Two goals and a mark of 8.36 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Basaksehir offered $5.1M; Trabzonspor said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Muhammed Şengezer 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jakub Kałuziński and Basaksehir agree another 5 years.
Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Kerem Tasci has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The offer went to Trabzonspor 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Basaksehir, and it is not being withdrawn.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 2 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Saba Kharebashvili 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.
Marked 8.12 — 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.
“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 Gaziantep said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Basaksehir offered $2.0M; Kasimpasa said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The phone has started ringing about Bertuğ Yıldırım again, and this time the name on the line is Galatasaray. Basaksehir are listening politely and promising nothing.
Festy Ebosele 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.
0‑5 against Fenerbahce, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Konyaspor go through and Basaksehir go home, 1‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Basaksehir offered $10.4M; Besiktas said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The chase for Gökhan Sazdağı ended with $1.5M changing hands and Besiktas out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Muhammed Şengezer 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 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 chase for Kacper Kozłowski ended with $5.4M changing hands and Gaziantep out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Basaksehir have done the hard part with Besiktas, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Basaksehir have gone to Kasimpasa 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Kayserispor have kept their man, and Basaksehir go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Salih Uçan is a Basaksehir player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
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.
The offer went to Gaziantep 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.
$1.6M on the table at Kasimpasa. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Basaksehir have gone to Besiktas 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.
Festy Ebosele 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.
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.
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.
9 combined actions and 7.17. 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 27 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Abdoulie Njie is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
Boardroom21 Dec 2026
Nobody left the Basaksehir dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Karim Onisiwo 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.
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.
3 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.
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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Deniz Erkin has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Tolga Kabak has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Marked 8.46 — 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.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Davie Selke at his very best
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.33 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Festy Ebosele 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.
Words at Basaksehir training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saba Kharebashvili 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 51 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The 85th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Davie Selke decided nobody was going anywhere. Fatih Karagumruk had no time left to answer.
A 2‑1 win over Fatih Karagumruk, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
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 is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.04, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Karim Onisiwo 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 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.
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.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Yiğit Efe Demir’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.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 68 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
2 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Saba Kharebashvili was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Basaksehir can tell you which week it ends in.
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.
0‑4 to Galatasaray, 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 afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Festy Ebosele 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Fatih Tasci has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Mert Tekdemir is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Boardroom9 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Basaksehir dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
In brief
SquadWords at Basaksehir training over how hard people work
The dugoutJerome Opoku is still being punished for one mistake
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.
Saba Kharebashvili 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Mustafa Hekimoğlu is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Mehmet Ucar kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 95 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ousseynou Ba, and the manager let it.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Karim Onisiwo 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Mehmet Ucar could afford to be generous.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 102 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
200 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Festy Ebosele was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.24. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Karim Onisiwo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Mehmet Ucar after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Festy Ebosele 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Ibrahim Kabak has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Festy Ebosele 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.
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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
In brief
Squad4 Basaksehir players away with their countries
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.
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Basaksehir training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saba Kharebashvili 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.
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Two goals and a mark of 8.83 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Muhammed Şengezer 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Doğan Alemdar is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Abbosbek Fayzullayev has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Marked 8.50 — 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.
Marked 8.35 — 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Karim Onisiwo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 7.97 for the rest of 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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 42. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
7.96, 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Alper Omur has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
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.
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.
10 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 dugout14 Sep 2026
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Mehmet Ucar to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Ivan Brnić
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Karim Onisiwo
Successful dribbles: 33. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 18 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
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.
Basaksehir asked and Antalyaspor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
5‑1, and Abbosbek Fayzullayev took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Basaksehir tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A brace, and Amine Harit takes the afternoon — 8.35
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Amine Harit provided it, and the 8.35 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Abbosbek Fayzullayev provided it, and the 8.22 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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.
$1.1M 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.
Basaksehir had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Antalyaspor, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Muhammed Şengezer 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.
Muhammed Şengezer 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.
Basaksehir asked and Antalyaspor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Basaksehir and Trabzonspor in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
A performance of 8.36 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Basaksehir training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Karim Onisiwo 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Hatayspor will want this one forgotten quickly: 7‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Basaksehir were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Two goals and a mark of 8.74 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Andreas Skov Olsen provided it, and the 8.41 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Christopher Opéri 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Basaksehir and Hatayspor, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
At 22 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.
Marked 8.36 — 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.
Muhammed Şengezer 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Mert Gunok is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Muhammed Calhanoglu has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Kenan Yildiz has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
8 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.
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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Karim Onisiwo has just signed for Basaksehir, and for once the answer mattered.
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.