“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Universidad Catolica, and it is not being withdrawn.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Pablo Solari has just signed for Universidad Catolica, and for once the answer mattered.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Universidad Catolica they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Andrei Maxim was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Universidad Catolica are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Galatasaray have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Jørgen Strand Larsen was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nazar Domchak will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Galatasaray the goodbyes have quietly begun.
In brief
MarketRenato Nhaga wants to know where this is going
SquadWords at Galatasaray training over how hard people work
Fatih Karagumruk will want this one forgotten quickly: 6‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Galatasaray were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Galatasaray will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.00 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Davinson Sánchez and Galatasaray agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Jørgen Strand Larsen was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Galatasaray they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Derby days make names, and Vadim Rakov made his against Fenerbahce. 2‑1, bragging rights secured, and one half of town will be tired of hearing about him by Tuesday.
There were 10 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match4 Feb 2034
Vadim Rakov wins it after the whistle should have gone
92 minutes played. Vadim Rakov found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Fenerbahce went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Martín Zubimendi is living that version at Galatasaray, and it tends to show in the first month.
Zenit paid $6.0M and Galatasaray took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Galatasaray this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Galatasaray hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
There are goals, and then there are goals against that particular opponent. The Galatasaray support have their bragging rights for a year and they know exactly whose name is on them.
Position 1, 52 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.92 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Two goals and a mark of 8.33 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Pablo Solari reports back to Galatasaray with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.88 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Galatasaray will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Galatasaray lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
0‑1 against Barcelona. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Galatasaray this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Galatasaray is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Galatasaray know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Galatasaray will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
1‑0 against PAOK, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Alexey Batrakov was at the centre of the description.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Galatasaray, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Galatasaray this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
20 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Alexey Batrakov at his very best
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Galatasaray will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
2‑1 against Lugano, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.01 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Galatasaray this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
11 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Emre Ucar will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Galatasaray the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
In brief
MarketVadim Rakov wants to know where this is going
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 64 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
1‑0 against Lugano, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Kasimpasa will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Galatasaray were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Two goals and a mark of 9.31 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Galatasaray this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Galatasaray will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
3‑7 against Barcelona. The honest reading is not that the players were poor; it is that the distance between this club and that one is currently measured in things money takes years to buy.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jørgen Strand Larsen provided it, and the 9.74 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Jørgen Strand Larsen scored in the 88th minute, Antalyaspor had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Galatasaray took the lot.
7.42, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
7.88, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Galatasaray this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 105 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
1‑4. There is a level at which football is played every single week by clubs that have been doing it for fifty years, and an evening like this is what it feels like to arrive there without having done it.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Kostantis Tzolakis is living that version at Galatasaray, and it tends to show in the first month.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Galatasaray they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Barış Alper Yılmaz was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad26 Sep 2033
Words at Galatasaray training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Davinson Sánchez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Galatasaray and Fenerbahce, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Galatasaray heard it as anything else.
In brief
Player ratingsAlexey Batrakov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
BoardroomNobody left the Galatasaray dressing room in a hurry
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Galatasaray will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Galatasaray can pretend not to have heard.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Galatasaray hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Galatasaray this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Galatasaray is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The name of Eren Elmalı has come up in conversations Galatasaray were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad5 Sep 2033
Words at Galatasaray training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Torreira is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 49 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Galatasaray, and it is not being withdrawn.
Barış Alper Yılmaz was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
450 appearances across 8 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Galatasaray know what they have.
Squad8 Aug 2033
Words at Galatasaray training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Davinson Sánchez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Galatasaray heard it as anything else.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Galatasaray will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Barış Alper Yılmaz was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad11 Jul 2033
Words at Galatasaray training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Davinson Sánchez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Galatasaray hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Galatasaray will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Kayserispor did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $15.6M for Saba Kharebashvili, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Saba Kharebashvili has just signed for Galatasaray, and for once the answer mattered.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Galatasaray, and it is not being withdrawn.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 58 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Barış Alper Yılmaz was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Galatasaray they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad16 May 2033
Words at Galatasaray training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Davinson Sánchez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Pablo Solari wants continental football; whether Galatasaray can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Galatasaray know it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Galatasaray will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Galatasaray have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Marked 8.01 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Galatasaray this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Renato Nhaga signs something — a contract at Galatasaray or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Chances created: 5. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
In brief
BoardroomThe Galatasaray production line keeps running
BoardroomThe Galatasaray board put their names to it
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.02 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Galatasaray is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Jørgen Strand Larsen was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Position 1, 75 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Kasimpasa will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Galatasaray were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Galatasaray this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.03 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Barış Alper Yılmaz was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad10 Jan 2033
Words at Galatasaray training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Davinson Sánchez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Add another name to the list: Giresunspor have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ahmed Kutucu. The answer from Galatasaray has not changed — yet.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Pablo Solari wants continental football; whether Galatasaray can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Barış Alper Yılmaz was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad27 Dec 2032
Words at Galatasaray training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Sara is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Matia Barzic is living that version at Galatasaray, and it tends to show in the first month.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Adana Demirspor? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
10 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Matia Barzic arrives at Galatasaray with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
1‑3 away to the standard of Benfica. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alexey Batrakov provided it, and the 8.29 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.93 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
403 appearances across 10 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Barış Alper Yılmaz was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 6 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
A brace, and Sam Surridge takes the afternoon — 8.94
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Sam Surridge provided it, and the 8.94 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Galatasaray this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
8 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
A brace, and Pablo Solari takes the afternoon — 8.07
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Pablo Solari provided it, and the 8.07 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.35 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Barış Alper Yılmaz was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad11 Oct 2032
Words at Galatasaray training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Davinson Sánchez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Alastair Graham has just signed for Galatasaray, and for once the answer mattered.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Galatasaray heard it as anything else.
2‑1 against Fenerbahce, and the songs went on long after the whistle. League positions come and go; days like this get retold at family dinners for years.
There are goals, and then there are goals against that particular opponent. The Galatasaray support have their bragging rights for a year and they know exactly whose name is on them.
Squad27 Sep 2032
Words at Galatasaray training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Davinson Sánchez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Two goals and a mark of 8.10 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.28 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Jørgen Strand Larsen was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.72, and 2 involvements.
Squad13 Sep 2032
Words at Galatasaray training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Sara is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Jakub Ojrzyński is living that version at Galatasaray, and it tends to show in the first month.
A brace, and Darwin Núñez takes the afternoon — 8.40
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Darwin Núñez provided it, and the 8.40 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Galatasaray this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Pablo Solari has just signed for Galatasaray, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad23 Aug 2032
Gabriel Sara falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.