“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Deniz Inan after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Alanyaspor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Bruno Viana’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Alanyaspor needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 17 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Alanyaspor had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Corinthians, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Chibuike Nwaiwu 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 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
Words at Alanyaspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hwang Ui-Jo 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 young player of the month award goes to a 21-year-old at Alanyaspor who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
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.
Still no offer on the table, and Julián Cuesta’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Bruno Viana
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Alanyaspor and Umraniyespor, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Yusuf Özdemir 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Chibuike Nwaiwu has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
$3.3M was the most the club would pay and Galatasaray were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Alanyaspor have done the hard part with Antalyaspor, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Trabzonspor have kept their man, and Alanyaspor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Ankaragucu made Alanyaspor work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Yusuf Özdemir 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.
Marked 8.12 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Alanyaspor offered $9.0M; Besiktas 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Besiktas have kept their man, and Alanyaspor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
7.89, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Santos keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and İbrahim Kaya was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Deniz Inan after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Alanyaspor have gone to Galatasaray with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Alanyaspor asked and Galatasaray said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
$2.9M on the table at Galatasaray. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Club Brugge keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ruan commits to Alanyaspor for another 5 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Alanyaspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ruan 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.
Yusuf Özdemir 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ahmet Bayindir 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Ruan wants continental football; whether Alanyaspor can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Gaïus Makouta 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Alanyaspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ruan 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.
Still no offer on the table, and Gaïus Makouta’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Alanyaspor have made the call to Club Brugge. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.