Marked for Cengiz Ünder
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match21 Nov 2026
Nobody wants to play Besiktas 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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Devis Vásquez: 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.” Besiktas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Besiktas
Orkun Kökçü and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match21 Nov 2026
Gaziantep made Besiktas work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
A performance of 8.15 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Cengiz Ünder
“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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Recep Tasci, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Market23 Nov 2026
The Orkun Kökçü story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Orkun Kökçü signs something — a contract at Besiktas or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market2 Nov 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Besiktas heard it as anything else.
Match31 Oct 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Václav Černý’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Besiktas.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Marked 7.80 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Besiktas had the best player on the pitch.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Recep Tasci, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Player of the week, judged against every other man in the division. A small award, and one most careers never collect.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 13 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings2 Nov 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 15 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ernest Poku is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Orkun Kökçü 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.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
The fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes Besiktas will be judged on one thing only.
The dugout12 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.
The dugout12 Oct 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Leandro Trossard has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Market12 Oct 2026
The Orkun Kökçü talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Besiktas know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Fenerbahce in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Oct 2026
25 days out for Gökhan Sazdağı after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Besiktas will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.91, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Besiktas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Orkun Kökçü 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Genclerbirligi made Besiktas work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Alexander Nübel
“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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A smaller club would suit Orkun Kökçü now
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Besiktas can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Too much change too quickly at Besiktas
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Recep Tasci: “That is the standard”
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 3‑1, already talking about the next one.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Sep 2026
41 days out for Gökhan Sazdağı after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Besiktas will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Orkun Kökçü in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Besiktas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Ernest Poku beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Cengiz Ünder, and the manager let it.
Match20 Sep 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Trabzonspor leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
Everybody has an opinion about Alexander Nübel
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Recep Tasci was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Besiktas dressing room was either.
Market21 Sep 2026
The Václav Černý talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Besiktas know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.