Marked for Marcus Danielson
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 May 2027
The small margins put Basaksehir out
Out, 0‑2 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.
Squad24 May 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Basaksehir this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 May 2027
Marcus Danielson 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.
Squad24 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Olivier Kemen, and the manager let it.
Squad24 May 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Bertuğ Yıldırım's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The terraces24 May 2027
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
A brace, and Andreas Skov Olsen takes the afternoon — 8.87
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Andreas Skov Olsen provided it, and the 8.87 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad12 Apr 2027
17 goals and a season average of 7.31. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Andreas Skov Olsen 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 Apr 2027
16 shut-outs and counting. Goalkeepers are only noticed when they fail, and Muhammed Şengezer has given nobody the chance.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Basaksehir training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcus Danielson 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Mar 2027
Muhammed Şengezer damages knee ligaments — 14 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 14 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.
Market29 Mar 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match27 Mar 2027
The wait goes on for Basaksehir
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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Fred 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Basaksehir training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leyvin Balanta 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.
Squad29 Mar 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.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Ivan Brnić runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Loan watch29 Mar 2027
“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 Basaksehir, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.65 on the card, and the Basaksehir support went home talking about one name.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market1 Mar 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
26 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Andreas Skov Olsen 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Basaksehir are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad1 Mar 2027
A last season at home is what Marcus Danielson is after
It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Basaksehir training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leyvin Balanta 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.
Loan watch1 Mar 2027
“I watch every Basaksehir game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Dinamo Tbilisi runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Marked 7.52. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Muhammed Şengezer 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.
Market25 Jan 2027
The phone has started ringing about Yusuf Sarı again, and this time the name on the line is Fatih Karagumruk. Basaksehir are listening politely and promising nothing.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 20 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Leyvin Balanta 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.
Squad25 Jan 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Bertuğ Yıldırım's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
14 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Match23 Jan 2027
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Antalyaspor came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match26 Dec 2026
4‑1, and Andreas Skov Olsen took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Basaksehir tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Squad28 Dec 2026
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Match26 Dec 2026
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.
Squad28 Dec 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 Basaksehir this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.04, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match26 Dec 2026
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Hatayspor tried to reorganise, Basaksehir did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Dec 2026
Marcus Danielson damages knee ligaments — 20 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 20 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.
Match12 Dec 2026
Giresunspor will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Basaksehir were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad14 Dec 2026
The match ball belongs to Jerome Opoku, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Match12 Dec 2026
3 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.
Squad14 Dec 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 Basaksehir this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Jerome Opoku was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.49. 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.
Match12 Dec 2026
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Giresunspor tried to reorganise, Basaksehir did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Leyvin Balanta 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 ratings14 Dec 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.27, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Marcus Danielson
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Basaksehir lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match7 Dec 2026
Basaksehir are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 35 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Ivan Brnić: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Basaksehir have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad7 Dec 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 Basaksehir this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match5 Dec 2026
A 1‑0 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.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Andreas Skov Olsen was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.41. 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 ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 15 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Ivan Brnić 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad30 Nov 2026
Marcus Danielson damages knee ligaments — 36 days out
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.
Match28 Nov 2026
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.81 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Muhammed Şengezer 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 ratings30 Nov 2026
Marked 8.12 — 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Jerome Opoku 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.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
18 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Marcus Danielson
44 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Basaksehir lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Andreas Skov Olsen 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Basaksehir training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leyvin Balanta 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Marcus Danielson
51 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Basaksehir lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match11 Nov 2026
Kayserispor are out and Basaksehir go through, 1‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match11 Nov 2026
Basaksehir win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 90th minute. Kayserispor will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad16 Nov 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 Basaksehir this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces16 Nov 2026
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match14 Nov 2026
0‑1 to Besiktas, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
A performance of 8.05 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad16 Nov 2026
57 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Marcus Danielson
60 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Basaksehir lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match7 Nov 2026
Beaten 0‑3 by Galatasaray, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Andreas Skov Olsen 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad2 Nov 2026
Marcus Danielson damages knee ligaments — 68 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 68 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
Basaksehir keep winning on the road
6 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Match31 Oct 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 8 matches without defeat is a foundation Basaksehir did not have in the autumn.
Match31 Oct 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Bertuğ Yıldırım’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Basaksehir.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Leyvin Balanta 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 ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Marcus Danielson
76 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Basaksehir lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match26 Oct 2026
Basaksehir refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 26 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
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
Leyvin Balanta 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 ratings26 Oct 2026
Marked 8.18 — 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad19 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Marcus Danielson
83 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Basaksehir lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.90 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match17 Oct 2026
6 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Muhammed Şengezer 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
A 3‑1 win over Ankaragucu, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Umut Güneş was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.33. 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Squad19 Oct 2026
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Andreas Skov Olsen has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad12 Oct 2026
Marcus Danielson damages knee ligaments — 91 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 91 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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.69, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match10 Oct 2026
Nobody wants to play Basaksehir right now
5 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.
Match10 Oct 2026
Another one collected away from home
5 on the bounce on the road for Basaksehir. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Squad12 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 Basaksehir this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match10 Oct 2026
A 2‑1 win over Kasimpasa, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The terraces12 Oct 2026
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match10 Oct 2026
Basaksehir settle it inside twenty minutes
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Kasimpasa spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad5 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Marcus Danielson
99 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Basaksehir lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A brace, and Bertuğ Yıldırım takes the afternoon — 8.96
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Bertuğ Yıldırım provided it, and the 8.96 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match3 Oct 2026
Nobody wants to play Basaksehir right now
4 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.
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 Basaksehir this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match3 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Bertuğ Yıldırım. 3‑2 against Sivasspor, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad5 Oct 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Basaksehir settle it inside twenty minutes
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Sivasspor spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Marked 8.24 — 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The medical room confirms 33 days on the sidelines for Hamza Güreler, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Marcus Danielson
108 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Basaksehir lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match26 Sep 2026
Umraniyespor will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Basaksehir were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Abbosbek Fayzullayev provided it, and the 8.79 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad28 Sep 2026
The match ball belongs to Andreas Skov Olsen, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Match26 Sep 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Basaksehir have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Andreas Skov Olsen 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Basaksehir are at home on the road
4 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Marked 8.53 — 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Basaksehir settle it inside twenty minutes
3 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Umraniyespor spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer from Kayserispor for Ivan Brnić 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Muhammed Şengezer 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Ousseynou Ba 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 ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match22 Aug 2026
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Trabzonspor came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Marcus Danielson trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market24 Aug 2026
The Davie Selke talk will not go away
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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 12 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
321 appearances across 11 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Market3 Aug 2026
Pyunik come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Basaksehir did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jerome Opoku and Basaksehir agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 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 Basaksehir this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market3 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Inter have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Jakub Kałuziński. The answer from Basaksehir has not changed — yet.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Marcus Danielson 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.