Marked for Mustafa Hekimoğlu
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
A brace, and Adrian Benedyczak takes the afternoon — 8.86
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Adrian Benedyczak provided it, and the 8.86 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market18 Jan 2027
Kasimpasa say no — this time
The offer from Patro Eisden for Haris Hajradinović 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.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Matei Ilie pops up at the right end — 7.78
7.78, 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.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Kasimpasa have done the hard part with Konyaspor, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Match16 Jan 2027
Kasimpasa are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Match16 Jan 2027
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Kasimpasa and Fatih Karagumruk in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Match16 Jan 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Adrian Benedyczak. 4‑2 against Fatih Karagumruk, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Fatih Karagumruk have kept their man, and Kasimpasa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Dec 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match19 Dec 2026
5 matches without a win for Kasimpasa
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Kasimpasa are no longer polite ones.
Squad21 Dec 2026
The step up is real for Efe Alkaç
At 19 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
Kasimpasa caught on 87 minutes
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Samsunspor scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Match19 Dec 2026
It needed Cenk Tosun to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Samsunspor, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Andreas Gianniotis trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Mehmet Ozil: “We have to be better”
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 2‑2 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Squad21 Dec 2026
At 19 he was the best of everybody his age in the division for one weekend. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
Squad21 Dec 2026
One booking too many, and Matei Ilie sits out. Kasimpasa lose him for the sort of avoidable reason that makes a manager's week longer.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces30 Nov 2026
The mood at Kasimpasa has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Match28 Nov 2026
Chastening afternoon for Kasimpasa
A 1‑6 beating by Konyaspor was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Market30 Nov 2026
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Cláudio Winck wants continental football; whether Kasimpasa can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Match28 Nov 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Kasimpasa and Konyaspor, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Kasimpasa
Andri Fannar Baldursson 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 dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Matei Ilie
“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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Necip Uysal and Kasimpasa agree another 1 years.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
Ahmet Öztürk breaks a bone — 44 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 44 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mustafa Hekimoğlu 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
A row about effort at Kasimpasa
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Necip Uysal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad12 Oct 2026
5 new faces, and Kasimpasa 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.
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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match15 Aug 2026
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 86 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market17 Aug 2026
Besiktas pay Goztepe $9.2M for a proper upgrade
Goztepe did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $9.2M for Anthony Dennis, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A brace, and Oh Hyeon-Gyu takes the afternoon — 8.54
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Oh Hyeon-Gyu provided it, and the 8.54 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Anthony Dennis arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Anthony Dennis has, at Besiktas, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Market17 Aug 2026
The name of Orkun Kökçü has come up in conversations Besiktas were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Besiktas — 7.95
1 for Orkun Kökçü, marked 7.95, 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
Mustafa Hekimoğlu has left for Kasimpasa in a $3.0M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Market17 Aug 2026
Eyupspor come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Besiktas did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
In brief
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Squad
Tempers go at Besiktas
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Squad
A row about effort at Besiktas
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match15 Aug 2026
Chastening afternoon for Kasimpasa
A 1‑4 beating by Galatasaray was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
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.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $73.6K — a club that wants Josip Ćalušić enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Kasimpasa offered $480.0K; Esenler Erokspor 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 terraces17 Aug 2026
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Mustafa Hekimoğlu from Besiktas for $3.0M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Market17 Aug 2026
Mustafa Hekimoğlu is 19, and Kasimpasa have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Adem Arous and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Nobody left the Kasimpasa dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout17 Aug 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 1‑4 Mehmet Ozil left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
94 days out for Gökhan Sazdağı after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Besiktas will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Besiktas have done the hard part with Goztepe, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Market10 Aug 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Besiktas people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market10 Aug 2026
CSKA Moscow come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Besiktas did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market10 Aug 2026
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Mustafa Hekimoğlu had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Trabzonspor have kept their man, and Besiktas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market10 Aug 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Besiktas heard it as anything else.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Orkun Kökçü and Besiktas agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Besiktas
Orkun Kökçü and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Kasimpasa and Besiktas 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Kasimpasa 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Adrian Benedyczak and Kasimpasa agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Cláudio Winck and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The offer went to Konyaspor this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Tolga Demiral 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Deniz Yildiz is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Halil Akgun 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Alper Tosun is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
Besiktas say no — this time
The offer from Antalyaspor for Orkun Kökçü 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A career in one shirt: Necip Uysal
18 seasons and 337 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
Market3 Aug 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Besiktas heard it as anything else.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Leandro Trossard and Besiktas agree another 3 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Besiktas
Alexander Nübel and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Besiktas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Orkun Kökçü 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.