Marked for Lucas Lima
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom31 May 2027
Continental nights are coming to Samsunspor
Qualification is secured, and next season the big floodlit nights are continental ones. For the players it is a stage; for the accounts it is a lifeline; for the supporters it is passports.
Market31 May 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Samsunspor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad31 May 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Samsunspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 May 2027
“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; Samsunspor are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout31 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Celil Yüksel
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout31 May 2027
Yalçın Kayan gets picked when it counts
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 Yalçın Kayan is on it.
Market31 May 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Joe Mendes’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout31 May 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Samsunspor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad31 May 2027
The least glamorous thing a foreign signing ever does and the one that decides most of them. A player who can hear the shout behind him is a different footballer from one who cannot.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match24 Apr 2027
It finished 1‑0, and it was Jaurès Assoumou’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Samsunspor.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Toni Borevković 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Samsunspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
Marked 7.67 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Samsunspor had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Umut Turuc could afford to be generous.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
Okan Kocuk gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Loan watch26 Apr 2027
34 appearances away from home and 7 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match12 Dec 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 16 matches without defeat is a foundation Samsunspor did not have in the autumn.
Match12 Dec 2026
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Samsunspor scored in the 96th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.00 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Chérif N'Diaye and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match12 Dec 2026
It finished 3‑2, and it was Chérif N'Diaye’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Samsunspor.
Match12 Dec 2026
Samsunspor make home a hard place to visit
8 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.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Olivier Ntcham was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.29. 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.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Umut Turuc, on a 3‑2 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match21 Nov 2026
Whatever happens, Samsunspor do not lose
13 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad23 Nov 2026
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad23 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Samsunspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match21 Nov 2026
Three points for Samsunspor, 2‑1 the final word against Kayserispor in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.46, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Jaurès Assoumou was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.06. 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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Squad
Lucas Lima falls out with a teammate over standards
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Squad
Afonso Sousa suspended
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match31 Oct 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 10 matches without defeat is a foundation Samsunspor did not have in the autumn.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Samsunspor may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Up for the corner, and Olivier Ntcham delivers — 7.92
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Olivier Ntcham scored, was marked 7.92, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match31 Oct 2026
A 1‑0 win over Eyupspor, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Olivier Ntcham 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 dugout2 Nov 2026
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
16 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 dugout2 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Umut Turuc, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
The step up is real for Efe Töruz
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Chérif N'Diaye 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Samsunspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Lima 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.
Market12 Oct 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Chérif N'Diaye’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Celil Yüksel has been promised minutes
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Celil Yüksel has written the date down.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Samsunspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match19 Sep 2026
Late, late show earns Samsunspor a point
Minute 94, against Fenerbahce, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.99 on the card, and the Samsunspor support went home talking about one name.
Match19 Sep 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Lucas Lima 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.
The dugout21 Sep 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.” Umut Turuc chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Market21 Sep 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Afonso Sousa’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
Sakaryaspor come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Boluspor did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad10 Aug 2026
15 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
No thanks: Arda Özçimen rejects the move
Boluspor had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Goztepe, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Muhammet Özkan and Boluspor agree another 3 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Boluspor
Almir Aganspahić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Boluspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Víctor Cantillo 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Business is business: Lucas Lima goes
Samsunspor paid $110.0K and Boluspor took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Baris Erkin has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Irfan Akgun has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alexandru Băluţă and Boluspor agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Boluspor
Almir Aganspahić 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Alexandru Băluţă 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Arda Özçimen is in the works
Boluspor have made the call to Goztepe. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
Muhammet Özkan asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market3 Aug 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Abdulsamet Kırım has his answer from Boluspor; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Boluspor would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Market3 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.