A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 7.91, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Fatih Kuruçuk 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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
1 for Berkay Özcan, marked 7.99, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Fatih Karagumruk has to find a result from somewhere.
“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 Fatih Karagumruk know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fatih Kuruçuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
In brief
The dugoutBartuğ Elmaz knocks on the manager's door
Successful dribbles: 29. 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.
Marcinho 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Batuhan Şen, and the manager let it.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Kerem Soyuncu left the room before anybody could ask which.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Burhan Ersoy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Fatih Karagumruk told Bariş Kalaycı something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The words a physio says slowly. 49 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.
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Fatih Karagumruk has to find a result from somewhere.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Kerem Soyuncu after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
56 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Fatih Karagumruk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Çağtay Kurukalıp and Fatih Karagumruk agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“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; Fatih Karagumruk are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Burhan Ersoy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lucas Cândido trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Bariş Kalaycı has written the date down.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Fatih Karagumruk know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The words a physio says slowly. 65 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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Up for the corner, and Berkay Özcan delivers — 7.84
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Berkay Özcan scored, was marked 7.84, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
4 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.
“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; Fatih Karagumruk are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fatih Karagumruk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fatih Kuruçuk 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 words a physio says slowly. 72 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fatih Kuruçuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad28 Sep 2026
11 new faces, and Fatih Karagumruk are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout28 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.” Kerem Soyuncu chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Trabzonspor? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Kocaelispor next, and one man in the Fatih Karagumruk dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Aleksandar Pešić signs something — a contract at Fatih Karagumruk or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The words a physio says slowly. 88 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Fatih Karagumruk and Basaksehir, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zaragoza have kept their man, and Fatih Karagumruk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Beaten 6 times, 4 saves, and an afternoon that will go on his record whether it was his fault or the defence’s. It is the quiet unfairness of the position.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fatih Kuruçuk 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.” 0‑6, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Fatih Kuruçuk
Tuğbey Akgün damages knee ligaments — 112 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 112 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.
Fatih Karagumruk asked and Goztepe said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Tyler Doğan has just signed for Fatih Karagumruk, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Fatih Karagumruk will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tiago Çukur was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Marcinho has, at Fatih Karagumruk, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Juventus have kept their man, and Fatih Karagumruk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A mark of 7.90, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tiago Çukur 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Fatih Karagumruk will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The dugout17 Aug 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.” Kerem Soyuncu, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.