Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Konyaspor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Konyaspor is running low.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Konyaspor can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Konyaspor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Nuuradiin Mahamuud Abdi has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad19 Jul 2038
Words at Konyaspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thomas Battistella 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Konyaspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Konyaspor will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Konyaspor could ask drops and the wages Nuuradiin Mahamuud Abdi can ask rise.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Konyaspor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nuuradiin Mahamuud Abdi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Konyaspor 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 136 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Gokhan Calhanoglu is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Konyaspor, another week without a signature from Nuuradiin Mahamuud Abdi.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 143 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 Konyaspor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Lukas Bergquist 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.
“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 Konyaspor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Konyaspor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Konyaspor 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Konyaspor can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Henrik Jensen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Konyaspor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Thomas Battistella 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.
Squad14 Jun 2038
Words at Konyaspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Melih İbrahimoğlu 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.
Nobody at Konyaspor will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Konyaspor may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad31 May 2038
Words at Konyaspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Melih İbrahimoğlu 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Konyaspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Konyaspor is running low.
Squad24 May 2038
Ejike Opara 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.
Ilia Beriashvili 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 Konyaspor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Konyaspor can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Konyaspor 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.
Squad10 May 2038
A last season at home is what Daniel Arzani is after
It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Konyaspor 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. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Konyaspor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Konyaspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Apr 2038
Words at Konyaspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Melih İbrahimoğlu 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.
6 goals in one match, Muhammet Akmelek on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Konyaspor and Sivasspor.
A 4‑2 win over Sivasspor, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings19 Apr 2038
Ejike Opara was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.93. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Umraniyespor will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Konyaspor were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings12 Apr 2038
A brace, and Eymen Yurdcu takes the afternoon — 9.21
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Eymen Yurdcu provided it, and the 9.21 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Konyaspor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.76 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Konyaspor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Konyaspor can pretend not to have heard.
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.
2‑6 to Antalyaspor, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Konyaspor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Filip Borowski 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.
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Konyaspor and Antalyaspor in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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 Konyaspor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Henrik Jensen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Konyaspor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Lukas Bergquist 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.
Match20 Mar 2038
Nobody could stop scoring
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Konyaspor and Fenerbahce in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad22 Mar 2038
Words at Konyaspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Melih İbrahimoğlu 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 12 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Konyaspor can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
“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 Konyaspor, and it is not being withdrawn.
16 appearances across 11 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.
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Konyaspor are no longer polite ones.
Squad8 Mar 2038
Words at Konyaspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Melih İbrahimoğlu 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 an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.88 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Konyaspor is running low.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Konyaspor 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dragoljub Savić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Konyaspor 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.
Ilia Beriashvili 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Konyaspor can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Konyaspor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Lukas Bergquist 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.
Squad25 Jan 2038
Words at Konyaspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Melih İbrahimoğlu 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Nobody at Konyaspor will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The words a physio says slowly. 31 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Muhammet Akmelek provided it, and the 9.11 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.25 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Konyaspor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Konyaspor, and it is not being withdrawn.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Konyaspor and Kayserispor in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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.
53 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Konyaspor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Lukas Bergquist 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.
Squad14 Dec 2037
Words at Konyaspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Melih İbrahimoğlu 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 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 Konyaspor know it.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Shots: 12. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
60 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Konyaspor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Mert Demiral has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
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.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.26 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Konyaspor can pretend not to have heard.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Melih İbrahimoğlu and Konyaspor agree another 2 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Konyaspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
67 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Konyaspor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 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 Konyaspor can pretend not to have heard.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.07 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Henrik Jensen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Konyaspor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Konyaspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 10.00 — 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.
74 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Konyaspor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
0‑3 to Alanyaspor, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Ilia Beriashvili 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 82 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Antalyaspor go through and Konyaspor go home, 1‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 1 on the scoresheet, 8.68 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.17 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Konyaspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2037
Words at Konyaspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Melih İbrahimoğlu 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 particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Thomas Battistella provided it, and the 9.03 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.78 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Konyaspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2037
Words at Konyaspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Melih İbrahimoğlu 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.
“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 Konyaspor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Henrik Jensen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Konyaspor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ilia Beriashvili 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ilia Beriashvili, and the manager let it.
Squad5 Oct 2037
The manager has not finished forgetting Deniz Ertaş's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Konyaspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Konyaspor know it.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jackson Muleka, and the manager let it.
Squad28 Sep 2037
Words at Konyaspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thomas Battistella 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.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.08 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
26 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Ilia Beriashvili 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.
19 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
“I watch every Konyaspor game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Fenerbahce runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody at Konyaspor will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined 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 Konyaspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Sep 2037
Words at Konyaspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Melih İbrahimoğlu 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.
Nobody at Konyaspor will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Konyaspor opened the door and nobody walked through it. So Çağtay Kurukalıp stays — listed, trained, and available — while both sides mark the days to January on the same calendar.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.71 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Konyaspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Aug 2037
Words at Konyaspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Melih İbrahimoğlu 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.
Marked 8.15 — 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.
In brief
Player ratingsThe one thing Ejike Opara could not do
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Konyaspor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Konyaspor can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Ilia Beriashvili 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Konyaspor, and 0 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 40 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Konyaspor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a 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 Konyaspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2037
Words at Konyaspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Melih İbrahimoğlu 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.
Cengiz Turuc is 19, and Konyaspor have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 54 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Konyaspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Jul 2037
Words at Konyaspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Melih İbrahimoğlu 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. 61 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Konyaspor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Ilia Beriashvili 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Konyaspor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Konyaspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Jun 2037
Words at Konyaspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Melih İbrahimoğlu 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. Fatih Unal has just signed for Konyaspor, 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 Konyaspor, 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 Konyaspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Jun 2037
Words at Konyaspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Melih İbrahimoğlu 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Konyaspor is running low.
“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 Konyaspor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Bruno Solotar will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Konyaspor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ilia Beriashvili 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Konyaspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 May 2037
Words at Konyaspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ejike Opara 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Konyaspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 May 2037
Words at Konyaspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Melih İbrahimoğlu 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.
Ilia Beriashvili 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.
“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 Konyaspor, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Konyaspor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Ilia Beriashvili 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Ilia Beriashvili will call it something else in private.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.38 at 40, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Konyaspor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Konyaspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
5 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad30 Mar 2037
Words at Konyaspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Melih İbrahimoğlu 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Konyaspor 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. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Ankaragucu will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Konyaspor were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 10.00 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Konyaspor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Ankaragucu tried to reorganise, Konyaspor did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
In brief
Player ratingsThe chances came and went for Martín Bonilla
54 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Konyaspor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Martín Bonilla 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.
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.
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.98 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Konyaspor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Konyaspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Dec 2036
Words at Konyaspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Melih İbrahimoğlu 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Marius Ştefănescu trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.84 at 37, 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 Konyaspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Oct 2036
Words at Konyaspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Melih İbrahimoğlu 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
1‑4 to Ankaragucu, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.87 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
“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 Konyaspor know it.
Shots: 15. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Konyaspor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two goals and a mark of 9.99 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.87 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Melih İbrahimoğlu and Konyaspor agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Henrik Jensen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Konyaspor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Konyaspor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Martín Bonilla provided it, and the 8.63 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Ilia Beriashvili 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.
Shots: 7. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
5 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.52 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Konyaspor can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Konyaspor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Can Calhanoglu is a Konyaspor player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Konyaspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Konyaspor and Besiktas in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad8 Sep 2036
Words at Konyaspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Melih İbrahimoğlu 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.
Player ratings8 Sep 2036
Ejike Opara was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.04. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.