Khalfan Juma 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.
Marked 8.55 — 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.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 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 Konyaspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Diogo Gonçalves 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.
“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 Konyaspor, and 7 appearances in 11 say he has earned the hearing.
Shots: 7. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Konyaspor know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Shots: 6. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
In brief
SquadBerkan Kutlu has seen what the next man earns
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Guilherme 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.
Marked 8.75 — 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.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Konyaspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Shots: 7. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Giresunspor will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Konyaspor were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Konyaspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 9.91 — 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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Diogo Gonçalves 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.
Marked 9.69 — 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.
Marked 9.39 — 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Konyaspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Deniz Ertaş knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jackson Muleka signs something — a contract at Konyaspor or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The offer from Basaksehir for Adil Demirbağ was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Konyaspor 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 Konyaspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.74 — 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.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Konyaspor have had the benefit of it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Konyaspor 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: Blaž Kramer. 2‑1 against Kayserispor, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.23 — 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.
Diogo Gonçalves 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Konyaspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Diogo Gonçalves 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.
Shots: 7. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Marked 8.87 — 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Konyaspor know it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Konyaspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Konyaspor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
4 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.
Guilherme 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.
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Konyaspor have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Diogo Gonçalves 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.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Konyaspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 9.06 — 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.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Deniz Ertaş knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Diogo Gonçalves 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Konyaspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Deniz Türüç trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. Konyaspor would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Konyaspor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Konyaspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Konyaspor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Konyaspor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Diogo Gonçalves 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Deniz Ertaş signs something — a contract at Konyaspor or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Konyaspor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Guilherme 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Pablo Erustes. 2‑0 against Istanbulspor, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Diogo Gonçalves 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 name of Morten Bjørlo has come up in conversations Konyaspor were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Marked 8.20 — 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 24 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Diogo Gonçalves 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Konyaspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Diogo Gonçalves 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.
A 3‑1 win over Fatih Karagumruk, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Marked 9.24 — 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Konyaspor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Shots: 5. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
In brief
The terracesThe press have found their man in Blaž Kramer
The chase for Hüseyin Türkmen ended with $2.1M changing hands and Antalyaspor out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Morten Bjørlo reports back to Konyaspor with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Gastón Sauro 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Konyaspor can pretend not to have heard.
Guilherme 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.
Marcelo Herrera is 34 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Konyaspor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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 Konyaspor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Ankaragucu paid $1.4M and Konyaspor took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all 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 Konyaspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.03 — 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.