The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Taylan Bulut did not need any: 7.70, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.09 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
A 1‑0 win over Pendikspor, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Cengiz Erkin kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Hikmet Çiftçi 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.
Successful dribbles: 11. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Nobody at Bandirmaspor is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Amidou Badji is on it.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Taylan Bulut did not need any: 7.67, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rémi Mulumba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A 1‑1 draw with Manisa FK leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Cengiz Erkin chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
5 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bandirmaspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.84 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Bandirmaspor is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Douglas Tanque signs something — a contract at Bandirmaspor or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Edson Júnior
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Emre Bilgin has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Hikmet Çiftçi 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 dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Cengiz Erkin was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Bandirmaspor dressing room was either.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Douglas Tanque has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Boluspor in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Nobody at Bandirmaspor is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
$1.0M on the table at Goztepe. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The offer from Keciorengucu for Amidou Badji was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.0M — a club that wants Uğur Kaan Yıldız enough to be asked twice.
Bandirmaspor have gone to Sakaryaspor with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Cengiz Erkin after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer 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 Bandirmaspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The offer from Pakhtakor for Juan Eduardo Reina was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
João Amaral and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Gaziantep will make the call about João Amaral this week. Bandirmaspor have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
A 1‑1 draw with Erzurumspor leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Rémi Mulumba 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Cengiz Erkin after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.