“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 The request is on a desk at Hatayspor, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hatayspor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Elson Mendes will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hatayspor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Hatayspor people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Rıdvan 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Muhammed Cham was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Fatih Karagumruk have kept their man, and Hatayspor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kerem Kayaarası provided it, and the 8.76 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Hatayspor they have already started talking about him 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 Hatayspor can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hatayspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals in one match, Kerem Kayaarası on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Hatayspor and Umraniyespor.
A 4‑2 win over Umraniyespor, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad15 Apr 2030
Words at Hatayspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Muhammed Cham 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.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hatayspor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Rıdvan 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.
Squad15 Oct 2029
Words at Hatayspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Avramovski 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.
“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 dugout15 Oct 2029
The manager has not finished forgetting Taylan Bulut's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Hatayspor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The mood at Hatayspor 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.
8 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Giresunspor were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Chibuike Nwaiwu 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.
Squad8 Oct 2029
Muhammed Cham 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.
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.
A performance of 8.31 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings8 Oct 2029
Taylan Bulut was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.14. 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.
The mood at Hatayspor 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Hatayspor have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Simão Bertelli will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hatayspor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hatayspor can pretend not to have heard.
At 23 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.
Chibuike Nwaiwu 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Fabián Ocampos will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hatayspor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Chibuike Nwaiwu 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 May 2029
Alperen Aydın 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.
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 Kerem Kayaarası is on it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Hatayspor, another week without a signature from Bernardo Antunes.