I don’t think Ääritalo is any less of a prospect than he used to be a couple of years ago. Maybe you haven’t heard so much of him (expect in Football Manager) because he plays in Finland, the Finnish top flight is not really the sexiest league out there…

Ääritalo was at times awesome last season. He hasn’t been doing so well under the new head coach because their style of football has changed; under Mixu Paatelainen they used the flanks a lot and played the ball up quickly, but now the system is more about short passing and Ääritalo is not quite used to the system yet. I’d expect him to settle down with the new style of play soon enough though.
Pace is definitely his main strength. His main weakness is probably the fact that the gap between a good and a bad performance is still too big.

He will most definitely move to a bigger club in a few years’ time. The TPS supporters were actually fortunate not to have lost him during the January transfer window. I think he has promised not to move to Sweden or Norway, so he will move to a league with higher reputation straight away instead and TPS will get a better transfer fee. (He signed a new 2- or 3-year contract last fall to ensure he doesn’t move out as a free agent).

Joe: I’ll ask my colleague at FIF, Juha Salminen, to respond to that one. My impression is that he flatters to deceive, but he’s clearly a very good player and will benefit from the change in coach at TPS. Juha watches him every week though, so I’ll ask him to comment.

Wikipedia tells me he’s in and around the national squad having played well for TPS. Is he due for a bigger move (though perhaps not the heady heights of a team like Villa)?