Marked for Karamba Gassama
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
Drissa Camara damages knee ligaments — 30 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 30 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Halil Bağcı: 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.” Gaziantep have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Gaziantep
Arda Kızıldağ 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Drissa Camara 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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Myenty Abena
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Gaziantep, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
Besiktas next, and one man in the Gaziantep dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Market16 Nov 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Gaziantep know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Zafer Görgen gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Zafer Görgen is on it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Nov 2026
A one-man rearguard from Zafer Görgen
There were 11 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match4 Nov 2026
Gaziantep march on in the cup
Sivasspor are out and Gaziantep go through, 2‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Squad9 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gaziantep this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Gaziantep training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Drissa Camara 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 terraces9 Nov 2026
He is 23 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Market9 Nov 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Christopher Lungoyi has his answer from Gaziantep; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Match7 Nov 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Mahmut Tekdemir after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Gaziantep
Nihad Mujakić 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 dugout12 Oct 2026
“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.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
Eyupspor next, and one man in the Gaziantep dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Market12 Oct 2026
The Luis Pérez story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Luis Pérez signs something — a contract at Gaziantep or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Myenty Abena has been promised minutes
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Myenty Abena has written the date down.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Nazım Sangaré asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Gaziantep will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
Looking ahead: the trip to Eyupspor
Position 15 for the hosts, a long journey for the away end, and a fixture that will look ordinary on paper right up until it is not.