Marked for Ousseynou Ba
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Nov 2026
Eldor Shomurodov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match7 Nov 2026
After 8 games, Basaksehir finally taste it again
The first defeat in 8 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Galatasaray; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Muhammed Şengezer, and the manager let it.
Match7 Nov 2026
0‑2 to Galatasaray, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Market9 Nov 2026
Ousseynou Ba is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Basaksehir has been clear about where Ousseynou Ba stands, which is more than many ever get.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Ömer Ali Şahiner 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.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Basaksehir told Çağlar Söyüncü something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match31 Oct 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Kayserispor, and it could have been more.
Match31 Oct 2026
Nobody wants to play Basaksehir right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Basaksehir
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jerome Opoku was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Ousseynou Ba 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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Abbosbek Fayzullayev was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.46. 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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
A performance of 8.34 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad2 Nov 2026
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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Davie Selke was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.02. 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.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Ousseynou Ba 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match24 Oct 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Gaziantep, and it could have been more.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.48, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match24 Oct 2026
Still nobody has beaten Basaksehir
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Basaksehir training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jerome Opoku 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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Marked 8.21 — 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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Ufuk Akgun on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Looking ahead26 Oct 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Olivier Kemen’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Basaksehir needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The dugout26 Oct 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
Upbeat
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 54. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Çağlar Söyüncü 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Abbosbek Fayzullayev and Basaksehir agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Basaksehir training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jerome Opoku 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 dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Ufuk Akgun was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Basaksehir dressing room was either.
Match3 Oct 2026
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Sivasspor came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
Market5 Oct 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Basaksehir know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
No place in the plan for Ousseynou Ba
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.