A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Hatayspor will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Position 19 and 11 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hatayspor can pretend not to have heard.
Simão Bertelli 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 Hatayspor can pretend not to have heard.
Simão Bertelli 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Funsho Bamgboye. 2‑0 against Umraniyespor, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
11 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hatayspor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
9 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Hatayspor can tell you which week it ends in.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hatayspor 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 Hatayspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
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.
0‑3 to Sivasspor, 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.
Rayyan Baniya 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ali Yıldız was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Hatayspor can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Hatayspor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
0‑3 against Ankaragucu, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
“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 Hatayspor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Rayyan Baniya 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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad26 Oct 2026
10 new faces, and Hatayspor 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
SquadEngin Aksoy falls out with a teammate over standards
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Hatayspor offered $1.3M; Kasimpasa said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Cássio has just signed for Hatayspor, and for once the answer mattered.
Hatayspor asked and Panathinaikos 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 system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
0‑5 against Basaksehir, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Trabzonspor have kept their man, and Hatayspor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer went to Kasimpasa this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Simão Bertelli 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.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Nobody left the Hatayspor dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Muhammed Dursun after 0‑5, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
4 saves does not settle the argument about whose fault it was, and the argument will run all week. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines whoever caused them.
Panathinaikos have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.