In recent months, Kristjan Tiirik’s role at Tartu Tammeka has been heavily focused on football operations, with the club undergoing a significant shift in how it builds its first team. Speaking about the period since last summer with club’s official media, Tiirik outlined how changes in structure, recruitment, and decision-making have reshaped the squad-building process in Tartu.
“Since Karel came in, definitely 80%,” Tiirik said of the proportion of his workload devoted to the sporting director role in the period following the arrival of new head coach Karel Voolaid. “At the same time, preparing the club’s multi-year development plan has also taken a lot of time. But right now, with the transfer window closing, it’s been very intense.”
That intensity reflects a broader shift inside the club. Since last summer, Tammeka have significantly changed the way they build their first team, moving from a more contact-based, trial-driven process to one built around scouting networks, video analysis, and direct recruitment.
The first step came before any player decisions were made. “Point number one was appointing the new head coach,” Tiirik said. Those discussions were handled by the board, with Tiirik joined by Kaarel Kiidron and Veiko Soo. Once Voolaid was appointed in mid-December, work began in parallel on the most immediate task: dealing with expiring contracts.
At Tammeka’s level, Tiirik noted, players usually sign fixed-term agreements. “The minimum is one year, generally two or three years. Rarely more.” That creates a recurring situation at the end of each season, when multiple contracts approach their end and negotiations must begin in advance. This winter, Tammeka found themselves with “quite a few” such cases.
“First, I had to understand who we definitely wanted to keep, and then I spoke with those players,” Tiirik said. Those talks resulted in new deals for Herman Pedmanson, Giacomo Uggeri, Carl Kaiser Kiidjärv, Marius Vister and Mairo Miil.
At the same time, the club was also looking abroad for added quality. Just before the new head coach was confirmed, Tammeka began working with PASS, a Ukrainian scouting platform with a scouting network in Brazil. One of the key figures behind the platform had previously worked as a scout for Shakhtar Donetsk.
“People who follow football more closely know that Shakhtar and Ukrainian football have brought in some very high-quality Brazilians,” Tiirik said, pointing to Willian as one example. Tammeka had also seen evidence closer to home. PASS had already worked with Paide Linnameeskond and FCI Levadia, and, in Tiirik’s words, “it was clear that the Brazilian players they identified had quality.” On that basis, Tammeka decided that the club, too, could again look to Brazil.
The recruitment process that followed was far more collective and structured than in previous years. Tiirik, Voolaid and assistant coach Mait Toom became the key trio in charge of building the squad. They met intensively to define which positions needed reinforcement and what profiles they were looking for. The scouts were given information, after which player profiles began to arrive.
“We reviewed the profiles they sent,” Tiirik said. “The head coach analysed the candidates very thoroughly. He watched full match recordings, not YouTube highlights, in order to really understand the players’ quality.”
Only after that internal discussion did the process move into negotiations. “At one point, I got the green light to start negotiations with certain players,” Tiirik explained. “Then I had to understand what the player’s expectations were. Emails, video calls, contracts… all of that together is actually very time-consuming.”
In total, more than 100 player profiles passed through Tammeka’s hands. More than 40 came through the Ukrainian channel alone, while others came through the personal contacts of Tiirik, Voolaid and Toom, as well as from Estonia itself. From that pool, the club selected six players. Pavel Marin had been settled earlier, while Muhammed Hydara, Oliver Kangaslahti, Thomas Lisboa, Pedro Manoel and Kauan Pereira were chosen from that wider group.
The process was not straightforward. Tiirik said the most difficult part of recruitment was often the negotiation stage itself. “Communication with the player’s agent, also with the player’s current club. Communication over terms that eventually become very detailed. In the end, the question is whether you reach an agreement or not.”
Not every case ended successfully. Tiirik recalled one particularly striking example. “One player told us everything suited him. With his agent, everything had been agreed, there was already a kind of pre-contract. And then suddenly the agent writes that he doesn’t know what that guy was thinking, but he has signed with another club somewhere in Albania. The player had accepted another offer in parallel. The agent also seemed surprised. Well, I don’t know if that really was the case, or whether they simply decided to take a better financial offer.”
For Tiirik, the contrast with previous seasons is sharp. In the past, he said, the process depended much more heavily on his own network and on bringing players in for trials so the coaching staff could assess them directly. “Earlier, I was basically only… well, I can’t say ‘alone’, because of course the team’s coaches were also involved. But it was more like this: I communicated purely with my own contacts. With agents. I asked for a player for a specific position, with the possibility of bringing him in on trial so the coaches could have a look.” Players such as Ahmed Basher, Ola Tanimowo, David Epton and Chilem “Chilly” Ignatius arrived through that route.
This time, the model was different. “That’s the biggest difference,” Tiirik said. “For the first time in JK Tammeka history, all players who joined us came without a trial. For me, too, it’s a very new situation. I haven’t dealt with this before. You only see the player here when he is already your club’s player. You have to trust the videos, the analysis, what the intermediaries say, the whole process.”
At the same time, that shift also reflects the level of player Tammeka are now trying to reach. “The level of those players should be higher,” Tiirik said. “They are not willing to come on trial, but instead expect direct contracts, which is understandable.”
He has also tried to explain the quality of Tammeka’s new arrivals in a broader context. “I’ve thought about how to explain the level of our new players in some kind of context. For example, that our players have come from the same place as the Brazilians who strengthened Paide Linnameeskond – from the U20 teams of top-flight clubs in their home country.”
In his view, the standard is there. “In general, the quality of our new players is definitely at the required level in the Premium Liiga context. They have the quality to cope in the top division and also to stand out.” The next question, as he sees it, is how quickly the pieces can come together. “Now the question is how quickly and how well Karel can integrate them into the team. How well can the team get things working? Only then will their true potential become visible.”
For Tammeka, foreign signings are expected to offer qualities that the current local core does not yet have. But they are also part of a longer-term calculation. By committing to three-year contracts, the club is not only taking on risk and responsibility, but also backing the possibility that some of these players can later move on for transfer fees.
“Yes, of course,” Tiirik said when asked whether that upside is part of the thinking. “If the contract is for only one or two seasons, then with a very good player you immediately get that situation where other clubs start circling. A three-year contract gives, in a positive sense, security to us and to the players as well. No one expects them to reach their full potential immediately on Sunday, in the opening match, but they have a stable environment here and an opportunity to break through in Europe. They understand that very well.”
And if that happens, the logic is simple. “If someone moves on from here for a transfer fee, then it means things have gone well for everyone.”
Source: https://www.jktammeka.ee/post/intervjuu-esimest-korda-jk-tammeka-ajaloos-koik-kes-meiega-liitunud-on-tulnud-ilma-trialita
