At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
“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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Baris Aktorkoglu to a room that had heard them before.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arda Çolak was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Vanspor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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; Vanspor are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Cengiz Tosun is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Caner Karaman has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ahmet Akgun is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Enes Torun has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Vanspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arda Çolak 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Vanspor will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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.
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 0‑1 Baris Aktorkoglu left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Vanspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arda Çolak 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Bodrum FK in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Nobody at Vanspor 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Arda Çolak
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Vanspor will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Vanspor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vanspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
“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; Vanspor are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
1 for Jefferson, marked 7.55, 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.
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vanspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
William Klaus 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Çınar Benzer is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Vanspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arda Çolak 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Rhaldney signs something — a contract at Vanspor or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Sakaryaspor next, and one man in the Vanspor dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Vanspor. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bekir Can Kara trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
Looking aheadLooking ahead: the trip to Sakaryaspor
Marked 8.18. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Vanspor.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Vanspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arda Çolak 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Baris Aktorkoglu on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Pendikspor in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Nobody at Vanspor 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.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Nurettin Çakır obliged against Pendikspor. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Vanspor.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Santeri Hostikka 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 Arda Çolak was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Baris Aktorkoglu could afford to be generous.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 16 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
William Klaus 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 approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad7 Sep 2026
10 new faces, and Vanspor 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Arda Çolak 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alperen Uysal trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.32 for the rest of it.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at KAA Gent is saying, and nobody at Vanspor is enjoying the guessing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. NAC Breda have kept their man, and Vanspor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Çınar Benzer 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Vanspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arda Çolak 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.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vanspor 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. Farul Constanța have kept their man, and Vanspor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Vanspor are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
In brief
SquadMedeni Bingöl falls out with a teammate over standards
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Güvenç Usta
Eyupspor arrived with $1.4M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
Doğan Erdoğan has gone, the accounts have $1.4M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Igdir FK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Vanspor pay $150.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Robin Yalçın 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.
Level with 92 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Igdir FK had all but put away. Istanbulspor will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
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.
The fee is $150.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Igdir FK drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Kenneth Mamah 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 terraces17 Aug 2026
Vanspor spend $3.3M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $3.3M for Rhaldney, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Add another name to the list: Erzurumspor have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Batuhan İşçiler. The answer from Vanspor has not changed — yet.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Vanspor will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
$1.5M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Igdir FK have lost him in all but the paperwork.
He is going to Basaksehir, the club has $1.5M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
The offer from Kayserispor for Oğuz Kağan Güçtekin was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Tsunami 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Igdir FK training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Robin Yalçın 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Waasland-Beveren have kept their man, and Igdir FK go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer from Kocaelispor for Aliou Traoré was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The deal with Igdir FK is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Vanspor asked and Besiktas said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Emre Tasci has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Halil Tufan has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Kerem Muldur is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
7 new faces, and Vanspor 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.
Ryan Mendes 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Robin Yalçın 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Igdir FK, another week without a signature from Gianni Bruno.