Successful dribbles: 30. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Kayserispor know it.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at Kayserispor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joshua Brenet 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Kayserispor, and 2 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
Niklas Hildebrandt 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.
Joshua Brenet 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.
“I watch every Kayserispor game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Gaziantep runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Kayserispor are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Kayserispor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Kayserispor has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Semih Güler 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 Joshua Brenet was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Talha Sarıarslan and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Kayserispor, and 1 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Joshua Brenet
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Kayserispor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Gaziantep have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Enver Kulašin 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.
Konyaspor next, and one man in the Gaziantep dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until İsak Vural signs something — a contract at Gaziantep or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Gaziantep will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
Kasimpasa wanted more than $29.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Kayserispor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joshua Brenet 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Kayserispor, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Kayserispor keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
$320.0K was the most the club would pay and Keciorengucu were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Gaziantep know it.
14 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Gaziantep waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Kayserispor is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
39 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Kayserispor have gone to Trabzonspor with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Kayserispor are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Lionel Carole 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
7 new faces, and Kayserispor 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.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Abdullah Soyuncu has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Gaziantep have done the hard part with Kayserispor, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The offer went to Keciorengucu this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bandirmaspor have kept their man, and Gaziantep go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Gaziantep will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Merih Turuc 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Gaziantep told Myenty Abena something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Kojo Peprah Oppong was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kacper Kozłowski trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Kayserispor heard it as anything else.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $425.5K — a club that wants Papis Dembelé enough to be asked twice.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kayserispor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Alanyaspor have kept their man, and Kayserispor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Hüsamettin Yener and Kayserispor agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Kayserispor are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
A season-long audition: Fenerbahce still own him, but the shirt and the minutes are Gaziantep's to give. A loan is a bet both clubs believe they are winning.
A season-long look at somebody else’s player: Volkan Kokcu arrives from Trabzonspor with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.
In brief
SquadTaylan Aydın has seen what the next man earns
The dugoutVictor Gidado knocks on the manager's door
The fee is $64.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Erzurumspor drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Hüsamettin Yener is living that version at Kayserispor, and it tends to show in the first month.
Kayserispor offered $77.0K; Keciorengucu said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Kayserispor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joshua Brenet 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.
Joshua Brenet 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.
$170.0K was the most the club would pay and Trabzonspor were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
11 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Hakan Turuc has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ozan Sahin has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Mahmut Ozil has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Sinan Dursun has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
5 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.
In brief
The dugoutJoshua Brenet knocks on the manager's door