In the words of Exeter City’s goalkeeper coach Kevin Miller, they took a punt on Viljami Sinisalo.
It was March 2023 and the 21-year-old goalkeeper was about to return to parent club Aston Villa following a lukewarm — at best — loan at Burton Albion, restricted to only four appearances after faith in his ability seeped away.
Advertisement
“We were looking for a new goalkeeper because we knew Jamal Blackman wasn’t staying,” Miller tells The Athletic. “We were just scouring videos. Agents chucked names at us.
“We watched Vil and he was having a tough time, but there was something about him. He made a basic save against Oxford and I liked his body language and reaction to it. He got up and caught another ball straight after.
“He wanted to set the tempo and was proactive. Some ‘keepers roll around and slowly get up, but Vil was different — he keeps team-mates going.”
Miller had recognised characteristics and intangibles that belied the data. While Exeter were in League One, they shared similar principles with Villa when it came to style and the remit of a goalkeeper. Sinisalo is a Finland international, yet his time at Burton had diminished his stock.
“There wasn’t a lot of clubs looking at him,” says Miller. “He came down for three days in pre-season and there was something about the kid. His enthusiasm, the way he trained; his professionalism was off the charts. I spoke to the gaffer (Gary Caldwell) after and we agreed he’d be great. We weren’t concerned about the previous season because it was a fresh start and he had a desire to improve.”
GO DEEPER
Behind the scenes with Exeter City, the best away team in 2024 in England's top four divisions
Exeter, in their view, had spotted an overlooked rough diamond. Villa wanted to send Sinisalo on loan again and Mark Naylor, head of academy goalkeeping, stressed the importance of a club putting and — crucially — maintaining, full belief in him. Caldwell and Miller agreed Sinisalo would be their No 1, regardless of form.
“I spoke to Mark and he said Vil needed someone to trust him,” said Miller. “He spoke about Vil coming with a smile on his face, being a good size and wanting to be here.
“He didn’t have the belief from the manager (at Burton). He got lobbed a few times and caught in no man’s land. We sat down and went through all his mistakes at Burton. I said to him, ‘This isn’t a battering from me. This is where we will improve you’. The biggest thing was to reassure him he was going to play every single game, even if he had a shocker. We didn’t want him to be on edge.”
“Vil had the confidence of the manager,” says Shaun MacDonald, who signed in September and became Exeter’s No 2. “His first game was against Torquay United and we lost 4-1 (in a pre-season friendly in July). He couldn’t have got off to a worse start but the gaffer spoke to him and said, ‘Don’t worry, you’re going to be my goalkeeper’. Vil said he’s never heard that before on his loans.”
Advertisement
It proved the perfect match. Sinisalo had the platform and backing and, in turn, Exeter gained a high-level goalkeeper for a season, contributing to a 13th-placed finish. Sinisalo took six prizes at Exeter’s end-of-season awards evening after playing 50 games, keeping 14 clean sheets and accruing more than 4,000 minutes on the pitch, over 800 minutes more than any other player.
“It’s the best year of my life,” Sinisalo said last month. “It’s been brilliant. I owe so much to the club. All I can say is thank you and I love this club and, hopefully one day — I don’t know when — I can return here.”
“There are rumours 17 clubs are looking at him this year,” Miller points out.
Team-mates recognised Sinisalo’s studiousness and, although he was only on loan, the Villa man was committed to driving standards.
“The first time we met, it was a day off but Vil had asked to come in,” MacDonald says. “Football is a brutal business and does not contain the nicest of people, but Vil is one of the good ones. There was never any bitterness. Vil played all season but we supported each other. I’ve been on the phone with him three or four times since he left.
“He’s a winner. His aim is to be Villa’s No 1 and he’s going to do everything in his power to get that. For example, Monday’s session would be a lot lighter for those who started on the weekend, but he joined in five-a-sides with the unused players. He wants to push himself. Whether it’s five or 10 minutes at the end of a session, it all adds up.”
🎶 Super Sinisalo in goal!🧤@VSinisalo01#ECFC #SemperFidelis pic.twitter.com/xsyLe013JN
— Exeter City FC (@OfficialECFC) March 20, 2024
As is customary with those on loan, Sinisalo returned to Villa every three months to complete a series of leg and upper-body tests that monitored his physical levels. To ensure he was in optimal condition, Sinisalo, who made his senior debut in January 2023, prepared by accelerating his recovery after games.
Advertisement
“He would do his leg sessions on Monday because he had done his post-match recovery on Sundays at a David Lloyd gym, on a supposed team day off,” Miller adds. “He wasn’t a drinker. He didn’t eat crap foods. You could see the focus when he trained. He worked at a 100 per cent and got annoyed if he made a mistake in training.”
Mental preparation formed an integral part of Sinisalo’s development. He would study upcoming opposition, knowing their attacking strengths, potential threats and how their style could affect his game. He saved three out of eight penalties, having emphasised researching every possible spot-kick taker.
“He knows everything about football,” says Miller. “He would say, ‘Have you seen this player at Plymouth or at Burton?’. He would know all their ages and strengths. He will not stop until he’s made it to the top. If the squad had a warm-down, he do more training.”
Ironically, September’s 2-0 home defeat to Northampton Town is reflected upon fondly by MacDonald and Miller. It was regarded as Sinisalo’s best performance, where he made five crucial saves and, rather tellingly, was named player of the match.
“Without him, we would have lost by five or six,” admits MacDonald. “He’s had a few games like that. He makes saves most ‘keepers can’t. He’s proactive and takes aggressive positions from corners or long throws, standing where the thrower wants to aim. Even on that day, he jumped and down as if to say, ‘Go on, chuck it on top of my head’.”
Miller agrees: “Vil is a different stylistic ‘keeper to what we have. Others dive and collapse whereas Vil comes and spreads. Against Northampton, he made one save where he parried it on to the bar and the rebound came off his foot. It’s only Vil who would have saved that in the league because of how he moves his body and athleticism.”
Goalkeeping mistakes are invariably illuminated and par for the course, especially for a player who turned 22 during the season. Opposition teams, however, began to prey on Sinisalo’s willingness to claim crosses and long throws and exploit Exeter’s zonal marking system. This meant there were no spare team-mates to stop him from being penned in.
Advertisement
“He takes a position towards the edge of the six-yard box,” says Miller. “A few teams started backing into him. At Leyton Orient (a 2-2 draw in April), he got done, Burton then hit the bar and Fleetwood scored. He lost a little bit of confidence.
“His distribution is an area for improvement. We play out and his passes at times weren’t great. When he kicks the ball, it is effortless but when he does something else well, the does the next action is different — he wants to show people how good he is, so we’ve had to tell him to keep it simple.
“When he clipped balls into our full-backs or No 9, he would occasionally get it wrong. He undercut a pass at Portsmouth (a 1-0 loss in August) and they broke away and scored. He’s got to understand the right times to play those passes.”
The occasional error did not cloud a coming-of-age campaign. Team-mates and coaches remarked on how quickly Sinisalo did not dwell on mistakes and remained a popular figure. This culminated in the cluster of accolades, including being named Exeter’s players’ player of the year.
“It was emotional to see him pick everything up,” Miller admits. “We knew he was leaving and he made a big speech about being at the club. It was brilliant.”
“He’s wasting his time coming back to League One next year,” laughs MacDonald. “I’ve said that openly and he agrees. He’s got a year left on his contract, so he would probably have to sign a new deal if he was going on loan again. I would say move to the Championship. I saw stories about Celtic, so something like that would be great.”
Exeter would love to bring Sinisalo back but accepted some time ago he was destined for, as Miller puts it, “bigger things”. Having joined Villa in 2018 and progressed through the ranks, Sinisalo’s goal is to make his debut under Unai Emery.
Advertisement
“Villa might cash in on him because they’ve signed Joe Gauci and because Vil’s status as an asset is quite high after this year; a lot of clubs are looking at him,” concludes Miller. “He needs to find the right manager and feel the love. If it’s another loan or if Villa opt to sell him, the ball is in his court.”
(Top photo: Chris Vaughan – CameraSport/CameraSport via Getty Images)