The fee is $490.0K, 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.
$30.0K on the table at Alanyaspor. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Qazim Laci 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 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.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
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 Abbosbek Fayzullayev is on 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 The request is on a desk at Rizespor, and it is not being withdrawn.
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 7.95 for the rest of it.
1 for Muhamed Buljubašić, marked 7.21, 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Ali Sowe 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 Abbosbek Fayzullayev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“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 Rizespor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Rizespor and Esenler Erokspor have settled on $3.9M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 20 signed and 16 gone
That is the business done at Rizespor 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.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Ali Sowe 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at Rizespor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Qazim Laci 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.
10 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Rizespor people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rizespor can pretend not to have heard.
“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; Rizespor are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Muhammed Şengezer 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Qazim Laci was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Add another name to the list: Serikspor have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Taylan Antalyalı. The answer from Rizespor has not changed — yet.
Rizespor have made the call to Trabzonspor. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Ali Sowe and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Rizespor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Qazim Laci 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Altin Zeqiri. 1‑0 against Goztepe, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Rizespor has been clear about where Dal Varešanović stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
9 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Basaksehir were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
“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; Rizespor are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rizespor 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 Qazim Laci was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Selcuk Gunok on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rizespor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Rizespor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Qazim Laci 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 particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Muhamed Buljubašić has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
8.21. 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Selcuk Gunok on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 1 arrived, 5 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The deal with Westerlo 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Rizespor can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Ali Sowe 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: Ibrahim Olawoyin. 3‑2 against Gaziantep, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Qazim Laci 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.
Rizespor asked and Samsunspor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.