A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bandirmaspor will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Emre Erdem scored, was marked 7.57, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Samuel Quiñonez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bandirmaspor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad8 Oct 2029
Max Walef 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.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alvaro Delgado and Bandirmaspor agree another 1 years.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bandirmaspor can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ufuk Akyol will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bandirmaspor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Bandirmaspor had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Besiktas, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Ufuk Akyol has agreed terms with Corum FK for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Bandirmaspor asked and Bodrum FK said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Ali Şahin Yılmaz 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.
Bandirmaspor 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Bandirmaspor training over how hard people work
Basaksehir arrived with $690.0K and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
Tosin Kehinde has gone, the accounts have $690.0K in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bandirmaspor can pretend not to have heard.
Bandirmaspor had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Basaksehir, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The offer went to Basaksehir this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Kyryl Kutsenko is living that version at Bandirmaspor, and it tends to show in the first month.
The offer from Kasimpasa for Davis was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The chase for Yimar Parra ended with $160.0K changing hands and Umraniyespor out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
“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 Alanyaspor 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 Alanyaspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 phone has started ringing about Ege Yıldırım again, and this time the name on the line is Samsunspor. Alanyaspor are listening politely and promising nothing.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Alanyaspor, another week without a signature from Baran Gezek.
“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 Bandirmaspor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Galatasaray is saying, and nobody at Bandirmaspor is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bandirmaspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Words at Bandirmaspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emre Erdem 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.
Boardroom18 Jun 2029
123% of the income goes out in wages at Bandirmaspor
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
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.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Eyüp Aydın is in the works
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Igdir FK moved on, Altin Zeqiri reports back to Alanyaspor, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $5.2M — a club that wants Emirhan Topçu enough to be asked twice.
Ruan 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.
Alanyaspor have gone to Umraniyespor 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.
Alanyaspor asked and Adana Demirspor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bandirmaspor can pretend not to have heard.
Every long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and Bandirmaspor know now that the thought has arrived.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Words at Bandirmaspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francis Nzaba 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bandirmaspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Bandirmaspor asked and Gaziantep said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The phone has started ringing about Arda Midiliç again, and this time the name on the line is Alanyaspor. Bandirmaspor are listening politely and promising nothing.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bandirmaspor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Lucas Possignolo 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.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Words at Bandirmaspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kassoum Ouattara 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bandirmaspor will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The offer from Alanyaspor for Tosin Kehinde was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Lucas Possignolo 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.
6 goals in one match, Efe Doğan on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Bandirmaspor and Adana Demirspor.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kassoum Ouattara was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The mood at Bandirmaspor has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $196.4K of what Bandirmaspor paid for Mustafa Erkasap is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Deadline passes with 23 signed and 24 gone
That is the business done at Bandirmaspor 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.
The deal that would have taken Arda Midiliç to Fatih Karagumruk has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Bandirmaspor with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Lucas Possignolo 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 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.