Marked for Cem Eroğlu
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Sep 2027
The knee: Yunus Akgün out for 133 days
133 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Galatasaray lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Cem Eroğlu is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Mauro Icardi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Janderson was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.06. 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wilfried Zaha was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
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.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mauro Icardi, and the manager let it.
The dugout27 Sep 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 Lucas Torreira is on it.
Match25 Sep 2027
It needed Janderson to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Samsunspor, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market30 Aug 2027
“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.
Market30 Aug 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
The terraces30 Aug 2027
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.
Match28 Aug 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Janderson. 1‑0 against Konyaspor, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad30 Aug 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Galatasaray can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
A performance of 8.12 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wilfried Zaha was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad30 Aug 2027
5 Galatasaray players away with their countries
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 5 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
Squad30 Aug 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Cem Eroğlu and Galatasaray agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market28 Jun 2027
“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 Galatasaray, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market28 Jun 2027
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Mauro Icardi had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Market28 Jun 2027
Davinson Sánchez has left for Kayserispor in a $15.8M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Market28 Jun 2027
Bodrum FK come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Galatasaray did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Noa Lang 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Festy Ebosele arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Festy Ebosele has, at Galatasaray, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Arda Yılmaz is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Cem Eroğlu and Galatasaray agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
When it matters, Noa Lang 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
Squad16 Nov 2026
Noa Lang 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.
Market16 Nov 2026
“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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Mauro Icardi
“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 dugout16 Nov 2026
When it matters, Rafael Leão 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.
Market16 Nov 2026
The Rafael Leão talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Galatasaray know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
11 appearances away from home and 6 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Galatasaray. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
10 starts and an average of 6.69. He went there to play and he is playing, which is the only thing a loan was ever for.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Davinson Sánchez has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.