The mood at Giresunspor 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.
1‑4 to Galatasaray, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Boardroom31 Dec 2029
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Giresunspor
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
José Tamburelli 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 36 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.
Position 17 and 9 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 Giresunspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Zaven Khudaverdyan has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
8.62. 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.
Marked 5.42. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Giresunspor 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 Giresunspor can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Giresunspor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
José Tamburelli 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.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Words at Giresunspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arif Kocaman 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Giresunspor has been clear about where Lucas Chacana stands, which is more than many ever get.
The loan was meant to give him football. 0 games and 0 goals later he is back at Giresunspor no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their doing.
The words a physio says slowly. 61 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.
Position 17 and 27 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.
“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 Giresunspor, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Giresunspor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings30 Apr 2029
Up for the corner, and Arif Kocaman delivers — 7.98
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Arif Kocaman scored, was marked 7.98, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Giresunspor will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Giresunspor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
85 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Giresunspor 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 Giresunspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Taylan Bulut 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.
José Tamburelli 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.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Words at Giresunspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Taylan Bulut 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Giresunspor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The offer from Sumgayit for Quincy Mac Donald 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Giresunspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Words at Giresunspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valentino Pereyra 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.
7 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Giresunspor can pretend not to have heard.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Aleksa Čolović is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
José Tamburelli 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.
At 34 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.
6 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Giresunspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Doğukan Sinik has improved at 29, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Lukáš Šimko has just signed for Giresunspor, and for once the answer mattered.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Giresunspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces12 Jun 2028
Giresunspor spend $4.1M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $4.1M for Doğukan Sinik, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Samuel Tammivuori and Giresunspor agree another 3 years.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Ja’far Tuxtaboyev has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Giresunspor have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
In brief
SquadWords at Giresunspor training over how hard people work
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.
The offer from AS Trencin for Peter Guinari 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.
Petr Pudhorocký 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.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Peter Pokorný 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 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 MFK Skalica know it.
It is the least glamorous business a club does and the reason seasons do not collapse in February. Bakar Laghadze is here for the weeks when three men are injured and somebody still has to play.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at MFK Skalica is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Roman Potočný 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.
In brief
SquadWords at MFK Skalica training over how hard people work
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.
Position 12 and 12 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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Tomáš Smejkal 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MFK Skalica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lukáš Šimko will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around MFK Skalica the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Martin Nagy 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.
Peter Guinari 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 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.
Position 12 and 12 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 MFK Skalica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Peter Pokorný 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.
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee MFK Skalica could ask drops and the wages Lukáš Šimko can ask rise.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at MFK Skalica is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words at MFK Skalica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Peter Pokorný 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.
Peter Guinari 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 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.
“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 MFK Skalica, and it is not being withdrawn.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Petr Pudhorocký and MFK Skalica agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about 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 MFK Skalica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Peter Pokorný 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.