Marked for Arda Cebeci
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Jul 2027
Iyed Haj Khalifa 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Majid Hosseini 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Morten Bjørlo knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Giresunspor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 May 2027
Sebastián Martelli 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.
Squad31 May 2027
Juan Lescano in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Giresunspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Juan Lescano
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match30 Jan 2027
No end in sight to Giresunspor's wait for a win
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Giresunspor has to find a result from somewhere.
The terraces1 Feb 2027
18th and falling: the mood at Giresunspor has gone
9 points and a position everybody in the ground can do the arithmetic on. The songs have stopped being about the team and started being about surviving, which is a different noise entirely.
Market1 Feb 2027
Arda Cebeci hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Giresunspor can pretend not to have heard.
Squad1 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Giresunspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match30 Jan 2027
2‑3 to Adana Demirspor, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Sebastián Martelli 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“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.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
4.49. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
Squad1 Feb 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Eduardo Pucheta'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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match9 Jan 2027
7 matches without a win for Giresunspor
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Giresunspor are no longer polite ones.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Göktan Cörüt: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Giresunspor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Batuhan Yavuz gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Batuhan Yavuz has just signed for Giresunspor, and for once the answer mattered.
Market11 Jan 2027
The fee is $670.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Konyaspor drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Giresunspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastián Martelli 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Gabriele Angella 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.
Match9 Jan 2027
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market11 Jan 2027
Arda Cebeci told to find a new club
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Arda Cebeci has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Giresunspor.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Marked 5.61. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Oct 2026
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.
Match17 Oct 2026
No end in sight to Giresunspor's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Giresunspor has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Renato Nhaga is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
Trabzonspor left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Giresunspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastián Martelli 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Oct 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 48 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A one-man rearguard from Emir Yaşar
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Giresunspor may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Giresunspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastián Martelli 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Market5 Oct 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Giresunspor, another week without a signature from Lautaro Grosso.
Market5 Oct 2026
It is the least glamorous business a club does and the reason seasons do not collapse in February. Lautaro Grosso is here for the weeks when three men are injured and somebody still has to play.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Marked 5.73, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
He was not in the side at half past three and he had settled it before five. Half an hour, and Giresunspor had a different afternoon.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Sep 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 62 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match16 Sep 2026
A 1‑0 win over Ankaragucu, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match19 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑3 by Adana Demirspor, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A one-man rearguard from Emir Yaşar
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Up for the corner, and Arda Cebeci delivers — 7.53
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Arda Cebeci scored, was marked 7.53, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Furkan Kabaca is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Mauricio Gómez 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 terraces21 Sep 2026
The crowd has taken to Arda Cebeci
At 21 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.
Boardroom21 Sep 2026
Nobody left the Giresunspor 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.