There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. İzzet Erdal is living that version at Giresunspor, and it tends to show in the first month.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Giresunspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Göktan Cörüt has his answer from Giresunspor; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Nobody sells a season ticket on a signing like this. Every manager who has been through a bad October wants one anyway, and Giresunspor have gone and got theirs early.
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Istanbulspor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Kayserispor paid $880.0K and Istanbulspor took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
10 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Istanbulspor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Rıdvan Yılmaz 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.
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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Istanbulspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Istanbulspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mario Krstovski 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Istanbulspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Istanbulspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mario Krstovski 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.
Add another name to the list: Giresunspor have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Phellipe. The answer from Istanbulspor has not changed — yet.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” İzzet Erdal has his answer from Istanbulspor; what he does with it is the next window’s story.