It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rizespor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at Rizespor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jayden Oosterwolde 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.
Marked 8.19 — 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 93. Basaksehir had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Rizespor told Dorgéles Néné something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Can Turuc after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Samet Akaydin
Two goals and a mark of 9.14 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Rizespor can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Ali Sowe 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jayden Oosterwolde was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Dorgéles Néné. 2‑1 against Kasimpasa, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Kasimpasa were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Can Turuc kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Can Turuc has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Jayden Oosterwolde 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Qazim Laci was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Mithat Pala is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Rizespor know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rizespor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Valentin Mihăilă was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
0‑1 to Fatih Karagumruk, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Can Turuc to a room that had heard them before.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Rizespor told Heittor something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
0‑3 to Kayserispor, 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.
Successful dribbles: 28. 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.
The instruction came from the boardroom and the dugout did not agree with it. Somebody will go, the fee will be called good business, and the manager will spend the season rebuilding around the space.
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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Rizespor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jayden Oosterwolde was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Can Turuc after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody at Rizespor will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.03 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rizespor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Boran Başkan has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Rizespor have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ali Sowe. 1‑0 against Gaziantep, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Rizespor close the window on a squad of their own making
6 in and 4 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
“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.
Jayden Oosterwolde 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.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words at Rizespor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valentin Mihăilă 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Samet Akaydin trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout7 Feb 2028
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Can Turuc chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rizespor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 matches without a win, and then this, against Amedspor. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Words at Rizespor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Qazim Laci 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Serikspor have kept their man, and Rizespor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
The deal with Fenerbahce is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rizespor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Rizespor offered $17.0K; Trabzonspor said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The terraces17 Jan 2028
Rizespor spend $13.8M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $13.8M for Dorgéles Néné, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Besiktas have kept their man, and Rizespor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Ibrahim Olawoyin at his very best
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rizespor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words at Rizespor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valentin Mihăilă 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.
Position 13, 18 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.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Can Turuc left the room before anybody could ask which.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rizespor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at Rizespor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Qazim Laci 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.
Nobody at Rizespor is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
“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 Rizespor, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.57 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Ali Sowe 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at Rizespor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valentin Mihăilă 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Adedire Mebude 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.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Can Turuc kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Qazim Laci 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Ali Sowe 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Qazim Laci was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Level with 91 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Rizespor had all but put away. Kayserispor will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Rizespor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Can Turuc was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Rizespor dressing room was either.
Two goals and a mark of 8.77 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
7 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Konyaspor were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rizespor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Qazim Laci 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Facundo Salinas 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.
100 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.
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Qazim Laci 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.
Yoel Marchi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Sep 2027
7 new faces, and Rizespor are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Can Turuc chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rizespor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at Rizespor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valentin Mihăilă 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 6.96, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Position 9 on 42 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Qazim Laci was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rizespor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad3 May 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Mame Mor Faye
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Mame Mor Faye has come out of that comparison in the side, and Rizespor have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
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.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 85th, and Trabzonspor spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
7 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Trabzonspor were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Ali Sowe 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Samet Akaydin, and the manager let it.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Mithat Pala 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.
Besiktas go through and Rizespor go home, 0‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
“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; Rizespor are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rizespor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Qazim Laci was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 88. Basaksehir had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
“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; Rizespor are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Qazim Laci was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rizespor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Ali Sowe was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.06. 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.
Fatih Karagumruk held the lead for 3 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Rizespor answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Rizespor told Taha Şahin something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Qazim Laci was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Loide Augusto 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.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.58 on the card, and the Rizespor support went home talking about one name.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Can Turuc chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Rizespor can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rizespor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Qazim Laci was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The name of Eray Korkmaz has come up in conversations Rizespor were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.