“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.
Kasimpasa have accepted the money. What Besiktas do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Besiktas have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The fee is $5.5M, 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Ibrahim Olawoyin has, at Besiktas, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Besiktas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Besiktas people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The deal with Rizespor 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.
Erzurumspor paid $320.0K and Besiktas 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 Tiago Djaló was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
Squad12 new faces, and Besiktas are still learning each other
Besiktas asked and Rizespor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Ferdi Kadıoğlu was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Words at Besiktas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Václav Černý 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.
Add another name to the list: Boluspor have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Kartal Kayra Yılmaz. The answer from Besiktas has not changed — yet.
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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Besiktas are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Aral Şimşir trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The shirt still fits. Ernest Muçi is back at Besiktas, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
The chase for Noah Saviolo ended with $8.2M changing hands and Esenler Erokspor out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Göktuğ Baytekin had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ernest Muçi has just signed for Besiktas, and for once the answer mattered.
Besiktas offered $1.6M; Rizespor 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $4.0M — a club that wants Mame Mor Faye enough to be asked twice.
Abdülkerim Bardakcı 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Václav Černý was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugoutFerdi Kadıoğlu has become a man the manager trusts
97Edition
The Besiktas Post
5 Jun 2028
From our football correspondentSteady
Transfer targets5 Jun 2028
$21.2M settles it between the clubs for Ernest Muçi
Trabzonspor have accepted the money. What Besiktas do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Besiktas have lost him in all but the paperwork.
$8.2M on the table at Esenler Erokspor. 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 Esenler Erokspor 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 Besiktas, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
“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 Besiktas hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.7M — a club that wants Zafer Görgen enough to be asked twice.
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Besiktas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Besiktas had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Besiktas can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
14 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 Rıdvan Yılmaz trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Tiago Djaló 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.
Novatus Miroshi 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.
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 Václav Černý 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 Besiktas, another week without a signature from Oh Hyeon-Gyu.
7 goals in 37 games at Istanbulspor — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Besiktas updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Besiktas. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Ferdi Kadıoğlu 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.
Squad15 May 2028
Tiago Djaló 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.
Something was said to Juan Santos and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Besiktas will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Besiktas would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Aral Şimşir 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.
30 appearances at Motor Lublin and the goals keep coming. Besiktas are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Squad8 May 2028
Tiago Djaló 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 Emmanuel Agbadou is on 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 Besiktas, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Position 4 on 68 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Besiktas heard it as anything else.
35 appearances at Fatih Karagumruk and the goals have stopped going in. Besiktas lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tiago Djaló was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
35 appearances at Manisa FK and the goals have stopped going in. Besiktas lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Something was said to Václav Černý and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
There are goals, and then there are goals against that particular opponent. The Besiktas support have their bragging rights for a year and they know exactly whose name is on them.
Abdülkerim Bardakcı 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tiago Djaló was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. Fenerbahce on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tiago Djaló was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
33 appearances at Fatih Karagumruk and the goals have stopped going in. Besiktas lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. Galatasaray on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
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.
“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.
Nobody at Besiktas 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.
The medical room confirms 49 days on the sidelines for Burak Tekdemir, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Besiktas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tiago Djaló 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: Milot Rashica. 1‑0 against Kayserispor, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
32 appearances at Manisa FK and the goals have stopped going in. Besiktas lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
It finished 0-4. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
“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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
29 appearances away from home and 14 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Tiago Djaló 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.
Ferdi Kadıoğlu 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 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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Tiago Djaló 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Besiktas can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Samsunspor in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
0‑2 against RB Leipzig, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
“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; Besiktas are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Besiktas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Tiago Djaló 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Wilfred Ndidi, and the manager let it.
Squad20 Mar 2028
7 new faces, and Besiktas 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.
The 89th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Juan Santos decided nobody was going anywhere. Eyupspor had no time left to answer.
19 goals in 28 games at Manisa FK — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Besiktas updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Besiktas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Mustafa Hekimoğlu 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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Wilfred Ndidi 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 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 Besiktas hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Goztepe left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words at Besiktas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wilfred Ndidi 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 19 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Besiktas will try not to make too much of it.
0‑1 away to the standard of RB Leipzig. 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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words at Besiktas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tiago Djaló 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 player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Saba Kharebashvili will call it something else in private.
Nobody at Besiktas 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.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Halil Akgun chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Loan watch28 Feb 2028
Emre Bilgin’s loan is measured in nothing happening
8 clean sheets from 27 appearances at Manisa FK. 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.
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.
Besiktas asked and Bodrum FK said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wilfred Ndidi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
Václav Černý was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.00. 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.
Position 2 with 53 on the board, and the queues outside the ticket office are the part of a promotion push that never shows up in a table. The town has decided this one is real.
Besiktas asked and Kayserispor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Benjamin Bouchouari scored in the 85th minute, Kasimpasa had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Besiktas took the lot.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Ferdi Kadıoğlu has, at Besiktas, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Besiktas offered $3.3M; Kayserispor 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.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Besiktas close the window on a squad of their own making
6 in and 3 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Besiktas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Besiktas can pretend not to have heard.
Besiktas have gone to Kayserispor 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $3.4M — a club that wants Burak Kapacak enough to be asked twice.
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.
“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 Besiktas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Trabzonspor did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $4.5M for Benjamin Bouchouari, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Benjamin Bouchouari is living that version at Besiktas, and it tends to show in the first month.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Kayserispor have kept their man, and Besiktas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The fee is $640.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Antalyaspor drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Juan Santos 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wilfred Ndidi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Orkun Kökçü was one of the reasons people came, and $34.3M does not replace that by itself.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Kayserispor have kept their man, and Besiktas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Besiktas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The offer from Sivasspor for Taha Altıkardeş 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Samet Akaydin has just signed for Besiktas, and for once the answer mattered.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Besiktas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
$15.1M on the table at Trabzonspor. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Besiktas have gone to Sivasspor 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Besiktas people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sivasspor have kept their man, and Besiktas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Besiktas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
1 for Salih Özcan, marked 7.89, 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.
The fee is $1.4M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Goztepe drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Besiktas asked and Trabzonspor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Besiktas had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
“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 Besiktas, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
1 for Salih Özcan, marked 7.93, 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.
$980.0K 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.
“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 Besiktas hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Ali Al Musrati obliged against Bodrum FK. 2‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Besiktas.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Besiktas scored in the 120th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Two goals and a mark of 8.12 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Beat anybody else and it is three points. Beat them, with his name on it, and it is a year of bragging rights for Besiktas and a story that will outlast his contract.
Orkun Kökçü was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 20 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tiago Djaló was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Derby days make names, and Orkun Kökçü made his against Galatasaray. 2‑1, bragging rights secured, and one half of town will be tired of hearing about him by Tuesday.
Abdülkerim Bardakcı 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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at Besiktas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Orkun Kökçü is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Yusuf Can Calayır 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.
Fenerbahce next, which means a week that starts on Monday. Everything else on this page will be forgotten by Saturday; this fixture will not be forgotten for a year.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 6.98, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
1‑3 against Bayer Leverkusen, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
7.67, 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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Orkun Kökçü 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 fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes Besiktas will be judged on one thing only.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Halil Akgun left the room before anybody could ask which.
Nobody at Besiktas 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.
Orkun Kökçü 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.
Three points for Besiktas, 2‑0 the final word against Kayserispor in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Tiago Djaló 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.
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 want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Besiktas heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Besiktas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
9 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Besiktas and Samsunspor in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Orkun Kökçü was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
Salih Özcan was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.29. 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 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 7.96 for the rest of it.
Emmanuel Agbadou 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 first defeat in 8 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Trabzonspor; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words at Besiktas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Orkun Kökçü is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
12 goals in 12 games at Manisa FK — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Besiktas updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Halil Akgun after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer 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 Václav Černý is on it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Besiktas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Orkun Kökçü and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Tiago Djaló 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.
Nobody at Besiktas 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Orkun Kökçü signs something — a contract at Besiktas or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Mustafa Hekimoğlu is 20, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Besiktas would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
4‑0. Nights like this are why clubs spend decades trying to qualify for this competition, and they arrive perhaps twice in that time. Everybody who was in the ground will describe it badly for years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Orkun Kökçü was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Milot Rashica 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 8.46 — 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.
A performance of 8.00 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad8 Nov 2027
A muscle injury sidelines Poyraz Gelen for 14 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Besiktas will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Besiktas scored in the 101th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Two goals and a mark of 8.63 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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 Besiktas, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Besiktas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Besiktas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Besiktas heard it as anything else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Orkun Kökçü 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 6.26 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 Besiktas 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: Orkun Kökçü. 3‑1 against Gaziantep, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tiago Djaló 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 Besiktas know it.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Aral Şimşir was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.30. 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 Orkun Kökçü was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Oh Hyeon-Gyu 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.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Juan Santos had Besiktas level again within 2 minutes, and Basaksehir never got to play with a lead at all.
Nobody at Besiktas 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Halil Akgun after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Taha Altıkardeş has his answer from Besiktas; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“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 Besiktas hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Abdülkerim Bardakcı and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Besiktas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Orkun Kökçü is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“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 Besiktas, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Besiktas told Oh Hyeon-Gyu 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 Salih Özcan is on it.
1‑2 against Bayer Leverkusen, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
1 for Orkun Kökçü, marked 7.75, 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.
“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 Besiktas hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Orkun Kökçü was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Konyaspor made Besiktas work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Besiktas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tiago Djaló 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 8.28 — 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.
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 Orkun Kökçü is on it.
3 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Orkun Kökçü was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
2‑1 against Zbrojovka Brno, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Two goals and a mark of 8.27 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
A mark of 7.85 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Besiktas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Orkun Kökçü is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Besiktas can pretend not to have heard.
Orkun Kökçü 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 now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Alanyaspor have kept their man, and Besiktas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Tiago Djaló 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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
11 new faces, and Besiktas 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.
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 Salih Özcan is on it.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Halil Akgun after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
In brief
Player ratingsOh Hyeon-Gyu beats them one at a time
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Luccas Claro
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Besiktas can pretend not to have heard.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 13 arrived, 23 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The bid was some way short and Besiktas did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at Besiktas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Orkun Kökçü is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Milot Rashica 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 young player of the month award goes to a 19-year-old at Besiktas who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
“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; Besiktas are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“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 Besiktas, and 3 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
The fee is $7.7M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Trabzonspor drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Aral Şimşir is living that version at Besiktas, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at Besiktas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Orkun Kökçü is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Corum FK have kept their man, and Besiktas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Besiktas can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The name of Orkun Kökçü has come up in conversations Besiktas were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“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 Besiktas hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Besiktas asked and Alanyaspor 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 matches without defeat, and then Alanyaspor. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Tiago Djaló 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Boluspor waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Besiktas is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
6 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.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.89, and involved in 3 of his side's goals.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Orkun Kökçü was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Add another name to the list: Kayserispor have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about İbrahim Kaya. The answer from Besiktas has not changed — yet.
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.
Besiktas asked and Fenerbahce said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Orkun Kökçü 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Besiktas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Aug 2027
12 new faces, and Besiktas 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.
“I watch every Besiktas game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Manisa FK runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody at Besiktas 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Besiktas know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Besiktas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Furkan Akyüz has just signed for Besiktas, and for once the answer mattered.
“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; Besiktas are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Nobody at Besiktas 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.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Can Keleş has moved up it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Besiktas. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Abdülkerim Bardakcı 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Orkun Kökçü was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Besiktas 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.
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.
“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 Besiktas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Orkun Kökçü 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.
Add another name to the list: Erzurumspor have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Rıdvan Yılmaz. The answer from Besiktas has not changed — yet.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Besiktas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Besiktas 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Salih Özcan signs something — a contract at Besiktas or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Position 4 on 77 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Besiktas, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Feyenoord paid $27.9M and Besiktas took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Leandro Trossard has gone, the accounts have $27.9M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
The offer from Goztepe for Ersin Destanoğlu 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.
“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 Besiktas 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 Besiktas 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 Tiago Djaló was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Tayyip Talha Sanuç and Besiktas agree another 4 years.
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.
“I watch every Besiktas game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Manisa FK runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Besiktas offered $6.8M; 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Besiktas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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.
Abdülkerim Bardakcı 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Novatus Miroshi has, at Besiktas, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Besiktas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leandro Trossard 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.
Besiktas and Goztepe have settled on $4.3M. 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.
$6.8M on the table at Trabzonspor. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Goztepe paid $3.7M and Besiktas took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Besiktas offered $1.2M; Corum FK 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $7.6M — a club that wants Benjamin Bouchouari enough to be asked twice.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Orkun Kökçü was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The name of Ümit Akdağ has come up in conversations Besiktas were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Feyenoord moved on, Leandro Trossard reports back to Besiktas, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Besiktas can pretend not to have heard.
$1.3M was the most the club would pay and Basaksehir were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Orkun Kökçü 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 21 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 Tiago Djaló was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Istanbulspor waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Besiktas is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sivasspor have kept their man, and Besiktas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
$1.3M was the most the club would pay and Konyaspor were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.5M — a club that wants Mame Thiam enough to be asked twice.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Besiktas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Orkun Kökçü is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Konyaspor have kept their man, and Besiktas 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 Besiktas can pretend not to have heard.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Besiktas heard it as anything else.
Besiktas have gone to Corum FK 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Orkun Kökçü 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.
Abdülkerim Bardakcı 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 name of Ersin Destanoğlu has come up in conversations Besiktas were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
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 Besiktas have had the benefit of it.
The one award on the pitch nobody else can win. 21 games in a season in which nobody scored past him, and a career that will be measured against this one.
19 games, 0 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Besiktas now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
Nobody at Besiktas 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Besiktas, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Leandro Trossard and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 May 2027
Orkun Kökçü 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.
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.
9 goals in 18 games at Adana Demirspor — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Besiktas updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Leandro Trossard signs something — a contract at Besiktas or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Besiktas heard it as anything else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Orkun Kökçü was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Orkun Kökçü is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tiago Djaló trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Besiktas will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Besiktas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Besiktas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fabio Miretti 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 Besiktas 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.
8 goals in 33 games at Hatayspor — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Besiktas updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Orkun Kökçü has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 77 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Marked 7.94. 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Besiktas and Antalyaspor in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad3 May 2027
Orkun Kökçü 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.
Derby days make names, and Orkun Kökçü made his against Galatasaray. 2‑0, bragging rights secured, and one half of town will be tired of hearing about him by Tuesday.
There are goals, and then there are goals against that particular opponent. The Besiktas support have their bragging rights for a year and they know exactly whose name is on them.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Besiktas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Orkun Kökçü is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Milot Rashica 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.
“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; Besiktas are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Abdülkerim Bardakcı will call it something else in private.
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 Václav Černý is on it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.47 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
3 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.
Orkun Kökçü 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 season average of 7.26 with 15 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Fabio Miretti 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Fabio Miretti. 2‑0 against Kayserispor, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.04 — 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 8.01 — 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.
A season average of 7.37 with 21 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Besiktas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Orkun Kökçü is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
8.23. 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.
Marked 8.13 — 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.
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 Leandro Trossard is on it.
Fenerbahce go through and Besiktas go home, 1‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
3‑0, and Fabio Miretti took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Besiktas tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
A brace, and Fabio Miretti takes the afternoon — 8.44
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Fabio Miretti provided it, and the 8.44 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Besiktas heard it as anything else.
Fabio Miretti 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Orkun Kökçü was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Fabio Miretti 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Besiktas heard it as anything else.
Orkun Kökçü was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
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 Fabio Miretti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Fabio Miretti is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Besiktas know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Eyupspor in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
62 points from position 4. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
Orkun Kökçü 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 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.
Nobody at Besiktas 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.
Chances created: 11. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
“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.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Besiktas will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Orkun Kökçü was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Juan Santos 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Besiktas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 22 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Besiktas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fabio Miretti 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 inside twenty minutes with Emirhan Topçu in the middle of it, and Rizespor unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
“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; Besiktas are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Marked 8.20 — 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 tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Besiktas can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Orkun Kökçü was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Fabio Miretti 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tiago Djaló was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Alanyaspor tried to reorganise, Besiktas did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 19 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
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 7.88 for the rest of it.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Orkun Kökçü 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 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 Besiktas know it.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Halil Akgun after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody at Besiktas 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.
14 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“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 Besiktas hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tiago Djaló was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Nürnberg had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
13 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
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 7.96 for the rest of it.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Besiktas heard it as anything else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tiago Djaló was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Besiktas have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 4 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Besiktas heard it as anything else.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Corum FK have kept their man, and Besiktas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Orkun Kökçü 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Besiktas told Fabio Miretti something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Besiktas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Genclerbirligi have kept their man, and Besiktas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
7.85, 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.
1 for Fabio Miretti, marked 7.74, 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.
The offer from Heerenveen for Ersin Destanoğlu 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.
The offer from Trabzonspor for Orkun Kökçü 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Goztepe have kept their man, and Besiktas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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 easiest signature of my career.” Abdülkerim Bardakcı and Besiktas agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Besiktas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Orkun Kökçü is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $17.1M has been paid because Juan Santos is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
There are signings and there are signings that come with a second helping of satisfaction. Besiktas have taken Abdülkerim Bardakcı from a club they measure themselves against, and the pleasure of that will outlast the transfer window.
Two goals and a mark of 8.77 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The chase for Taha Altıkardeş ended with $4.0M changing hands and Goztepe out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Abdülkerim Bardakcı has, at Besiktas, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The offer went to Goztepe 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.
Besiktas and Galatasaray have settled on $3.7M. 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.
Position 3, 38 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Besiktas have gone to Goztepe 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.
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 Besiktas have had the benefit of it.
The offer from Gaziantep for Ilhan Fakili 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.
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.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 11 matches without defeat is a foundation Besiktas did not have in the autumn.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Ilhan Fakili, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.25
A mark of 8.25 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
10 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 15 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 9 matches without defeat is a foundation Besiktas did not have in the autumn.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Up for the corner, and Fabio Miretti delivers — 7.63
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Fabio Miretti scored, was marked 7.63, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
“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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Orkun Kökçü 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.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“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 Besiktas know it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Junior Olaitan
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 22 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The unbeaten run reaches 8. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Besiktas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fabio Miretti 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 won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 7.38, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Galatasaray next, which means a week that starts on Monday. Everything else on this page will be forgotten by Saturday; this fixture will not be forgotten for a year.
Samsunspor will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Besiktas were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 31 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Two goals and a mark of 8.46 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
3 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Besiktas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Orkun Kökçü is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Besiktas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
3‑0, and Orkun Kökçü took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Besiktas tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
A brace, and Orkun Kökçü takes the afternoon — 8.43
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Orkun Kökçü provided it, and the 8.43 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Position 3, 27 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Besiktas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Orkun Kökçü is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
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.
İbrahim Kaya 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Besiktas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Orkun Kökçü and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Besiktas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fabio Miretti 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 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 8.20 — 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 8.12 — 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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Wilfred Ndidi 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 56 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fabio Miretti 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Orkun Kökçü was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Besiktas can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
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.
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 Cengiz Ünder is on it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Gaziantep in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
In brief
Loan watchEmre Bilgin’s loan is measured in nothing happening
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Élan Ricardo obliged against Sakaryaspor. 5‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Besiktas.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Besiktas 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 8.39 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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.
Orkun Kökçü was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Besiktas and Sakaryaspor, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Besiktas will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Besiktas heard it as anything else.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Fabio Miretti 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 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Besiktas can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Something was said to Leandro Trossard and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Besiktas 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 8.56 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Besiktas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Orkun Kökçü is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
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.
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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Besiktas has been clear about where Milot Rashica stands, which is more than many ever get.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Besiktas will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Besiktas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Tiago Djaló 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.
9 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 dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Halil Akgun left the room before anybody could ask which.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Besiktas, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Besiktas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Orkun Kökçü was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fabio Miretti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Fenerbahce next, which means a week that starts on Monday. Everything else on this page will be forgotten by Saturday; this fixture will not be forgotten for a year.
Fenerbahce next, and one man in the Besiktas dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Besiktas, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Besiktas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Besiktas and Genclerbirligi in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Besiktas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Orkun Kökçü is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Fabio Miretti 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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Orkun Kökçü was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.43. 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.
In brief
Player ratingsFabio Miretti was on a different afternoon to everybody else
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Besiktas will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
12 combined actions and 7.05. 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.
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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Besiktas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tiago Djaló 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. 29 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bodrum FK have kept their man, and Besiktas go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Besiktas 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 Fabio Miretti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
“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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 37 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Besiktas will try again when the window opens; Goztepe may not be selling by then.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
7.76, 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.
“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 Besiktas hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Besiktas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Orkun Kökçü is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Antalyaspor have accepted the money. What Besiktas do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Besiktas have gone to Goztepe 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. 44 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Konyaspor have kept their man, and Besiktas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 13 signed and 7 gone
That is the business done at Besiktas 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $6.3M — a club that wants Bünyamin Balcı enough to be asked twice.
The offer from Antalyaspor for Salih Uçan 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Besiktas and Basaksehir, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Besiktas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fabio Miretti 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 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.
“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 Besiktas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Besiktas asked and Kocaelispor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Luccas Claro has just signed for Besiktas, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Besiktas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Orkun Kökçü is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Add another name to the list: Radnicki 1923 have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ümit Akdağ. The answer from Besiktas has not changed — yet.
Marked 8.31 — 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Besiktas people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer from Heidenheim for Ersin Destanoğlu 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. İbrahim Kaya has, at Besiktas, 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 Besiktas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Eyupspor have kept their man, and Besiktas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The deal with Alanyaspor 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Besiktas people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Mustafa Hekimoğlu had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Besiktas asked and Kayserispor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Besiktas heard it as anything else.
Besiktas offered $1.2M; Vanspor 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.3M — a club that wants Naby Oularé enough to be asked twice.