alternative but the player had prior experience of playing in England and was easily tempted back from German side Hannover.
There was a general assumption that the presence of Forssell at Thorp Arch helped to facilitate Vayrynen’s arrival on a one-year deal. But asked if they discussed the move, Vayrynen said: “Not much. It’s great to have a friend here but it was purely my decision.
“Of course I asked a couple of questions but he’d only been at the club for a week or so. He didn’t know so much more than me.
“But I did take good advice before I signed. I spoke to my old national coach, Stuart Baxter, and also to Mixu Paatelainen (the former Finland international who played for Bolton Wanderers, Wolverhampton Wanderers and several Scottish clubs). They told me what I expected to hear.â€
On paper, Vayrynen’s track record makes for promising reading. Seven years and more than 150 appearances with Heerenveen were interspersed with a three-year spell at PSV Eindhoven, a notable transfer made more impressive by the fact that he was sourced and signed by Guus Hiddink, a coach of global repute.
Less well known is the story of a failed move to Derby County who agreed to take Vayrynen from PSV after their promotion to the Premier League in 2007. Derby abandoned the deal when the midfielder’s medical revealed an injury which would have taken several months to heal.
Vayrynen says that the collapse of that transfer made him “unhappy†but his three years at Eindhoven were a greater disappointment. An ankle injury sustained shortly after his arrival gave him no chance of integrating quickly, and Hiddink moved on a year later after agreeing to become Russia’s national coach.
“It wasn’t a successful time for me,†Vayrynen said. “Not at all. I’d had a good season with Heerenveen the year before and PSV was supposed to be a great move, a big move.
Suffered
“PSV are a big club in Europe but I had a lot of injuries at that stage and I suffered a big ankle injury as soon as I moved there. That meant a very slow start.
“Then the manager who wanted me left the club. He’s a top coach with great people skills. He’s someone who can keep all of his players happy and satisfied, and that’s a big talent. I’d have loved to play under him for longer.
“PSV got three championships in the time I was there and it was nice to be part of that but I didn’t play so much. It was a big disappointment.â€
Vayrynen returned to Heerenveen in 2008 but decided at the end of last season that, after a decade in Holland, he was ready for a change of scene. His patient wait for a new club was down to “wanting the right opportunityâ€, an opportunity which finally arrived when he met with Grayson after United’s win over Crystal Palace.
Vayrynen’s value to Finland, meanwhile, was shown by his continuing appearance in their squads, despite him lacking a club.
“Somehow Finnish players seem to fit well into Dutch football,†he said. “I think it’s to do with the passing game they play and the technical side of things in Holland.
“It’s quite different to what you see in the Championship. It’s a good way of playing football and it’s all about possession but I’d had 10 years in Holland. It was time for a move.
“The Championship is a tough division but, from what I’ve seen, it’s still true that if you play good football, you’ve got a chance. I like that.â€
