Prince Adu Kwabena 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Sivasspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valon Ethemi 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Sivasspor can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sivasspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. CSKA Moscow have kept their man, and Sivasspor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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 Sivasspor know it.
1‑5 against Trabzonspor, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sivasspor can pretend not to have heard.
Prince Adu Kwabena 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Sivasspor and Trabzonspor, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Othmane Boussaid was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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 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 team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Othmane Boussaid has come out of that comparison in the side, and Sivasspor have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Julián Rodríguez Seguer has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
In brief
The dugoutMartijn Berden has become a man the manager trusts
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sivasspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
18 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.
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.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Emirhan Başyiğit is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The captaincy has been taken off Rey Manaj. Sivasspor will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Volkan Kabak was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Sivasspor dressing room was either.
0‑4 against Galatasaray, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Othmane Boussaid 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 Oct 2026
Words at Sivasspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Prince Adu Kwabena 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 not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Sivasspor told Prince Adu Kwabena something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Volkan Kabak after 0‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
15 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sivasspor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Alanyaspor is saying, and nobody at Sivasspor is enjoying the guessing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Antalyaspor have kept their man, and Sivasspor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Sivasspor close the window on a squad of their own making
23 in and 0 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Othmane Boussaid was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.