Marked for Mahmut Dervisoglu
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match8 Dec 2031
35 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market8 Dec 2031
“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 The request is on a desk at Galatasaray, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad8 Dec 2031
Mohamed Salah is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.46 with 19 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings8 Dec 2031
Age has not caught Mohamed Salah yet — 7.90
At 39 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.90 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Match6 Dec 2031
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Galatasaray did not have in the autumn.
Squad8 Dec 2031
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Tanguy Coulibaly and Galatasaray agree another 3 years.
Squad8 Dec 2031
The award goes to Mohamed Salah, and nobody around here is inclined to argue with the choice.
Squad8 Dec 2031
Abdulsamed Damlu 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.
Match6 Dec 2031
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market17 Nov 2031
João Gomes hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Galatasaray can pretend not to have heard.
Squad17 Nov 2031
Rodriguinho 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.
The dugout17 Nov 2031
Mohamed Salah 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 Mohamed Salah is on it.
Squad17 Nov 2031
The division's best last weekend was a Galatasaray man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Mohamed Salah was the best thing in any of them.
Looking ahead17 Nov 2031
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Hatayspor in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Loan watch17 Nov 2031
9 appearances away from home and 6 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Market17 Nov 2031
The Gabriel Sara story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gabriel Sara signs something — a contract at Galatasaray or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market17 Nov 2031
Galatasaray have let the market know Mahmut Dervisoglu can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Market17 Nov 2031
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Caner Tufan leaves Galatasaray the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match18 Oct 2031
0‑2, and no way to dress it up. A derby defeat follows a supporter to work on Monday, and this one will follow him all week.
Market20 Oct 2031
“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.
Match18 Oct 2031
After 7 games, Galatasaray finally taste it again
The first defeat in 7 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Fenerbahce; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Squad20 Oct 2031
11 goals and a season average of 7.22. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
The dugout20 Oct 2031
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout20 Oct 2031
Gabriel Sara has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Galatasaray 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.
Squad20 Oct 2031
Words at Galatasaray training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdulsamed Damlu 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 dugout20 Oct 2031
“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.
Looking ahead20 Oct 2031
Alanyaspor next, and one man in the Galatasaray dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.