Plenty of praise for Jussi Jaaskelainen
Jussi Jasskelainen has been with The Wanderers since 1997 when he was signed from Finnish club Vaasan Palloseura by Colin Todd for £100,000. Since then he has proved to be a great ball stopper and has made over 400 appearances for The Wanderers. This Saturday sees Bolton take on Hibs, this fixture is being billed as Jaaskelainenn’s testimonial match — a celebration of Jussi’s greatness. This in turn seems to have sparked a deluge of praise for the Bolton’s ‘utterly likeable fella‘.
Bolton’s goalkeeper coach, Fred Barber had plenty to say about Jussi in a recent interview with The Bolton News. Here’s what he had to say about the Finn when he first joined The Wanderers.
“When he came to the club he hadn’t played in much wet weather. In Finland he played in snow and they trained indoors, so when he first arrived in England his kicking was erratic.
“I remember one coach, who now works elsewhere at another Premier League club, turned round to me once and said he’d cost me my job.
“I thought that was a bit unfair at the time but I believed in Jussi and we worked hard on the areas we thought we needed to. We even brought a specialist kicking coach in to pick his brains on how he could improve.
“When he first came he was about fourth or fifth choice goalkeeper, so he has come a long, long way.”
Fred Barber has more to say about Jussi (including high praise) on The Bolton News website, link provided below.
Bolton’s recent signing, Sam Ricketts, is the latest person to give Bolton Wanderers goalkeeper praise. The former Tiger relived moments as a Hull City player when they played against BWFC.
“He’s a top, top goalkeeper. Twice last season he performed miracles. It was one of them, you were watching it and thinking ‘we’re going to score in a minute’ but then he just kept on pulling one save off after another. There was no chance of getting it past him.
“I was wondering if he was that good, or whether our forwards just couldn’t put the ball in the back of the net.
“He was amazing at the KC Stadium but then to do the same when we came to the Reebok, which was a massively important game, was hard to take.”
Bolton’s manager, Gary Megson, also showed his support for Finland international.
“We wouldn’t swap him for any other keeper, and that’s the truth. His attitude, his work-rate and his character is absolutely first rate and the good thing for us is that he seems to be getting better with age.”
Ali Al–Habsi, Bolton’s seldom played goalkeeper, may be Jussi’s successor but he might find himself waiting for that day for some time. Despite this Ali told The Bolton News;
“Every single day I learn something new from him. He always trains hard, he always has focus on every match and that is the most important thing for a goalkeeper.”
Former Wanderer’s defender Paul Jones (1970-1983) has also been talking to The Bolton News ahead of his return to Bolton to take part in the Legends Match.
“Jussi’s not only as good a keeper as I have seen — and I have seen a lot in my time — but the fact that he’s been at the club 12 seasons is really something special.
“He’s been a great servant to the club and deserves his testimonial. He doesn’t need the money, of course, and that is why he is donating it to charity, but he deserves the recognition.
“It’s rare to find players spending so long at one club these days, not in the Premiership where money talks and where one move can make you a multi-millionaire.”
Further reading available on The Bolton News website.
Sam Ricketts hails superman Jussi Jaaskelainen
Ali Al-Habsi happy to bide his time
Barber: Jussi is the Finn-ished article
Veteran Jones happy to honour Jussi
Update: August 6, 2009
The official Bolton Wanderers website published a similar article today entitled, ‘Jussi Receives Plenty Of Praise‘. Just sayin’!
