Marked for Aurel Marku
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom6 Aug 2029
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
Boardroom6 Aug 2029
Ankaragucu have nobody left to take training
Not an interim appointment — an institution with an empty coaching office. Somebody unfamiliar will run the sessions this week, and the question of how a club gets into this state is one the board will be asked and will not answer.
Market6 Aug 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ankaragucu can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom6 Aug 2029
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
Market6 Aug 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ankaragucu is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad6 Aug 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Kaan Ayhan commits to Ankaragucu for another 2 years.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Kaan Ayhan in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ankaragucu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Words at Ankaragucu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ramazan Civelek 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.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Bilal Şeflek has improved at 37, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces8 May 2028
The mood at Bylis has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad8 May 2028
A fracture rules Roberts Ozols out for 53 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bylis will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match8 May 2028
Bylis are in real trouble now
Position 8, 6 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad8 May 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Bylis may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market8 May 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bylis can pretend not to have heard.
Market8 May 2028
Aurel Marku has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Bylis they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Apr 2028
A fracture rules Roberts Ozols out for 67 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bylis will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad24 Apr 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Radu Negru in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bylis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces10 Apr 2028
The mood at Bylis has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad10 Apr 2028
A fracture rules Roberts Ozols out for 81 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bylis will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match10 Apr 2028
Every point is an argument now for Bylis
Position 8 and 6 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad20 Mar 2028
A fracture rules Roberts Ozols out for 102 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bylis will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Ionuţ Gurău: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bylis have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Robert Murić in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bylis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Bylis training over how hard people work
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces13 Mar 2028
The mood at Bylis has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad13 Mar 2028
A fracture rules Roberts Ozols out for 109 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bylis will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match13 Mar 2028
Every point is an argument now for Bylis
Position 8 and 6 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Feb 2028
Tempers go at Bylis
Dime Dimov 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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at Bylis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aurel Marku 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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces14 Feb 2028
The mood at Bylis has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Match14 Feb 2028
Bylis sink to position 8
6 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market14 Feb 2028
Only the photograph left for Aurel Marku
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Aurel Marku will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bylis the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Tempers go at Bylis
Robert Murić 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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Ahmed Sanogo 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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at Bylis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shisaked Kotobelli 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Feb 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bylis can pretend not to have heard.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Robert Murić in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bylis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Feb 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ousmane Kane, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match26 Jan 2028
10 matches without a win for Bylis
The run now stands at 10, and the questions being asked around Bylis are no longer polite ones.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Roberts Ozols decides it from twelve yards
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Match26 Jan 2028
Cup progress for Bylis
A 0‑0 win over Partizani Tirana, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Market31 Jan 2028
Ibrahim Akibu hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bylis can pretend not to have heard.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Tempers go at Bylis
Robert Murić 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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Roberts Ozols 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.
Match26 Jan 2028
The goals have deserted Bylis
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Bylis can tell you which week it ends in.
Market31 Jan 2028
A conversation is coming this week. Bylis will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Roberts Ozols has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Bylis will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.