Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Fenerbahce have kept their man, and Samsunspor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Nobody at Samsunspor 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.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Samsunspor will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Arbnor Muja trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Samsunspor know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Samsunspor, and it is not being withdrawn.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $83.4K — a club that wants Muharrem Cinan enough to be asked twice.
Chérif N'Diaye 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.
Samsunspor have gone to Basaksehir 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.
$76.0K on the table at Kocaelispor. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Inter have kept their man, and Samsunspor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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; Samsunspor are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Chérif N'Diaye 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 Rick van Drongelen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
35 games, 15 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Samsunspor now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Cristóbal Escobar and Samsunspor agree another 4 years.
Squad29 May 2028
6 new faces, and Samsunspor 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.
Nobody at Samsunspor 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Samsunspor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Samsunspor know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The words a physio says slowly. 18 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.
23 goals in 37 games at Hatayspor — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Samsunspor updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Samsunspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Joe Mendes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
15 goals in 35 games at Serikspor — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Samsunspor updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Carlo Holse signs something — a contract at Samsunspor or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutMamadou Mendy knocks on the manager's door
Position 9 on 46 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Chérif N'Diaye 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 Joe Mendes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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; Samsunspor are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Words at Samsunspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Chérif N'Diaye 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.
“I watch every Samsunspor game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Genclerbirligi runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Salih Malkoçoğlu's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Carlo Holse signs something — a contract at Samsunspor or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Besiktas in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Samsunspor has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
0‑2 against Rizespor, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
A brace, and Afonso Sousa takes the afternoon — 8.32
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Afonso Sousa provided it, and the 8.32 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Eyupspor were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Salih Malkoçoğlu 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.
12 combined actions and 6.84. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
0‑5. Rizespor play this football every year and it showed in every part of the pitch. The lesson is expensive and, for a club at this stage, probably necessary.
1‑1 against Rizespor, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
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.
Arbnor Muja 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Samsunspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at Samsunspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Chérif N'Diaye 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Samsunspor can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
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 0‑2 Erkan Erkin left the room before anybody could ask which.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Alanyaspor will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Samsunspor were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Two goals and a mark of 8.31 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Samsunspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Chérif N'Diaye was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
Carlo Holse was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.15. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“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; Samsunspor are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Erkan Erkin on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words at Samsunspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Chérif N'Diaye 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.
Iago Santos 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Erkan Erkin after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ahmet Sivri has his answer from Samsunspor; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Nobody at Samsunspor 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.98 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Samsunspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Chérif N'Diaye 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.
Salih Malkoçoğlu 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.
50 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Samsunspor can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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 Joe Mendes is on it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Onurcan Piri
4‑0 against Gornik Zabrze, on a night that will be replayed at this club for a generation. Continental reputations are made in single evenings and this was the evening.
Two goals and a mark of 9.09 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Chérif N'Diaye was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
200 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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Marked 8.03 — 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.
In brief
The terracesA long trip to Kayserispor worth making
The deal with Goztepe 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Toni Borevković and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at Samsunspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Chérif N'Diaye 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 point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Erkan Erkin after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Eray Korkmaz
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Samsunspor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Samsunspor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
At 21 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.
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.
Samsunspor asked and CFR Cluj said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Add another name to the list: Kocaelispor have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Yunus Emre Çift. The answer from Samsunspor has not changed — yet.
Iago Santos 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 offer from Boluspor for Olivier Ntcham 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.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Samsunspor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Celil Yüksel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Samsunspor can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Muhammet Özbaskıcı will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Samsunspor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Samsunspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
36 appearances and 1 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Samsunspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Celil Yüksel 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 is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Samsunspor told Olivier Ntcham something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Samsunspor know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Samsunspor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Olivier Ntcham 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.
A 1‑0 win over Fatih Karagumruk, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 6.90, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Samsunspor know it.
He is 20, and nobody at Samsunspor signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Cristóbal Escobar and Samsunspor agree another 4 years.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Erkan Erkin kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.