Marked for Yiğit Çeltik
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market2 Oct 2028
“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.
Squad2 Oct 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” João Mendes commits to Kayserispor for another 2 years.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Iván Cédric 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.
Squad2 Oct 2028
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 dugout2 Oct 2028
The manager makes an example of Bilal Bayazıt
“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.
Match30 Sep 2028
0‑1 to Sakaryaspor, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad2 Oct 2028
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.
The dugout2 Oct 2028
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 dugout2 Oct 2028
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets12 Jun 2028
The offer went to Alanyaspor this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The terraces12 Jun 2028
Burak Kapacak has gone, the accounts have $2.1M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
The dugout12 Jun 2028
Yiğit Çeltik: 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.” Kayserispor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market12 Jun 2028
Business is business: Burak Kapacak goes
Goztepe paid $2.1M and Kayserispor took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Joshua Brenet 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.
Transfer targets12 Jun 2028
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Kayra Cihan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets12 Jun 2028
Schalke 04 have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Market12 Jun 2028
Kayra Cihan is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Kayserispor has been clear about where Kayra Cihan stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match3 Nov 2027
Sivasspor ended it 1‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.01 for the rest of it.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Görkem Sağlam pops up at the right end — 7.97
7.97, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Joshua Brenet 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.
Loan watch8 Nov 2027
“I watch every Kayserispor game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Keciorengucu runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Match6 Nov 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Görkem Sağlam. 1‑0 against Manisa FK, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad8 Nov 2027
David Martins 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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
5 new faces, and Kayserispor 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.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
Yiğit Çeltik gets it from the manager
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The dugout
The plan did not have a place for Miguel Cardoso
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom19 Apr 2027
The caretaker keeps it: Kenan Soyuncu confirmed
A month of looking elsewhere ended where it started. He already knows every name in the building; the rest of it he now has to prove in public.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Joshua Brenet 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 dugout19 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Miguel Cardoso, and the manager let it.
Match17 Apr 2027
Besiktas left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Kenan Soyuncu after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
László Bénes is playing like a man with something to prove
The oldest phenomenon in the sport: a new voice in the dressing room and suddenly everybody is available for everything. László Bénes is training as though the last team sheet never existed, because as far as he is concerned it does not.
Squad19 Apr 2027
One yellow too many, and a match watched from the stand. The most avoidable absence in football, and Kayserispor will feel it on Saturday.
Looking ahead19 Apr 2027
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Burak Kapacak’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Kayserispor needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market5 Apr 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kayserispor can pretend not to have heard.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Fedor Chalov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Jeam wants to go home
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Kayserispor can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad5 Apr 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Yiğit Çeltik commits to Kayserispor for another 3 years.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
Something was said to Junior Olaitan and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Loan watch5 Apr 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 Kayserispor, and 5 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
The afternoon belonged to Semih Güler
A mark of 7.65, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Bilal Bayazıt makes the team of the month
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 dugout5 Apr 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.” Murat Ucar chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.