Marked for László Bénes
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad25 Jan 2027
18 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kayserispor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad25 Jan 2027
86 days out for Majid Hosseini after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Kayserispor will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market25 Jan 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Istanbulspor waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Kayserispor is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad25 Jan 2027
László Bénes in a row with a teammate
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.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Kayserispor asked and Istanbulspor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The terraces25 Jan 2027
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match23 Jan 2027
It finished 1‑0, and it was Talha Sarıarslan’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Kayserispor.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
A performance of 8.13 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match26 Dec 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 5‑2 against Giresunspor, and it could have been more.
Squad28 Dec 2026
119 days out for Majid Hosseini after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Kayserispor will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
A brace, and Talha Sarıarslan takes the afternoon — 10.00
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Talha Sarıarslan provided it, and the 10.00 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.98, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad28 Dec 2026
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Fedor Chalov 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.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Fedor Chalov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.84. 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.
Match28 Dec 2026
The half-term report on Kayserispor
Position 14, 16 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
In brief
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Loan watch
Arif Kocaman counts the days
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Player ratings
László Bénes runs at them all day
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Dec 2026
Majid Hosseini breaks a bone — 143 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 143 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad7 Dec 2026
László Bénes and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Loan watch7 Dec 2026
“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 3 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Luis Boiero, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Kayserispor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kayra Cihan 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Jadel Katongo has moved up it.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Bilal Bayazıt knocks on the manager's door
“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.
Looking ahead7 Dec 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Burak Kapacak’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Kayserispor needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad16 Nov 2026
There were 10 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match11 Nov 2026
Besiktas ended it 0‑4. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
The terraces16 Nov 2026
A cup hiding at Besiktas leaves Kayserispor explaining themselves
0-4, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
Match14 Nov 2026
6 matches without a win for Kayserispor
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Kayserispor are no longer polite ones.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Fedor Chalov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match14 Nov 2026
4 matches without a goal for Kayserispor
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
László Bénes gets it from the manager
“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.
Match14 Nov 2026
0‑1 to Ankaragucu, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ernando was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑3 by Antalyaspor, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad28 Sep 2026
László Bénes 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 dugout28 Sep 2026
“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.
Boardroom28 Sep 2026
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
The chances came and went for Fedor Chalov
5 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Furkan Soyalp knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Furkan Soyalp trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 11. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Sep 2026
Chastening afternoon for Kayserispor
A 0‑5 beating by Fenerbahce was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad21 Sep 2026
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Fedor Chalov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to László Bénes, and the manager let it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Appearance number 200 for László Bénes
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Ernando 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.
Boardroom21 Sep 2026
Nobody left the Kayserispor dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Mert Kahveci after 0‑5, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Leyton Orient keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Fedor Chalov 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
Giresunspor pay $600.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
László Bénes beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Marked 8.11 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Match15 Aug 2026
Level with 96 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Kayserispor had all but put away. Giresunspor will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A touch he did not mean and a goal that goes in the book with his name against it. Kayserispor will not blame him tonight and he will not need them to.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Carrarese: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
Fenerbahce come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Kayserispor did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market10 Aug 2026
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Leyton Orient, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad10 Aug 2026
László Bénes 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Semih Güler commits to Kayserispor for another 3 years.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Okay Tosun is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ahmet Ozan is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Ernando 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.