Ja, ist halt die Frage ob Pekka (oder wer sonst da noch im Hintergrund die FĂ€den zieht) sich dem grossen Namen beugen kann.
If Rane is not in good shape, I will predict this. He jumps individual normal hill, almost no matter what. If he does badly, he will himself tell that he voluntarily steps out and Olli jumps instead of him in team. Then it depends again from practise, if he jumps large hill. If he does as good as Olli at practise, he again jumps, if it doesn't go well, it will be same to the team comp. It's almost guaranteed that Pekka doesn't bench him, if it needs to be done, it is done so, that Rane voluntarily withdraws, that is how they save faces and asses. So the same thing as in Planica last year.
But I have to say that I really do hope Rane finds his shape before Oslo or we are so screwed... Then again, it may be, that total screwing up is what is needed right now to wake some people.
About the money. I do really hope they have made their contracts so, that they can thin the budget and save on equipment department. It seems very clear (but not something they are willing to say aloud) that they made some very expensive mistakes there. The whole binding thing is a total joke. I don't know, if Olli and Anssi are now using the new bindings, but till start of February they had been able to make total two pairs of new bindings, one pair for Matti (who is using them) and one for Rane (who has now decided not to use them at all.) All the others used same commercial bindings other countries are also using. More than half of the season had gone and their big and expensive project had made two pairs of bindings, and the other pair of those are not even being used!
It is also very obvious that lately one name has not been mentioned at all. When they speak about bindings, they speak how it's a project made with Tampere University of Technology, the name of the professor involved is also often mentioned, but they do not mention the name of someone they are actually paying monthly salary and who was very much hyped during summer. If you look Finnish press and Pekka and others talking, you would think that Finnish team's technician/coach has just disappeared from the face of the earth.
