Marked for Elson Mendes
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 52. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 17 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Kasimpasa may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
7.99, 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 targets8 Feb 2027
Kasimpasa had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Tigre, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Ogün Özçiçek 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
7 goals and a season average of 7.23. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match6 Feb 2027
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match12 Dec 2026
Kasimpasa cannot stop winning
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.
Match12 Dec 2026
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Match12 Dec 2026
Three points for Kasimpasa, 2‑1 the final word against Konyaspor in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
A performance of 8.11 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Kasimpasa
Adem Arous 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
7 goals and a season average of 7.24. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Loan watch14 Dec 2026
“I watch every Kasimpasa game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Adana Demirspor runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
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.” Kenan Unai kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Kasimpasa
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Elson Mendes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 38. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match5 Dec 2026
Giresunspor will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Kasimpasa were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad7 Dec 2026
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Squad7 Dec 2026
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.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Adrian Benedyczak was on a different afternoon to everybody else
10.00. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Match5 Dec 2026
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.48, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match5 Dec 2026
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Giresunspor tried to reorganise, Kasimpasa did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.46, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match31 Oct 2026
1‑4 to Galatasaray, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 40 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match31 Oct 2026
The run is over for Kasimpasa
8 matches without defeat, and then Galatasaray. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Boardroom2 Nov 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.
Loan watch2 Nov 2026
“I watch every Kasimpasa game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Adana Demirspor runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout2 Nov 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 Kenan Unai left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Cláudio Winck makes the team of the month
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Elson Mendes 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Oct 2026
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Kasimpasa will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match24 Oct 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 8 matches without defeat is a foundation Kasimpasa did not have in the autumn.
Match24 Oct 2026
Kayserispor made Kasimpasa work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.50 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
İrfan Can Kahveci was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.26. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes of Fousseni Diabaté at his very best
Marked 8.12. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Kasimpasa.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.00 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Adem Arous 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad12 Oct 2026
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Kasimpasa will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad12 Oct 2026
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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match10 Oct 2026
Still nobody has beaten Kasimpasa
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Match10 Oct 2026
Basaksehir made Kasimpasa work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes of Jesurun Rak-Sakyi at his very best
Marked 8.30. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Kasimpasa.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes of İrfan Can Kahveci at his very best
Marked 8.31. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Kasimpasa.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kerem Demirbay, and the manager let it.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
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.” Kenan Unai kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Sep 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kasimpasa will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match19 Sep 2026
Kasimpasa make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Kasimpasa have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The medical room confirms 16 days on the sidelines for Kerem Demirbay, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
At 23 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
A 2‑0 win over Umraniyespor, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.39, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.16 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
The manager has not finished forgetting Andri Fannar Baldursson's mistake
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Squad
Words at Kasimpasa training over how hard people work
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Sep 2026
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Kasimpasa will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Age has not caught Cenk Tosun yet — 7.98
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.98 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Match12 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Fousseni Diabaté. 3‑2 against Alanyaspor, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andreas Gianniotis, and the manager let it.
Market14 Sep 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Baris Bayindir is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.19 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.17, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Marked 8.11 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑2, Kenan Unai could afford to be generous.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 Aug 2026
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Kasimpasa will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market31 Aug 2026
Giresunspor come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Kasimpasa did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Kasimpasa offered $1.4M; Antalyaspor 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Kasimpasa
İrfan Can Kahveci 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Fenerbahce left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad31 Aug 2026
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
Adem Arous gets it from the manager
“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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Elson Mendes 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.