Abdou Fall

Defensive Midfielder - Adana Demirspor
23 Feb 2031
Sunday
Process

Marked for Abdou Fall

235 Edition

The Adana Demirspor Gazette

27 Jan 2031
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

Adana Demirspor sink to position 17

18 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.

Market

Adana Demirspor turn down Trabzonspor for Ali Emre Yanar

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Market

Only the photograph left for Jota

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jota will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Adana Demirspor the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Boardroom

Adana Demirspor to lose Jota for free

There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Jota has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.

Market

Abdou Fall’s move to Fenerbahce falls through

The deal that would have taken Abdou Fall to Fenerbahce has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Adana Demirspor with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Engin Aksoy

Adana Demirspor asked and Umraniyespor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Squad

Words exchanged at Adana Demirspor

Paulo Da Silva 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 dugout

Grejohn Kyei 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.

The dugout

Adana Demirspor keep their word to Grejohn Kyei

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.

In brief

Back issues
235 Edition

The Fenerbahce Sentinel

27 Jan 2031
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

40 unbeaten for Fenerbahce

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 40 matches without defeat is a foundation Fenerbahce did not have in the autumn.

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Lorenzo Montipò

21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Fenerbahce lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Match

The run at home goes on for Fenerbahce

22 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.

Match

Fenerbahce through in the cup

A 1‑0 win over Konyaspor, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.

Transfer targets

Failed medical for Abdou Fall

The deal with Adana Demirspor died in the treatment room. Nobody will say what was found and everybody in the game will find out by Friday.

Match

Fenerbahce are top

53 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.

Market

Ben Pearson puts it in writing

“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 Fenerbahce, and it is not being withdrawn.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Archie Brown

Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Market

Only the photograph left for Ben Pearson

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ben Pearson will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Fenerbahce the goodbyes have quietly begun.

In brief

234 Edition

The Adana Demirspor Gazette

20 Jan 2031
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

No end in sight to Adana Demirspor's wait for a win

12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Adana Demirspor has to find a result from somewhere.

Match

Adana Demirspor taken apart

0‑4 to Besiktas, 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.

Market

Arda Kılıç 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 Adana Demirspor can pretend not to have heard.

Transfer targets

Besiktas tell Adana Demirspor: Ersin Destanoğlu is not for sale

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.

Market

Only the photograph left for Abdou Fall

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Abdou Fall will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Adana Demirspor the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Transfer targets

The paperwork begins on Paulo Da Silva

A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Adana Demirspor have done the hard part with Kayserispor, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.

Market

Adana Demirspor sell Enes Keskin for $930.0K

Enes Keskin has left for Besiktas in a $930.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.

Boardroom

Ahmet Öztürk will join Adana Demirspor for nothing

The paperwork is done long before the player is. Ahmet Öztürk has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Adana Demirspor have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.

Match

3 matches without a goal for Adana Demirspor

The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.

In brief

230 Edition

The Adana Demirspor Gazette

23 Dec 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Eren Arda Şan breaks a bone — 20 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 20 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Match

7 matches without a win for Adana Demirspor

The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Adana Demirspor are no longer polite ones.

Squad

Ali Emre Yanar stands alone

6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.

Market

Abdou Fall is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Adana Demirspor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Taylan Bulut 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 Adana Demirspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

The dugout

No hiding place for Enes Keskin

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Enes Keskin, and the manager let it.

Player ratings

Taylan Bulut takes the honours

Marked 7.88 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Adana Demirspor had the best player on the pitch.

The dugout

A promise honoured for Ali Emre Yanar

It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Adana Demirspor told Ali Emre Yanar something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Tugra Turhan

Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

In brief

226 Edition

The Adana Demirspor Gazette

25 Nov 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Eren Arda Şan breaks a bone — 48 days out

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.

Match

Adana Demirspor out of the cup

Basaksehir ended it 0‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.

Market

Abdou Fall has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Adana Demirspor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

A falling-out at Adana Demirspor

Lautaro Giannetti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Match

The goals have deserted Adana Demirspor

3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Adana Demirspor can tell you which week it ends in.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Lautaro Giannetti

“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.

Match

A bad afternoon for Adana Demirspor against Antalyaspor

0‑1 to Antalyaspor, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

Player ratings

Tugra Turhan beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

The dugout

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 0‑1 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.

In brief

222 Edition

The Adana Demirspor Gazette

28 Oct 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Hakan Çinemre damages knee ligaments — 15 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 15 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Match

Chastening afternoon for Adana Demirspor

A 1‑4 beating by Trabzonspor was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.

Squad

7 saves: Ali Emre Yanar was the team

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.

The dugout

Abdoulaye Yoro keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Adana Demirspor may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Player ratings

Up for the corner, and Enes Keskin delivers — 7.31

Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Enes Keskin scored, was marked 7.31, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.

Market

Taylan Bulut raises the bar for Adana Demirspor

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Adana Demirspor heard it as anything else.

Market

Only the photograph left for Abdou Fall

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Abdou Fall will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Adana Demirspor the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Enes Keskin makes it 200

200 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.

Squad

Mehmet Unai 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.

In brief

218 Edition

The Adana Demirspor Gazette

30 Sep 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Hakan Çinemre

43 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Adana Demirspor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Match

No mercy from Adana Demirspor

Giresunspor will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Adana Demirspor were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.

Player ratings

Tugra Turhan scores twice — 8.89

Two goals and a mark of 8.89 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

The dugout

Vukan Savićević: 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.” Adana Demirspor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Player ratings

Vintage Mustafa Eskihellaç — 7.85

At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.85, and nobody on the pitch better.

Market

Abdou Fall has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Adana Demirspor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Eren Aydın at his very best

Marked 8.26. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Adana Demirspor.

Player ratings

One of those days for Gökdeniz Gürpüz

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.14, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

Squad

Abdoulaye Yoro 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 Adana Demirspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

In brief

213 Edition

The Adana Demirspor Gazette

26 Aug 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

Adana Demirspor taken apart

0‑4 to Besiktas, 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.

Market

Enes Keskin 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 Adana Demirspor can pretend not to have heard.

Match

The wait goes on for Adana Demirspor

7 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.

Transfer targets

Adana Demirspor make their move for Ersin Destanoğlu

$2.4M on the table at Besiktas. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.

Market

Only the photograph left for Abdou Fall

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Abdou Fall will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Adana Demirspor the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Transfer targets

Antalyaspor tell Adana Demirspor: Enes Büyük is not for sale

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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Adana Demirspor

Vefa Temel 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.

Squad

Mehmet Unai 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 dugout

The manager makes an example of Enes Keskin

“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.

In brief

209 Edition

The Adana Demirspor Gazette

29 Jul 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Renato Huerta 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 Adana Demirspor can pretend not to have heard.

Market

Only the photograph left for Abdou Fall

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Abdou Fall will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Adana Demirspor the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Taylan Bulut 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 Adana Demirspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Market

Christian attracts admirers

The name of Christian has come up in conversations Adana Demirspor were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.

Transfer targets

Basaksehir tell Adana Demirspor: Doğan Alemdar is not for sale

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.

Squad

A row about effort at Adana Demirspor

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dieguinho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Transfer targets

Adana Demirspor try to borrow Deniz Dönmezer

Besiktas have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Oleh Slobodian

“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.

Market

Taylan Bulut linked with a move away

The name of Taylan Bulut keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Adana Demirspor say nothing, which says plenty.

In brief

205 Edition

The Adana Demirspor Gazette

1 Jul 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Kaan Sarman has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Adana Demirspor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Transfer targets

Doğan Alemdar is a medical away from Adana Demirspor

The deal with Basaksehir 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.

Squad

A falling-out at Adana Demirspor

Lautaro Giannetti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Real improvement from Abdou Fall at Adana Demirspor

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Abdou Fall is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Ekrem Stancic

Adana Demirspor asked and Besiktas said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Squad

Abdoulaye Yoro wants to go home

“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 Adana Demirspor know it.

Squad

Mehmet Unai 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.

Market

Enes Keskin is free to find somewhere else

“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Adana Demirspor has been clear about where Enes Keskin stands, which is more than many ever get.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Enes Keskin

“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.

In brief

203 Edition

The Adana Demirspor Gazette

17 Jun 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

The dugout

Vukan Savićević says Adana Demirspor went back on their word

“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.

Market

Eyes on Tugra Turhan again

The phone has started ringing about Tugra Turhan again, and this time the name on the line is Fenerbahce. Adana Demirspor are listening politely and promising nothing.

Transfer targets

Fee done, terms next for João Camacho

Adana Demirspor and Fatih Karagumruk have settled on $67.0K. 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.

Market

Emre Gökay moves on

Konyaspor pay $3.1M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Ersin Destanoğlu

Adana Demirspor asked and Besiktas said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Squad

Adana Demirspor lose Deniz Türüç

17 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.

Market

Abdou Fall has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Adana Demirspor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Words at Adana Demirspor training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dieguinho 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.

Squad

Gökdeniz Gürpüz is a square peg at Adana Demirspor

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

199 Edition

The Adana Demirspor Gazette

20 May 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Tugra Turhan

33 goals and a season average of 7.48 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Squad

A one-man rearguard from Ali Emre Yanar

There were 8 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.

The dugout

Alperen Aydın: 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.” Adana Demirspor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Player ratings

Age has not caught Deniz Türüç yet — 8.05

At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.05 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.

Player ratings

Up for the corner, and Alperen Aydın delivers — 7.60

Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Alperen Aydın scored, was marked 7.60, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.

Market

Abdou Fall is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Adana Demirspor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Match

4 matches without a win for Adana Demirspor

The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Adana Demirspor are no longer polite ones.

Match

A bad afternoon for Adana Demirspor against Gaziantep

2‑3 to Gaziantep, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

The dugout

Ricardo Ryller 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.

In brief

197 Edition

The Adana Demirspor Gazette

6 May 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Market

Emre Gökay 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 Adana Demirspor can pretend not to have heard.

Boardroom

The silence upstairs is getting loud at Adana Demirspor

Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.

Player ratings

A defender's goal wins it for Adana Demirspor — 7.83

1 for Enes Keskin, marked 7.83, 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.

Match

Enes Keskin’s goal not enough for Adana Demirspor

Enes Keskin scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Kasimpasa, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.

The dugout

No hiding place for Lautaro Giannetti

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lautaro Giannetti, and the manager let it.

Squad

Christian wants to finish where he started

Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and Adana Demirspor now know that too.

The dugout

Interim Coach: “No excuses”

“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.

Squad

A falling-out at Adana Demirspor

Abdou Fall and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

The dugout

When it matters, Tugra Turhan 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.

In brief

195 Edition

The Adana Demirspor Gazette

22 Apr 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Tugra Turhan is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.52 with 32 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Match

No mercy from Adana Demirspor

Umraniyespor will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Adana Demirspor were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.

Squad

3 goals for Tugra Turhan

The match ball belongs to Tugra Turhan, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.

Player ratings

Deniz Türüç, 37, rolls back the years — 8.34

There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.34 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.

Market

Abdou Fall is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Adana Demirspor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Tugra Turhan

Marked 9.92 — 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 terraces

Adana Demirspor supporters have found a favourite in Eren Arda Şan

There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Eren Arda Şan 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.

Player ratings

Emre Gökay in the eights

A performance of 8.17 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

The dugout

Lautaro Giannetti is still paying for one afternoon at Adana Demirspor

Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.

In brief

191 Edition

The Adana Demirspor Gazette

25 Mar 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

The small margins put Adana Demirspor out

Out, 0‑1 to Basaksehir, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.

Squad

A one-man rearguard from Ali Emre Yanar

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.

The dugout

Abdou Fall: 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.” Adana Demirspor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Market

Abdou Fall has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Adana Demirspor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Tempers go at Adana Demirspor

Lautaro Giannetti 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.

Player ratings

Emre Gökay runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

The dugout

Taylan Bulut gets picked when it counts

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 Taylan Bulut is on it.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Alperen Aydın

“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.

The dugout

Half-satisfied: Interim Coach on the draw

“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.

In brief

187 Edition

The Adana Demirspor Gazette

25 Feb 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Player ratings

Eduardo Henrique pops up at the right end — 7.69

7.69, 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.

Market

Taylan Bulut wants to know where this is going

“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Adana Demirspor hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Market

Abdou Fall is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Adana Demirspor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Words exchanged at Adana Demirspor

Taylan Bulut 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.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Tugra Turhan

Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Match

Adana Demirspor come up short against Konyaspor

Konyaspor left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

Squad

Home is on Abdoulaye Yoro's mind

“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; Adana Demirspor are dealing with a man who wants a different country.

Squad

Musa Danjuma 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 dugout

Interim Coach answers for it

“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.

In brief

183 Edition

The Adana Demirspor Gazette

28 Jan 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Adana Demirspor say no — this time

The offer from Alanyaspor for Emre Gökay 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 dugout

Şahin Kalınsazlıoğlu: 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.” Adana Demirspor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Market

Leonardo Pais asks to leave Adana Demirspor

“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.

Market

Abdullah Yiğiter moves on

Hatayspor pay $2.3M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.

Market

Abdou Fall has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Adana Demirspor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Transfer targets

Yiğit Sevinç is a medical away from Adana Demirspor

The deal with Giresunspor 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.

Squad

Deniz Türüç 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.

Transfer targets

Besiktas tell Adana Demirspor: Emir Dadük is not for sale

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.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Ali Emre Yanar

“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.

In brief

179 Edition

The Adana Demirspor Gazette

31 Dec 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

A hiding for Adana Demirspor

Beaten 1‑4 by Gaziantep, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.

Squad

Tugra Turhan is carrying Adana Demirspor

21 goals and a season average of 7.48. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Market

Abdou Fall has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Adana Demirspor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Player ratings

Emre Gökay beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad

Deniz Türüç 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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Adana Demirspor

Eren Arda Şan 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 dugout

No hiding place for Enes Keskin

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Enes Keskin, and the manager let it.

Boardroom

Nobody left the Adana Demirspor 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.

The dugout

Interim Coach: “No excuses”

“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑4, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.

In brief

175 Edition

The Adana Demirspor Gazette

3 Dec 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings

Both of them Matías Verdún's — 9.20

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.20, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Squad

Abdullah Yiğiter keeps Adana Demirspor in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Player ratings

Vintage Deniz Türüç — 7.85

At 36 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.85, and nobody on the pitch better.

Market

Taylan Bulut wants to know where this is going

“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Adana Demirspor hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Market

Only the photograph left for Abdou Fall

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Abdou Fall will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Adana Demirspor the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Deniz Türüç signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Deniz Türüç commits to Adana Demirspor for another 2 years.

Squad

Ricardo Ryller wants to go home

“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 Adana Demirspor know it.

Match

Matías Verdún sends Adana Demirspor past Umraniyespor

It finished 2‑1, and it was Matías Verdún’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Adana Demirspor.

The dugout

Enes Keskin 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.

In brief

  • Squad Musa Danjuma falls out with a teammate over standards
  • The dugout The view from the dugout
  • Player ratings The chances came and went for Tugra Turhan
171 Edition

The Adana Demirspor Gazette

5 Nov 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A one-man rearguard from Abdullah Yiğiter

There were 10 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.

Match

Adana Demirspor taken apart

1‑4 to Fenerbahce, 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.

Squad

Irfan Soyuncu breaks a bone — 36 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 36 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Market

Abdou Fall has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Adana Demirspor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Market

Hakan Çinemre comes home

The shirt still fits. Hakan Çinemre is back at Adana Demirspor, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.

Squad

A row about effort at Adana Demirspor

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Deniz Türüç was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The terraces

The crowd has taken to Taylan Bulut

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.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Abdullah Yiğiter

“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 ratings

A masterclass from Taylan Bulut

Marked 8.16 — 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.

In brief

167 Edition

The Adana Demirspor Gazette

8 Oct 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings

Tugra Turhan scores twice — 9.24

Two goals and a mark of 9.24 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Market

Abdou Fall has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Adana Demirspor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Player ratings

Emre Gökay beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

The terraces

One of their own: Tugra Turhan

He is 22 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.

Match

Tugra Turhan sends Adana Demirspor past Hatayspor

It finished 2‑0, and it was Tugra Turhan’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Adana Demirspor.

Squad

Oleh Slobodian stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Oleh Slobodian and Adana Demirspor agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Tugra Turhan

10 goals and a season average of 7.21 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Squad

Ricardo Ryller reaches 100 appearances

100 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.

Squad

Tempers go at Adana Demirspor

Egemen Aydın 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.

In brief

163 Edition

The Adana Demirspor Gazette

10 Sep 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A fracture rules Matías Verdún out for 23 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Adana Demirspor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Market

Only the photograph left for Abdou Fall

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Abdou Fall will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Adana Demirspor the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Market

Gökdeniz Tunç is a Adana Demirspor player again

He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Doğan Alemdar

Adana Demirspor asked and Basaksehir 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 dugout

The manager makes an example of Ali Emre Yanar

“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.

Squad

Christian wants to go home

“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Adana Demirspor can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.

Market

Still no ink between Adana Demirspor and Ali Şahin Yılmaz

“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Adana Demirspor, another week without a signature from Ali Şahin Yılmaz.

Squad

Christian wants one last season at home

Every long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and Adana Demirspor know now that the thought has arrived.

Squad

A falling-out at Adana Demirspor

Renato Huerta and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

In brief

161 Edition

The Fenerbahce Sentinel

27 Aug 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Squad

75 days out for N'Golo Kanté after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Fenerbahce will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Ruan

Successful dribbles: 39. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Match

Whatever happens, Fenerbahce do not lose

12 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.

Transfer targets

Fenerbahce baulk at the price for Abdou Fall

Adana Demirspor wanted more than $3.0M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.

Squad

Abdullah Dursun is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Fenerbahce

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pablo Hurtado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The terraces

One of their own: Hamza Güreler

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.

Match

Fenerbahce get the job done against Kasimpasa

A 1‑0 win over Kasimpasa, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.

Player ratings

Hamza Güreler was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.22. 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.

In brief

159 Edition

The Adana Demirspor Gazette

13 Aug 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A fracture rules Matías Verdún out for 54 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Adana Demirspor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Market

Ordabasy come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Adana Demirspor did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Market

Eduardo Henrique puts it in writing

“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 Adana Demirspor, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

Abdullah Yiğiter stands alone

6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.

Market

Abdou Fall is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Adana Demirspor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Boardroom

Iliass Bel Hassani has agreed to leave Adana Demirspor for nothing

He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.

Squad

Tempers go at Adana Demirspor

Taylan Bulut 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.

Boardroom

5 academy graduates step up at Adana Demirspor

Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.

Match

Adana Demirspor come up short against Galatasaray

Galatasaray left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

In brief

158 Edition

The Fenerbahce Sentinel

6 Aug 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

101 days out for N'Golo Kanté after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Fenerbahce will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Match

The view from the top for Fenerbahce

93 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.

Transfer targets

Fenerbahce rebuffed over Oğuz Aydın

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sivasspor have kept their man, and Fenerbahce go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Market

Anthony Musaba asks to leave Fenerbahce

“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.

Transfer targets

Fenerbahce bid $3.0M for Abdou Fall

The offer went to Adana Demirspor 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.

Transfer targets

No deal for Eren Elmalı at that price

Fenerbahce offered $2.1M; Galatasaray 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.

Boardroom

Fenerbahce go back to the board over Abdou Fall

The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $3.3M — a club that wants Abdou Fall enough to be asked twice.

Market

Roland Sallai wants more than Fenerbahce are offering

“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.

Squad

A row about effort at Fenerbahce

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pablo Hurtado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

In brief

157 Edition

The Adana Demirspor Gazette

30 Jul 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Iliass Bel Hassani breaks a bone — 81 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 81 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Market

Abdou Fall has said yes to Basaksehir

The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Adana Demirspor have lost him in all but the paperwork.

Transfer targets

Adana Demirspor agree $200.0K for Vukan Savićević

The clubs have shaken hands with Gaziantep; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.

Market

Adana Demirspor say no — this time

The offer from Basaksehir for Hasan Yakub İlçin 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.

Market

Business is business: René Mitongo goes

Basaksehir paid $2.9M and Adana Demirspor took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.

Boardroom

Adana Demirspor go back to the board over Mehmet Unai

The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $611.9K — a club that wants Mehmet Unai enough to be asked twice.

Transfer targets

Adana Demirspor make their move for Mehmet Unai

$530.0K on the table at Fatih Karagumruk. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.

Squad

Abdou Fall is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.

Squad

A falling-out at Adana Demirspor

Taylan Bulut and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

In brief

157 Edition

The Fenerbahce Sentinel

30 Jul 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A fracture rules N'Golo Kanté out for 110 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Fenerbahce will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Market

Kojo Peprah Oppong 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 Fenerbahce can pretend not to have heard.

Transfer targets

No deal for Abdou Fall at that price

Fenerbahce offered $3.0M; Adana Demirspor 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.

Transfer targets

Door shut on René Mitongo

Fenerbahce 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 dugout

Cenk Tokoz keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Fenerbahce may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Squad

A row about effort at Fenerbahce

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pablo Hurtado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

The step up is real for Abdullah Dursun

At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.

Squad

A late step up for Ahmet Arslan

At 35 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.

The dugout

No hiding place for Ognjen Mimović

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ognjen Mimović, and the manager let it.

In brief

156 Edition

The Adana Demirspor Gazette

23 Jul 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Market

René Mitongo agrees terms with Basaksehir

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Adana Demirspor people have started saying his name in the past tense.

Squad

90 days out for Iliass Bel Hassani after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Adana Demirspor will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Market

Abdullah Yiğiter 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 Adana Demirspor can pretend not to have heard.

Market

Alanyaspor come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Adana Demirspor did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Squad

The step up is real for René Mitongo

At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.

Boardroom

Adana Demirspor go back to the board over Yusuf Nacar

The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $170.0K — a club that wants Yusuf Nacar enough to be asked twice.

Transfer targets

The paperwork begins on Musa Danjuma

A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Adana Demirspor have done the hard part with Hatayspor, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.

Transfer targets

Adana Demirspor bid $160.0K for Yusuf Nacar

The offer went to Gaziantep 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.

Squad

Late improvement for Enes Keskin

At 28 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.

In brief

156 Edition

The Fenerbahce Sentinel

23 Jul 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A fracture rules N'Golo Kanté out for 120 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Fenerbahce will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Market

Diogo Gonçalves asks to leave Fenerbahce

“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.

Transfer targets

Fenerbahce rebuffed over Tugra Turhan

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Adana Demirspor have kept their man, and Fenerbahce go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Transfer targets

Fenerbahce bid $3.0M for Abdou Fall

The offer went to Adana Demirspor 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.

Squad

N'Golo Kanté 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 Fenerbahce this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Boardroom

Fenerbahce go back to the board over Abdou Fall

The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $3.3M — a club that wants Abdou Fall enough to be asked twice.

Squad

The step up is real for Daniel Amoh

At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.

Squad

Late improvement for Abbosbek Fayzullayev

At 25 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.

The dugout

N'Golo Kanté has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Fenerbahce 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.

In brief

155 Edition

The Adana Demirspor Gazette

16 Jul 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A fracture rules Iliass Bel Hassani out for 99 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Adana Demirspor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Market

Adana Demirspor say no — this time

The offer from Basaksehir for Tugra Turhan 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.

Market

Mücahit Serbest asks to leave Adana Demirspor

“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.

Squad

Emre Gökay is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.

Boardroom

Adana Demirspor go back to the board over Yusuf Nacar

The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $170.0K — a club that wants Yusuf Nacar enough to be asked twice.

Transfer targets

Too dear: Adana Demirspor walk away from Yusuf Nacar

$150.0K was the most the club would pay and Gaziantep were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.

Market

Alanyaspor join the queue for Abdou Fall

Add another name to the list: Alanyaspor have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Abdou Fall. The answer from Adana Demirspor has not changed — yet.

Squad

Late improvement for Ufuk Akyol

At 31 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.

Transfer targets

Adana Demirspor rebuffed over Doğan Alemdar

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Basaksehir have kept their man, and Adana Demirspor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

In brief

152 Edition

The Adana Demirspor Gazette

25 Jun 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Market

Terms done: Tugra Turhan is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Basaksehir waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Adana Demirspor is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Boardroom

The silence upstairs is getting loud at Adana Demirspor

Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.

Squad

122 days out for Iliass Bel Hassani after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Adana Demirspor will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Market

Emre Gökay puts it in writing

“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 Adana Demirspor, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

Taylan Bulut 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 Adana Demirspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Transfer targets

Too dear: Adana Demirspor walk away from Miraç Şimşek

$330.0K was the most the club would pay and Ankaragucu were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Oleh Slobodian

“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.

Market

Talks stall between Adana Demirspor and Hasan Yakub İlçin

“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.

Market

The Abdullah Yiğiter question follows Adana Demirspor around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Abdullah Yiğiter’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

In brief

147 Edition

The Adana Demirspor Gazette

21 May 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings

Emre Gökay beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 35. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad

Atakan Kesgin 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.

Match

Kayserispor take the points off Adana Demirspor

Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

The dugout

Interim Coach faces the questions

“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.

The dugout

Mattheus Oliveira knocks on the manager’s door

“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mattheus Oliveira trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

The dugout

Abdou Fall 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.

The dugout

Mücahit Serbest 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.

Market

Taylan Bulut linked with a move away

The name of Taylan Bulut keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Adana Demirspor say nothing, which says plenty.

Player ratings

Tugra Turhan keeps on missing

Shots: 8, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.

In brief