Marked for Umut İslamoğlu
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout22 May 2028
“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.
Squad22 May 2028
Beni Mukendi 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.
Squad22 May 2028
Words exchanged at Goztepe
Efkan Bekiroğlu 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 dugout22 May 2028
The manager makes an example of Mert Günok
“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.
Market22 May 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Goztepe know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout22 May 2028
Emre Gökay asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout22 May 2028
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Efkan Bekiroğlu has written the date down.
Squad22 May 2028
Emre Gökay has seen what the next man earns
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Goztepe that is a harder question to answer.
Squad22 May 2028
Two hours a week with a tutor, which is the least glamorous thing at Goztepe and the one that decides whether a foreign signing is still here in two years.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout3 Apr 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Goztepe may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad3 Apr 2028
A row about effort at Goztepe
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Umut Güneş was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match1 Apr 2028
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words exchanged at Goztepe
Oğuz Gürbulak 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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Marcel Engelhardt commits to Goztepe for another 1 years.
Loan watch3 Apr 2028
“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 Goztepe, and 8 appearances in 12 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
“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 dugout3 Apr 2028
The team sheet said everything about Efkan Bekiroğlu
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Efkan Bekiroğlu.
Market3 Apr 2028
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Goztepe, another week without a signature from Efkan Bekiroğlu.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Mar 2028
A falling-out at Goztepe
Mateusz Lis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Goztepe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Umut Güneş 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 dugout27 Mar 2028
The manager makes an example of Bobby Adekanye
“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.
Market27 Mar 2028
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Goztepe, another week without a signature from Arda Ünyay.
Looking ahead27 Mar 2028
A test against the best for Goztepe
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Galatasaray.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
Serdar Gürler has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Goztepe 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.
Market27 Mar 2028
The Mateusz Lis story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mateusz Lis signs something — a contract at Goztepe or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Looking ahead27 Mar 2028
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Arda Ünyay’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Goztepe needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Goztepe. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Feb 2028
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Transfer targets7 Feb 2028
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Goztepe have done the hard part with Galatasaray, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The dugout7 Feb 2028
“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.
Player ratings7 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 3 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Goztepe until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Transfer targets7 Feb 2028
No thanks: Renan Barnabé rejects the move
Goztepe had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Amedspor, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Match5 Feb 2028
7 unbeaten for Goztepe
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Goztepe did not have in the autumn.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words exchanged at Goztepe
Mateusz Lis 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.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Alexis Antunes 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match18 Dec 2027
The wait goes on for Goztepe
9 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Mateusz Lis 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 Goztepe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Dec 2027
A row about effort at Goztepe
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Umut Güneş was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match18 Dec 2027
0‑1 to Rizespor, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Umut İslamoğlu, and the manager let it.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
Guilherme Luiz asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad20 Dec 2027
One yellow too many, and a match watched from the stand. The most avoidable absence in football, and Goztepe will feel it on Saturday.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
When it matters, Amin Cherni plays
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match24 Oct 2027
Still nobody has beaten Goztepe
The unbeaten run reaches 10. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad25 Oct 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 Goztepe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Goztepe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexis Antunes 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 ratings25 Oct 2027
Nobody could get near Jeh
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
Guilherme Luiz dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Market25 Oct 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Serdar Gürler has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Goztepe.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Umut İslamoğlu, and the manager let it.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
Murat Under: “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 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
Amin Cherni has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Goztepe 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words exchanged at Goztepe
Guilherme Luiz 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Goztepe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Umut Güneş 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 dugout11 Oct 2027
No hiding place for Jeh
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jeh, and the manager let it.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
Mateusz Lis 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 Goztepe, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market11 Oct 2027
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad11 Oct 2027
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
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 Efkan Bekiroğlu is on it.
Market11 Oct 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Mateusz Lis’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Doğukan Sinik has seen what the next man earns
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Goztepe that is a harder question to answer.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Alexis Antunes ran the middle of the pitch — 7.11
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 21 combined actions and a mark of 7.11, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Match2 Oct 2027
Whatever happens, Goztepe do not lose
8 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad4 Oct 2027
A falling-out at Goztepe
Amir Hadžiahmetović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match2 Oct 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Enis Destan. 1‑0 against Sivasspor, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad4 Oct 2027
A row about effort at Goztepe
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Robin Yalçın was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Efkan Bekiroğlu, and the manager let it.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Nobody on the pitch touched Enis Destan
7.72, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Goztepe had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Market4 Oct 2027
He is 20, and nobody at Goztepe signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Goztepe are still strangers to each other
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.