Kenneth Aké

Right Back - Istanbulspor
9 Feb 2033
Wednesday
Process

Marked for Kenneth Aké

315 Edition

The Istanbulspor Gazette

9 Aug 2032
From our football correspondent Uneasy

The terraces

Supporters organise against the Istanbulspor board

A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.

Squad

A row about effort at Istanbulspor

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

Transfer targets

Juventud tell Istanbulspor: Emiliano Machado 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

Tempers go at Istanbulspor

Michael Ologo 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.

Market

Sarp Yavrucu attracts admirers

The name of Sarp Yavrucu has come up in conversations Istanbulspor were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.

The dugout

Mustafa Sol 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 Mustafa Sol is on it.

Market

The Noah Saviolo talk will not go away

Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Istanbulspor know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.

The dugout

Ertuğrul Sandıkcı knocks on the manager's door

“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Istanbulspor, and both men came out saying it was fine.

Squad

Mustafa Sol can feel the drop

The table is being checked before the results are in, which is always the tell. Nobody at Istanbulspor says the word and every senior player in the building is thinking it.

In brief

Back issues
307 Edition

The Istanbulspor Gazette

14 Jun 2032
From our football correspondent Uneasy

The terraces

Supporters organise against the Istanbulspor board

A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.

Market

Ertuğrul Sandıkcı agrees terms with Umraniyespor

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

Squad

Tempers go at Istanbulspor

Noah Saviolo 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.

Market

Kenneth Aké is a Istanbulspor 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

Istanbulspor rebuffed over Cenk Inan

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

Squad

David Sambissa 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

Gaziantep are about to pick up the phone

A conversation is coming this week. Istanbulspor will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.

Transfer targets

Istanbulspor try to borrow Niko Pavičić Ivelja

Hajduk Split 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.

Squad

Kenneth Aké signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kenneth Aké and Istanbulspor agree another 3 years.

In brief