Marked for Kağan Moradaoğlu
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Sep 2027
Sefa Akgün and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Sep 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; Erzurumspor are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
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 dugout27 Sep 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Market27 Sep 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Kauan Cristtyan has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Erzurumspor.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
“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.
Match25 Sep 2027
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Samsunspor will be the happier side with the point.
Market27 Sep 2027
The name of Brandon Baiye keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Erzurumspor say nothing, which says plenty.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad15 Feb 2027
Orhan Ovacıklı 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.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
No sign of nerves from Renato Nhaga at 19 — 7.78
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Renato Nhaga did not need any: 7.78, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
Kağan Moradaoğlu: 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.” Erzurumspor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Renato Nhaga and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces15 Feb 2027
At 19 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.
Match13 Feb 2027
Bodrum FK made Erzurumspor work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Marked 7.80. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Mustafa Yazici on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Erzurumspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Benjamín Brito 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
Triumph
Match17 Oct 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.
Match17 Oct 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Renato Nhaga, 19, steals the show — 7.63
Marked 7.63 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Age has not caught Eren Tozlu yet — 8.17
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.17 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Erzurumspor may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Martín Rodríguez 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 Oct 2026
Joy Manana is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
The terraces19 Oct 2026
He is 19 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Erzurumspor. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Sep 2026
“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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 15 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Erzurumspor until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $55.0K — a club that wants Batuhan Yavuz enough to be asked twice.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Renato Nhaga 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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Alanyaspor wanted more than $53.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. CSKA Moscow have kept their man, and Erzurumspor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Erzurumspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fernando Andrade 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Renato Nhaga named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Renato Nhaga is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Enes Yiğit slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Enes Yiğit is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.