“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ankaragucu have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
In brief
SquadTaylan Aydın is a better footballer than he was
Anthony Musaba 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.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Words at Ankaragucu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marko Pajač 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 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 Ankaragucu know it.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Marcos Camarda wants continental football; whether Kasimpasa can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Pape Habib Guèye 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.
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.
Position 19 and 17 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Tolga Under recited it perfectly.
Pape Habib Guèye 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Ankaragucu will make the call about Taylan Aydın this week. Kasimpasa have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
In brief
SquadNicholas Opoku is playing like a man with something to prove
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Kasimpasa is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kasimpasa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 May 2028
Words at Kasimpasa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Godfried Frimpong 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.
5 goals in 33 games at Sivasspor — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Kasimpasa updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 79 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Nicholas Opoku 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 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Hiroki Abe is living that version at Kasimpasa, and it tends to show in the first month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kasimpasa 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.
A season-long look at somebody else’s player: Rodrigo Ramos arrives from Dinamo Tbilisi with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.
The chase for Nahuel Cáceres ended with $1.1M changing hands and Gaziantep out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kasimpasa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Kasimpasa know it.
İrfan Can Kahveci 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Taylan Aydın is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Kasimpasa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mortadha Ben Ouannes 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Umraniyespor will make the call about Yusuf Barasi this week. Kasimpasa have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kasimpasa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Umraniyespor pay $490.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
The name of Yusuf Barasi has come up in conversations Kasimpasa were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.