August 2024

Just five days ago, André Petersson’s time with HV71 appeared to be over.

And now? Well, it looks like he’ll be staying after all.

HV71’s Sporting Director, Chris Abbott, announced in a video on their official website that a meeting took place over the past weekend. We don’t know exactly what was said, but the end result is that Petersson was back training with the team at their first official practice in front of their fans on Monday.

What changed?

We’re helped in this instance by the Canadian Chris Abbott providing his answers in English. Let’s start with how I summed things up in my previous article:

A real change in culture is needed at HV, as Petersson himself said. To deliver that, Abbott has to show strong leadership. Letting an agent be seen to be calling the shots would immediately damage his authority. Pilko’s [Petterson’s agent] comments left Abbott with no choice but to accept his captain’s departure.

And maybe that leads us to something like the truth, if a single version of the truth really exists here.

Agents work for their players, not the other way around despite what some teams like to claim to save face with their fanbase. If Petersson is unhappy and wants out with a year remaining on his contract, the agent’s job is to make that happen. If achieving that means Pilko has to make himself the bad guy publicly, so be it. That’s just part of the job.

My key points were that Abbott had to be seen to be in charge and that sometimes an agent has to be the bad guy on behalf of his client. What I didn’t write, as the reports didn’t suggest this was likely at the time, was that this did still leave the door open for Petersson to be welcomed back into the fold. That could be achieved, if Petersson wanted to stay, by essentially pinning the blame on the agent.

And so to Chris Abbott’s comments:

“As far as the last week or two, there’s been some difference of view here on what the future would look like with André from his side, mainly his representation, and discussions with me. I can say, I was very happy to have a chance to sit down with André this weekend”.

“It’s actually mostly, like a lot of things, chalked up to communication. And I’ve been very open with him and his side about our position and my role coming in here and, for me, that means putting the team first in all the decisions and I know that our whole group is well aware of that”.

A textbook example of smoothing things over! Communication was the issue, something that could be solved by cutting out the middle man.

Now, I don’t really buy that. Aljosa Pilko wasn’t going rogue here, even if his method of tweeting about it was questionable. It was a calculated strategy once Abbott made clear he was not going to honour the alleged verbal agreement between Petersson and the former HV senior management.

HV’s (former) captain has one year left on his current contract. Any player would want more security than that if they could get it, especially someone of Petersson’s ability. His vital contribution to the team avoiding relegation last season would also make it understandable if he was annoyed that a new deal was not forthcoming.

It made sense for his agent to force the issue by going public with his concerns. If it paved the way for a new multi-year contract elsewhere, with HV deciding it was better to let him leave, then that would be a job well done. If it pushed HV into reconsidering their position then that would be fine too.

The latter option was not going to happen straight away. Chris Abbott has to demonstrate that his authority has not been damaged. That process has already begun …

Had a very good discussion, and he [Petersson] expressed his wish to be a part of this team moving forward. I can say both the coaching staff, myself, all of André’s teammates are happy that that decision has been made. So, look forward to him fully buying into the way that we’re doing things, moving forward, and that’s putting the team first and going after this season as we should, and that’s together.

In the new Abbott era it is all about the team. So long as André Petersson toes that line, and continues to play as we all know he can, the pathway to a contract extension is there for both parties.

For now, the first step has been taken to a reconciliation. Petersson has been welcomed back into the group, Abbott has arguably enhanced his standing by showing that he won’t be pushed around, and Pilko takes the heat in a way that he won’t lose a single minute of sleep over.

Meanwhile, I need to update my HV71 projected line-up again!