Marked for Tim Strootman
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Jul 2034
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Antalyaspor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom3 Jul 2034
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Boardroom3 Jul 2034
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Market3 Jul 2034
“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 The request is on a desk at Antalyaspor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market3 Jul 2034
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Antalyaspor have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market3 Jul 2034
Rutger Niezing has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Antalyaspor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market3 Jul 2034
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad3 Jul 2034
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Bünyamin Balcı commits to Antalyaspor for another 2 years.
Squad3 Jul 2034
Savaş Ala 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. Savaş Ala has, at Antalyaspor, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom27 Mar 2034
The scrutiny sharpens at Antalyaspor
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Antalyaspor is running low.
Market27 Mar 2034
Only the photograph left for Thomas Leggio
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Thomas Leggio will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Antalyaspor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom27 Mar 2034
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.
Squad27 Mar 2034
Words at Antalyaspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michel 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 dugout27 Mar 2034
“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 dugout27 Mar 2034
Victor Olatunji has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Antalyaspor 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.
Market27 Mar 2034
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Hugo Lacroix has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Antalyaspor.
Market27 Mar 2034
Still no signature from Michel
1 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Antalyaspor could get for him.
Market27 Mar 2034
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ersin Destanoğlu signs something — a contract at Antalyaspor or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match23 Feb 2034
Antalyaspor do the business in Europe
5‑3. Continental football is where a club finds out what it actually is, and Antalyaspor came through the finding-out well against Slovacko.
Boardroom27 Feb 2034
Pressure builds in the Antalyaspor boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Match23 Feb 2034
3 behind and going nowhere, until Aral Şimşir decided otherwise. Slovacko had done the hard part and then watched it come apart, and the noise at the final whistle was the sort a ground keeps.
Squad27 Feb 2034
Aral Şimşir takes the match ball home
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Market27 Feb 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Antalyaspor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad27 Feb 2034
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.
Player ratings27 Feb 2034
Emre Kaplan, 33, rolls back the years — 8.08
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.08 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The dugout27 Feb 2034
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Antalyaspor may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings27 Feb 2034
A performance of 10.00 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
In brief
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Match
Another one collected away from home
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Squad
Michel falls out with a teammate over standards
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Player ratings
Ali Osman Kalın runs at them all day
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market13 Jun 2033
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Antalyaspor have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market13 Jun 2033
“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 targets13 Jun 2033
Antalyaspor asked and Ankaragucu said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market13 Jun 2033
The offer from Hatayspor for Ege Albayrak 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.
Squad13 Jun 2033
Victor Olatunji and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market13 Jun 2033
Doğucan Haspolat has left for Fenerbahce in a $370.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad13 Jun 2033
Words at Antalyaspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michel 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.
Boardroom13 Jun 2033
Kasimpasa will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Ryan Manning has pre-agreed a move to Antalyaspor, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Squad13 Jun 2033
“The easiest signature of my career.” Tim Strootman and Antalyaspor agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.