Words at Basaksehir training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jerome Opoku 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tugra Turhan, and the manager let it.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
Olivier Kemen is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
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 Eren Elmalı is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Onur Bulut trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Christopher Opéri signs something — a contract at Basaksehir or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Galatasaray next, and one man in the Basaksehir dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
0‑2 away to the standard of Heracles. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Basaksehir training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jerome Opoku 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.
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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Christopher Opéri.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Basaksehir, another week without a signature from Doğan Alemdar.
“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 10 say he has earned the hearing.
“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.
Eren Elmalı 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 Nov 2027
Words at Basaksehir training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jerome Opoku 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.
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.
12 combined actions and 6.99. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
1‑0 against Heracles, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Eldor Shomurodov was at the centre of the description.
“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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Basaksehir can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jerome Opoku was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8.54. 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Onur Bulut will call it something else in private.
Jerome Opoku 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.
Onur Bulut 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.
Marked 8.03 — 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.
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.
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.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Tolga Torun was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Basaksehir dressing room was either.
“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 Basaksehir, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Jerome Opoku 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.
“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 6 say he has earned the hearing.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Basaksehir know it.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Basaksehir told Eldor Shomurodov something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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 Adedire Mebude is on it.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
0‑3 against VfB Stuttgart. The honest reading is not that the players were poor; it is that the distance between this club and that one is currently measured in things money takes years to buy.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Basaksehir hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Jerome Opoku 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.
Furkan Bayır 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.
“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 1 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jerome Opoku 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 Basaksehir this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
8.46. 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.
10 combined actions and 7.14. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
“I watch every Basaksehir game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Bandirmaspor runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
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.” Tolga Torun, on a 3‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Hamza Ljukovac
Two goals and a mark of 8.38 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Basaksehir training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jerome Opoku 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 6.99 on 11 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
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.
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 7.98 for the rest of it.
Eren Elmalı 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.
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.
Fenerbahce wanted more than $69.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Jerome Opoku 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.
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.
“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 Basaksehir, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 15 signed and 18 gone
That is the business done at Basaksehir 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Basaksehir heard it as anything else.
Basaksehir have gone to Fenerbahce with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Jerome Opoku 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.
Ousseynou Ba 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.
11 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.
“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 Basaksehir, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Basaksehir know it.
Onur Bulut 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.
A goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
“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 1 appearances in 11 say he has earned the hearing.
With 4 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Furkan Bayır, and the manager let it.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Doğan Alemdar'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 offer from Vanspor for Atakan Çankaya 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.
Roland Sallai 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.
The phone has started ringing about Deniz Dilmen again, and this time the name on the line is Apollon. Basaksehir are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Emrecan Bulut 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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“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.
A clause somebody insisted on years ago, in a negotiation nobody remembers, has just paid Basaksehir $400.0K. Muhammed Şengezer left a long time ago; the paperwork stayed.
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 Ivan Brnić is on it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Basaksehir will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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.
The fee is $1.8M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Angostura drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
1 for Roland Sallai, marked 7.98, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Medeama is saying, and nobody at Basaksehir is enjoying the guessing.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Marked 7.35 on 12 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Basaksehir will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Basaksehir have gone to Antalyaspor with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
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.
Nobody at the club will say out loud who this signing is for, which is how you know exactly who it is for. Furkan Bayır has been brought in to take a shirt somebody is still wearing.
13 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Basaksehir, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 38 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The offer from Goztepe for Jakub Kałuziński 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.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
“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.
Roland Sallai 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Doğan Alemdar has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Basaksehir will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
$1.4M on the table at Antalyaspor. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Add another name to the list: Goztepe have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Jakub Kałuziński. The answer from Basaksehir has not changed — yet.
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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ömer Ali Şahiner has his answer from Basaksehir; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emrecan Bulut was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Basaksehir will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
Basaksehir offered $69.0K; Fenerbahce 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.
Ousseynou Ba 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Adedire Mebude trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Basaksehir will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
$4.2M settles it between the clubs for Fayçal Konaté
Karviná have accepted the money. What Basaksehir do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
12 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 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Adedire Mebude trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 67 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Basaksehir, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Basaksehir heard it as anything else.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Roland Sallai 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.
Basaksehir have gone to Fenerbahce with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 77 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Basaksehir, and it is not being withdrawn.
Galatasaray paid $3.8M and Basaksehir took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abbosbek Fayzullayev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 85 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Jerome Opoku had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Basaksehir people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Basaksehir asked and Vanspor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Amine Harit 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.
The offer went to Fenerbahce 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.
Add another name to the list: Umraniyespor have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Abbosbek Fayzullayev. The answer from Basaksehir has not changed — yet.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Basaksehir will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Basaksehir have done the hard part with Konyaspor, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
$3.6M settles it between the clubs for Kenneth Mamah
Vanspor have accepted the money. What Basaksehir do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Alanyaspor have kept their man, and Basaksehir go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Basaksehir can pretend not to have heard.
The phone has started ringing about Yusuf Sarı again, and this time the name on the line is Fenerbahce. Basaksehir are listening politely and promising nothing.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $17.8M — a club that wants Mostafa Mohamed enough to be asked twice.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Trabzonspor keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 101 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Basaksehir have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Basaksehir have gone to Konyaspor with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
“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 Basaksehir, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Konyaspor have kept their man, and Basaksehir go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Konyaspor keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Basaksehir heard it as anything else.
Qualification is secured, and next season the big floodlit nights are continental ones. For the players it is a stage; for the accounts it is a lifeline; for the supporters it is passports.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Squad31 May 2027
Jerome Opoku 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.
15 appearances and 0 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
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 Ivan Brnić is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ivan Brnić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jerome Opoku was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The unglamorous genius of a well-written contract. Ivan Brnić is somebody else's player now, and $64.0K has arrived because the people who sold him thought further ahead than the transfer window.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jerome Opoku signs something — a contract at Basaksehir or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Basaksehir that is a harder question to answer.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Two hours a week with a tutor, which is the least glamorous thing at Basaksehir and the one that decides whether a foreign signing is still here in two years.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Bertuğ Yıldırım and Basaksehir agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad17 May 2027
Jerome Opoku 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.
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 Jaiminho is on it.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Basaksehir that is a harder question to answer.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Basaksehir. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Basaksehir can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jerome Opoku was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
12 shut-outs in 36 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Deniz Dilmen has been having a lot of them.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bertuğ Yıldırım trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Ömer Ali Şahiner is on it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Basaksehir, another week without a signature from Jaiminho.
“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.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 64 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
There were 87 minutes on the clock and Samsunspor had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Basaksehir did not stop to explain themselves.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Basaksehir training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jerome Opoku 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 8.21. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Basaksehir.
Loan watch3 May 2027
Deniz Dilmen’s loan is measured in nothing happening
11 clean sheets from 35 appearances at Pendikspor. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
Something was said to Eldor Shomurodov and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Tolga Torun on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“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.
Yusuf Yazıcı 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Jerome Opoku 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Tolga Torun after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Basaksehir, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Gaziantep will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Basaksehir were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Eren Elmalı 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.
Marked 7.83. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Jerome Opoku 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.
8.22. 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Basaksehir has been clear about where Festy Ebosele stands, which is more than many ever get.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 85th, and Konyaspor spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Basaksehir training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jerome Opoku 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 is 22 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Basaksehir can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Eldor Shomurodov 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.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jerome Opoku was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Basaksehir told Eldor Shomurodov something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Tolga Torun after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Tugra Turhan is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Basaksehir training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jerome Opoku 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 Basaksehir 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Yusuf Sarı’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Basaksehir needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Basaksehir. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Position 5, 55 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
Two goals and a mark of 8.29 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jerome Opoku was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.54 — 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.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 5 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
6 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 4‑1, Tolga Torun could afford to be generous.
In brief
The dugoutUmut Güneş is still being punished for one mistake
0‑3 to Fenerbahce, 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.
“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.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Tugra Turhan commits to Basaksehir for another 5 years.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Basaksehir training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jerome Opoku 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.
Kazımcan Karataş 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.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
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 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Tolga Torun to a room that had heard them before.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Basaksehir scored in the 92th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Two goals and a mark of 8.44 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Basaksehir know it.
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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Basaksehir training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jerome Opoku 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.
24 games, 9 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Basaksehir now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
Marked 8.10 — 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.
At 19 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Basaksehir will try not to make too much of it.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Basaksehir can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Eren Elmalı 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
Jerome Opoku 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.
24 games, 9 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Basaksehir now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Basaksehir pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
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.
Amine Harit 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Basaksehir training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jerome Opoku 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.
Trabzonspor held the lead for 4 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Basaksehir answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 6.86, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
A goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
“I watch every Basaksehir game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Goztepe runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Eldor Shomurodov 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Jerome Opoku 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.
7.62, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Basaksehir had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Squad15 Feb 2027
5 new faces, and Basaksehir 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.85 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jerome Opoku was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Tolga Torun could afford to be generous.
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.
Nobody at Basaksehir 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 Basaksehir, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Basaksehir close the window on a squad of their own making
5 in and 5 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 want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Basaksehir hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Basaksehir can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Marked 8.04. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Basaksehir.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Basaksehir training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abbosbek Fayzullayev 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.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Basaksehir can pretend not to have heard.
Basaksehir asked and Esenler Erokspor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Jerome Opoku 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.
“I watch every Basaksehir game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Goztepe runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Tolga Torun after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Basaksehir will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Manisa FK have kept their man, and Basaksehir go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Yusuf Yazıcı and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Jerome Opoku 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 system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Basaksehir have paid $12.4M for Eren Elmalı, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Basaksehir have paid $9.0M for Yusuf Yazıcı, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
The fee is $5.4M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Rizespor drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Basaksehir and Fenerbahce have settled on $960.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
$2.6M on the table at Rizespor. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $14.8M — a club that wants Eren Elmalı enough to be asked twice.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Basaksehir can pretend not to have heard.
Basaksehir have gone to Galatasaray with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
$9.0M on the table at Olympiacos. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The offer went to Rizespor 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.
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.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Basaksehir have had the benefit of it.
Amine Harit 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Basaksehir training over how hard people work
There were 87 minutes on the clock and Samsunspor had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Basaksehir did not stop to explain themselves.
1 for Jakub Kałuziński, marked 7.92, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Bertuğ Yıldırım. 3‑2 against Samsunspor, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jerome Opoku was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 ratings21 Dec 2026
A brace, and Amine Harit takes the afternoon — 8.37
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Amine Harit provided it, and the 8.37 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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 7.89 for the rest of it.
Jerome Opoku 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Basaksehir training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Olivier Kemen 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Tolga Torun could afford to be generous.
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.
“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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Jerome Opoku 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.
“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 3 appearances in 15 say he has earned the hearing.
100 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Tolga Torun could afford to be generous.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jerome Opoku was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Minute 92, against Konyaspor, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Doğan Alemdar'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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Abbosbek Fayzullayev has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Basaksehir can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Basaksehir training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abbosbek Fayzullayev 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.
Something was said to Olivier Kemen and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
“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.
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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Basaksehir training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jerome Opoku 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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 13 actions, 6.87, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Tolga Torun could afford to be generous.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Something was said to Jakub Kałuziński and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Amine Harit and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Basaksehir training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jerome Opoku 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.
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.
Alanyaspor next, and one man in the Basaksehir dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
In brief
Loan watchDeniz Dilmen’s loan is measured in nothing happening
1‑4 against Fenerbahce, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Eldor Shomurodov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Olivier Kemen 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.
A goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
“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 2 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Doğan Alemdar's mistake
“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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Basaksehir will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jerome Opoku was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Basaksehir know it.
200 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.
Something was said to Jerome Opoku and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Tolga Torun could afford to be generous.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Basaksehir will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Basaksehir training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jerome Opoku 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ivan Brnić has his answer from Basaksehir; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Berat Özdemir’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Basaksehir needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 35 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Jerome Opoku 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.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Olivier Kemen 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.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Basaksehir told Bertuğ Yıldırım something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Jerome Opoku is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Emin Bayram and Basaksehir agree another 4 years.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Jerome Opoku 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.
“I watch every Basaksehir game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Serikspor runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
10 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.
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.
Trabzonspor next, and one man in the Basaksehir dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
7 appearances at Pendikspor and the goals have stopped going in. Basaksehir lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Two goals and a mark of 8.40 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
Amine Harit 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Abbosbek Fayzullayev and Basaksehir agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Basaksehir know it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Basaksehir training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jerome Opoku 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.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Goztepe spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Festy Ebosele has his answer from Basaksehir; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abbosbek Fayzullayev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Basaksehir, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 7.92 for the rest of it.
Eldor Shomurodov 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
100 goals for this club, and somewhere in the stand there is a person who can still tell you where they were for most of them.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Basaksehir training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jerome Opoku 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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Basaksehir can pretend not to have heard.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 90th minute. Fatih Karagumruk will replay every second of the added time for a week.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Basaksehir will try again when the window opens; Antalyaspor may not be selling by then.
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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Basaksehir training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Olivier Kemen 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Amine Harit. 2‑1 against Fatih Karagumruk, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“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 Basaksehir, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clock did what Galatasaray would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 17 signed and 5 gone
That is the business done at Basaksehir 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Antalyaspor have kept their man, and Basaksehir go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abbosbek Fayzullayev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Onur Bulut is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Basaksehir are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
$13.3M settles it between the clubs for Yunus Akgün
Galatasaray have accepted the money. What Basaksehir do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“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 Basaksehir, and it is not being withdrawn.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $14.6M — a club that wants Yunus Akgün enough to be asked twice.
The deal with Antalyaspor 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.
Jerome Opoku 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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Basaksehir can pretend not to have heard.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Antalyaspor have kept their man, and Basaksehir go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $12.2M — a club that wants Eren Elmalı enough to be asked twice.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jerome Opoku 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 Basaksehir this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“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.
The offer went to Galatasaray 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Besiktas have kept their man, and Basaksehir go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.32 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The phone has started ringing about Davie Selke again, and this time the name on the line is Luzern. Basaksehir are listening politely and promising nothing.
The fee is $870.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Erzurumspor drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Amine Harit 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.
8 goals in one match, Eldor Shomurodov on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Basaksehir and Kayserispor.
$13.2M on the table at Besiktas. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The offer from Gaziantep for Muhammed Şengezer 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.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $12.9M — a club that wants Orkun Kökçü enough to be asked twice.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Atakan Çankaya has, at Basaksehir, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Davie Selke 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 offer from Ferencvaros for Jerome Opoku 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.
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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Jaiminho is living that version at Basaksehir, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
Add another name to the list: Serikspor have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Tugra Turhan. The answer from Basaksehir has not changed — yet.