Marked for Daniel Johnson
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Feb 2027
Daniele Verde 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Fatih Karagumruk will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad15 Feb 2027
7 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Tim Jabol-Folcarelli 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.
Transfer targets15 Feb 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“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 dugout15 Feb 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Halil Ozan after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Loan watch15 Feb 2027
15 appearances away from home and 9 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Daniele Verde
93 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Fatih Karagumruk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match13 Jan 2027
Out, 1‑2 to Galatasaray, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Match16 Jan 2027
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 90th minute. Adana Demirspor will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Age has not caught Daniel Johnson yet — 8.05
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.05 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Batuhan Şen 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Tim Jabol-Folcarelli 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.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
Fatih Karagumruk asked and Kayserispor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match16 Jan 2027
A 2‑1 win over Adana Demirspor, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Oct 2026
8 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 ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Aleksandar Pešić and Fatih Karagumruk agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fatih Karagumruk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
At 27 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Match3 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout5 Oct 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.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
João Camacho 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 João Camacho is on it.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The plan did not have a place for Brinner
Nobody at Fatih Karagumruk is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match26 Sep 2026
Hatayspor will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Fatih Karagumruk were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.14 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Batuhan Şen 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Tim Jabol-Folcarelli 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.14, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Daniel Johnson, and the manager let it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
11 new faces, and Fatih Karagumruk 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Baris Soyuncu and Fatih Karagumruk agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Halil Ozan kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.