Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Basaksehir will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 The request is on a desk at Basaksehir, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Basaksehir is running low.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Basaksehir this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Apr 2036
Batista Mendy 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Darío and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Mar 2036
Words at Basaksehir training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Batista Mendy 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Basaksehir pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“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 dugout10 Mar 2036
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Interim Coach chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Basaksehir hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Batista Mendy 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 run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Basaksehir are no longer polite ones.
Squad3 Mar 2036
Words at Basaksehir training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yiğit Hamza Aydar 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.
Erencan Yardımcı 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 Batista Mendy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Basaksehir know it.
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Adrian Zeljković will call it something else in private.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Basaksehir this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Basaksehir told Batista Mendy something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Basaksehir, and both men came out saying it was fine.
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Basaksehir lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Basaksehir they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Tunahan Taşçı 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 Jan 2036
Batista Mendy 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.
Goztepe will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Daniel Polák has pre-agreed a move to Basaksehir, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Basaksehir have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Tunahan Taşçı 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.
1‑2 to Bandirmaspor, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Boardroom31 Dec 2035
Nobody left the Basaksehir 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 dugout31 Dec 2035
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 1‑2 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matisse Didden was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Muhlis Dağaşan is on it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.84 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Basaksehir is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Two goals and a mark of 8.36 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.42 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Basaksehir this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Basaksehir will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad24 Dec 2035
Words at Basaksehir training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Batista Mendy 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Basaksehir they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Successful dribbles: 28. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Basaksehir this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Nov 2035
Words at Basaksehir training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Batista Mendy 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Tunahan Taşçı 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.
Squad5 Nov 2035
Words at Basaksehir training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Batista Mendy 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Basaksehir, and 4 appearances in 18 say he has earned the hearing.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Basaksehir can pretend not to have heard.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Basaksehir know it.
Squad15 Oct 2035
Words at Basaksehir training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Batista Mendy 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.
Samsunspor will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Enes Öğrüce has pre-agreed a move to Basaksehir, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Basaksehir will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Batista Mendy 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.
At 33, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad8 Oct 2035
Rio Hillen 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 club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 46 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Basaksehir, and it is not being withdrawn.
1 for Yiğit Hamza Aydar, marked 7.54, 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Basaksehir this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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.
In brief
BoardroomWages eat 96% of everything Basaksehir earn
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Basaksehir will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
37 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Tunahan Taşçı 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mateus Xavier. 3‑1 against Bodrum FK, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
24 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout17 Sep 2035
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.” Interim Coach kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Basaksehir is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Basaksehir can pretend not to have heard.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
“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 Basaksehir know it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Basaksehir 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 Arda Okan Kurtulan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad27 Aug 2035
10 new faces, and Basaksehir 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.
“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 Basaksehir, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Basaksehir they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $338.5K — a club that wants Marlon Fries enough to be asked twice.
Tunahan Taşçı 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.
Basaksehir have gone to Eyupspor 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.
Basaksehir offered $110.0K; Eyupspor 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.
Basaksehir asked and Rizespor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Trabzonspor 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 Trabzonspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 May 2035
Franco Tongya 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Umut Karaman is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Hakan Tekdemir is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Position 3 on 60 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.89 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Trabzonspor can pretend not to have heard.
Position 3, 60 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mateus Xavier will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Trabzonspor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trabzonspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Apr 2035
Words at Trabzonspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Tongya 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Trabzonspor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Trabzonspor 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 Trabzonspor 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 Franco Tongya was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Trabzonspor can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Trabzonspor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trabzonspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Mar 2035
Franco Tongya 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.
“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; Trabzonspor are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Trabzonspor pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
The words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Trabzonspor can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom5 Feb 2035
Trabzonspor close the window on a squad of their own making
8 in and 3 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Trabzonspor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Trabzonspor hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trabzonspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Feb 2035
Words at Trabzonspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Tongya 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. Adana Demirspor have kept their man, and Trabzonspor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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 Trabzonspor, and it is not being withdrawn.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Trabzonspor have lost him in all but the paperwork.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.46 for the rest of it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mateus Xavier will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Trabzonspor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The deal with Bandirmaspor 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.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Mateus Xavier has agreed terms with Basaksehir for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Başar Önal 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.
In brief
SquadFranco Tongya falls out with a teammate over standards
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Robert Sánchez
Successful dribbles: 44. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
1‑0 against Sabail, 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.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Mateus Xavier scored in the 87th minute, Sabail had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Trabzonspor took the lot.
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Trabzonspor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Enis Destan 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Trabzonspor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franco Tongya was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Trabzonspor can pretend not to have heard.
7.79, 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.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.93, and involved in 3 of his side's goals.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sidny Lopes Cabral and Trabzonspor agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Gaoussou Diarra 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.
Squad6 Nov 2034
Franco Tongya 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.
“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; Trabzonspor are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
79 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Trabzonspor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Galatasaray have kept their man, and Trabzonspor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franco Tongya was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Trabzonspor will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Nobody at Trabzonspor 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.