The words a physio says slowly. 14 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.
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.
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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Ankaragucu, and 0 appearances in 14 say he has earned the hearing.
15 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ankaragucu know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.29 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Rıdvan Yılmaz 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.
Defensive actions: 22. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Stefan Savić 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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ankaragucu can pretend not to have heard.
David Simón 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.
“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.
Player ratings17 Jan 2028
Emre Mor was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.38. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words at Ankaragucu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. İsmail Çokçalış 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Ankaragucu told Ahmet Arslan something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jens Aslaksrud provided it, and the 7.83 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mert Can will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ankaragucu the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Mert Can has agreed terms with Sivasspor for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ankaragucu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Stefan Savić 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.
113 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ankaragucu lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two goals and a mark of 8.30 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ankaragucu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Stefan Savić 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.
At 20 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.
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ankaragucu lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Ankaragucu can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ankaragucu can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ankaragucu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
At 29 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
7 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
In brief
BoardroomAnkaragucu pull $584.6K back off the table
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ankaragucu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Stefan Savić 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.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ankaragucu lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Ankaragucu can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ankaragucu have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ankaragucu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Anthony Musaba. 3‑2 against Istanbulspor, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Istanbulspor spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
19 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.
110 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ankaragucu lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ankaragucu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Ankaragucu has been clear about where Yusuf Emre Gültekin stands, which is more than many ever get.
In brief
Player ratingsAn afternoon Stefan Savić will want back
The run now stands at 16, and the questions being asked around Ankaragucu are no longer polite ones.
The terraces4 Jan 2027
The mood at Ankaragucu has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
13 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Ankaragucu can tell you which week it ends in.
133 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ankaragucu lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Ankaragucu
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Hakan Yildirim has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ankaragucu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Position 18 and 8 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ankaragucu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
15 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.
12 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Ankaragucu can tell you which week it ends in.
Anthony Musaba 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.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Danijel Zagorac knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Squad21 Dec 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Danijel Zagorac's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ankaragucu have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Anthony Musaba 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad9 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Mahmut Tekdemir's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.