5‑2, and Ali Habeşoğlu took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Adana Demirspor tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings19 Feb 2029
A brace, and Ali Habeşoğlu takes the afternoon — 8.57
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ali Habeşoğlu provided it, and the 8.57 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 6.44, and 3 involvements.
Emre Demir 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.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Adana Demirspor and Erzurumspor in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eduardo Doma was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 22 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 is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Adana Demirspor can give him that is a question about the club, not about 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 Adana Demirspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Cengiz Ünder 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.
Genclerbirligi will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Henry Onyekuru has pre-agreed a move to Adana Demirspor, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout12 Feb 2029
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Adana Demirspor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The words a physio says slowly. 47 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.
Add another name to the list: Estoril Praia have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Renato Nhaga. The answer from Antalyaspor has not changed — yet.
The offer from Adana Demirspor for Şahin Dik 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 Antalyaspor, and it is not being withdrawn.
1 for Renato Nhaga, marked 6.95, 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.
Renato Nhaga 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Samuel Ballet was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 55 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Antalyaspor people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 Antalyaspor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Renato Nhaga 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 version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Turgay Gemicibaşı is living that version at Antalyaspor, and it tends to show in the first month.
The phone has started ringing about Şahin Dik again, and this time the name on the line is Adana Demirspor. Antalyaspor are listening politely and promising nothing.
79 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Antalyaspor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Antalyaspor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The dugout18 Dec 2028
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Kerem Unal to a room that had heard them before.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Words at Antalyaspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erdem Çetinkaya 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.
109 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Antalyaspor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Antalyaspor 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.” Antalyaspor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Antalyaspor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Mert Günok 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.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Samuel Ballet 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 dugout20 Nov 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Renato Nhaga'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 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.
Something was said to Dilhan Demir and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The words a physio says slowly. 143 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Antalyaspor will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Şahin Dik will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Antalyaspor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Renato Nhaga 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Words at Antalyaspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuel Ballet 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Antalyaspor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Antalyaspor can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Şahin Dik will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Antalyaspor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Renato Nhaga 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.
“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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
6 new faces, and Antalyaspor 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.
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 Samuel Ballet is on it.
In brief
SquadWords at Antalyaspor training over how hard people work
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
Player ratingsSamuel Ballet beats them one at a time
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Antalyaspor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Antalyaspor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Renato Nhaga 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.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Words at Antalyaspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuel Ballet 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. Besiktas have kept their man, and Antalyaspor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
65 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Adana Demirspor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Adana Demirspor will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
There is nobody left to promote and nobody left to run a session. The board have brought in a name the supporters do not know, and the question of how a club gets here will outlast whoever answers it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Adana Demirspor can pretend not to have heard.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Adana Demirspor have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
$1.4M on the table at Antalyaspor. 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.7M — a club that wants Şahin Dik enough to be asked twice.
The words a physio says slowly. 111 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Adana Demirspor waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Antalyaspor is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Antalyaspor can pretend not to have heard.
Renato Nhaga 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Serikspor have kept their man, and Antalyaspor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Samuel Ballet 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Antalyaspor can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The name of Ali Emre Yanar has come up in conversations Antalyaspor were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
In brief
The dugoutMert Günok has become a man the manager trusts
79 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Adana Demirspor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 97 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Adana Demirspor can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have shaken hands with Antalyaspor; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Adana Demirspor have gone to Bodrum FK 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.
Adana Demirspor offered $1.5M; Konyaspor 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.9M — a club that wants Şahin Dik enough to be asked twice.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Amedspor have kept their man, and Adana Demirspor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Antalyaspor have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ufuk Akyol will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Antalyaspor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Yunus Azrak has, at Antalyaspor, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Words at Antalyaspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emre Kılınç 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 Antalyaspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Antalyaspor will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Player ratings1 May 2028
Up for the corner, and Dario Šarić delivers — 7.54
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Dario Šarić scored, was marked 7.54, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Antalyaspor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad1 May 2028
Words at Antalyaspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuel Ballet 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.
Emir Ortakaya 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Antalyaspor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings24 Apr 2028
Up for the corner, and Renato Nhaga delivers — 7.53
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Renato Nhaga scored, was marked 7.53, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Kerem Unal after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody at Antalyaspor 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.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 96th minute. Sariyer will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Lautaro Giannetti 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Şahin Dik 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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Emre Kılınç 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 Antalyaspor, another week without a signature from Julián Cuesta.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Antalyaspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Kenan Karaman had Antalyaspor level again within 2 minutes, and Basaksehir never got to play with a lead at all.
“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 dugout18 Oct 2027
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 1‑3 Kerem Unal left the room before anybody could ask which.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Antalyaspor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Antalyaspor have no good answer.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Antalyaspor can pretend not to have heard.
Lautaro Giannetti 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 complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
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.
Rizespor next, and one man in the Antalyaspor dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Yusuf Yazıcı 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. Yiğit Efe Demir is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Alanyaspor asked and Kocaelispor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Alanyaspor are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Nobody at Alanyaspor 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Maestro trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Alanyaspor know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Alanyaspor. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The chase for Şahin Dik ended with $880.0K changing hands and Alanyaspor out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Antalyaspor asked and Kocaelispor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Nobody at Antalyaspor 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.
The number went down and he came anyway, which in this sport is either a romantic gesture or a market telling somebody something. Time will decide which, and the dressing room will have an opinion long before that.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Antalyaspor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Antalyaspor. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
26 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Alanyaspor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Alanyaspor and Manisa FK have settled on $3.0M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
“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 Alanyaspor, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Kasimpasa for Güven Yalçın 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Kağan Arıcan has, at Alanyaspor, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Alanyaspor have made the call to Kasimpasa. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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 Salih Malkoçoğlu is on it.
In brief
The dugoutMeschack Elia asks for a word with the manager
Ruan 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.
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 Hwang Ui-Jo is on it.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.