Marked for Mustafa Demiral
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Nov 2026
47 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Giresunspor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match7 Nov 2026
4 matches without a win for Giresunspor
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Giresunspor are no longer polite ones.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Mathias Fjørtoft Løvik 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Giresunspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thiago Ennes 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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Cüneyt Köz, and the manager let it.
Match7 Nov 2026
0‑1 to Istanbulspor, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Giresunspor told Mathias Fjørtoft Løvik something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad2 Nov 2026
54 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Giresunspor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A one-man rearguard from Jacopo Sassi
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.
Match31 Oct 2026
0‑5 against Trabzonspor, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Mathias Fjørtoft Løvik 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Federico Ortiz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Giresunspor 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.
Market2 Nov 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑5, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Mehmet 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Oct 2026
Mustafa Demiral damages knee ligaments — 62 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 62 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Ahmet Arslan 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A muscle injury and 14 days out for Halil Can Cemali
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Giresunspor will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Marked 8.28 — 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
Late, late show earns Giresunspor a point
Minute 88, against Hatayspor, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
24 new faces, and Giresunspor are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Match24 Oct 2026
It needed Santiago Kojro to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Hatayspor, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Thiago Ennes
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
In brief
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Market
Mehmet Keskin told to find a new club
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The dugout
Thiago Ennes knocks on the manager's door
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Oct 2026
71 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Giresunspor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Giresunspor may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A one-man rearguard from Jacopo Sassi
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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Yiğit Efe Demir is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Up for the corner, and Alperen Aydın delivers — 7.50
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Alperen Aydın scored, was marked 7.50, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Giresunspor can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Match17 Oct 2026
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Jacopo Sassi
“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 dugout19 Oct 2026
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 1‑3 Deniz Guler left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
Mustafa Demiral damages knee ligaments — 80 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 80 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mathias Fjørtoft Løvik is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Jacopo Sassi 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Federico Ortiz 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 dugout12 Oct 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Giresunspor told Arif Kocaman something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Göktan Cörüt
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Oct 2026
87 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Giresunspor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match3 Oct 2026
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Giresunspor scored in the 94th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Yiğit Efe Demir and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Oct 2026
At 19 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
It had gone 6 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Giresunspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ahmet Arslan 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.
The terraces5 Oct 2026
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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Ankaragucu made Giresunspor work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Bartu Göçmen
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Sep 2026
Mustafa Demiral damages knee ligaments — 95 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 95 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
6 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
The goals have deserted Giresunspor
6 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Giresunspor can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Arif Kocaman 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Ahmet Arslan 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 ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Fer Pina
“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.
Match26 Sep 2026
0‑1 to Adana Demirspor, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Vitinho 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.