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.
4‑1, and Milot Rashica took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Besiktas tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
A brace, and Milot Rashica takes the afternoon — 8.36
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Milot Rashica provided it, and the 8.36 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Position 3, 73 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.
Successful dribbles: 28. 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.
“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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 43 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Václav Černý and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
The first defeat in 5 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Sivasspor; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
13 clean sheets from 29 appearances at Sivasspor. 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.83 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
Václav Černý was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I 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.
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.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Václav Černý was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.46. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
In brief
Player ratingsSalih Özcan was on a different afternoon to everybody else
4 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.
“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.
Match27 Feb 2027
Another one collected away from home
5 on the bounce on the road for Besiktas. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
30 goals in 22 games at Fakel — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Besiktas updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Two goals and a mark of 9.18 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Leandro Trossard. 2‑0 against Antalyaspor, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
11 shut-outs in 26 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Ersin Destanoğlu has been having a lot of them.
1‑0 against Fenerbahce, and the songs went on long after the whistle. League positions come and go; days like this get retold at family dinners for years.
27 goals in 21 games at Fakel — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Besiktas updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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.
“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.
Score against anybody else and it is a goal. Score against them and it is a story with your name in it for a decade, and Besiktas supporters have already started telling it.
Leandro Trossard 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.
10 shut-outs in 25 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Ersin Destanoğlu has been having a lot of them.
“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.
8.28. 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 8.28 — 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.
Besiktas asked and Gaziantep said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 2 arrived, 5 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.
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.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 7 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Trabzonspor left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Erkan Yazici to a room that had heard them before.
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.
Václav Černý and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Yunus Akgün was on a different afternoon to everybody else
10.00. 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.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Besiktas and Hatayspor in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Salih Özcan obliged against Konyaspor. 4‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Besiktas.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Besiktas asked and Konyaspor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Umraniyespor 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.
Two goals and a mark of 10.00 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
4 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.
Václav Černý 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.
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.
$6.5M on the table at Gaziantep. 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 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 offer from Konyaspor 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.
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.
$470.0K on the table at Fatih Karagumruk. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Two goals and a mark of 9.68 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Amir Murillo 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.
13 appearances away from home and 17 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Amir Murillo 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.
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.
Fatih Karagumruk 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.
6 shut-outs in 17 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Ersin Destanoğlu has been having a lot of them.
Ankaragucu will want this one forgotten quickly: 6‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Besiktas were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Leandro Trossard provided it, and the 9.65 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
1 for Fabio Miretti, marked 7.68, 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.
Václav Černý was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I 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.
“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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Leandro Trossard provided it, and the 9.27 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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.
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 Amir Murillo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Václav Černý and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Amir Murillo 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.
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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 33. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
A brace, and Yunus Akgün takes the afternoon — 9.22
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Yunus Akgün provided it, and the 9.22 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Ilhan Fakili, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.12
A mark of 8.12 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.
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.
Václav Černý and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Muhammed Tufan has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Cengiz Ünder obliged against Kayserispor. 4‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Besiktas.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
A brace, and Cengiz Ünder takes the afternoon — 8.32
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Cengiz Ünder provided it, and the 8.32 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ilhan Fakili did not need any: 8.32, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
Václav Černý 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Amir Murillo 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.
He is 20 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.
15 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Besiktas lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
10 goals in 9 games at Fakel — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Besiktas updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Erkan Yazici kept it short after the 4‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Besiktas lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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.
9 goals and a season average of 7.38. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Yunus Akgün was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.17. 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.
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.
It needed Yunus Akgün to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Sivasspor, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Yasin Özcan 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.
In brief
The dugoutHalf-satisfied: Erkan Yazici on the draw
33 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Besiktas lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Umraniyespor will want this one forgotten quickly: 6‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Besiktas were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Václav Černý 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Besiktas and Umraniyespor, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Two goals and a mark of 9.23 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
Václav Černý 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 Amir Murillo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 20 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.
A season average of 7.35 with 8 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Erkan Yazici, on a 3‑2 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
With 6 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kartal Kayra Yılmaz, and the manager let it.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Besiktas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yasin Özcan is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“It is 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.
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.
Václav Černý and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Besiktas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amir Murillo 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.
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.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Erkan Yazici to a room that had heard them before.
Václav Černý 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.
7 goals in one match, Leandro Trossard on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Besiktas and Istanbulspor.
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Yunus Akgün was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.34. 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.
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.
In brief
SquadDefences have started doubling up on Yunus Akgün
15 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Besiktas lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
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 oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Besiktas will try again when the window opens; Antalyaspor may not be selling by then.
The first defeat in 4 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.
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Besiktas lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Besiktas will try again when the window opens; Konyaspor may not be selling by then.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Antalyaspor have kept their man, and Besiktas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 10.00, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Besiktas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amir Murillo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The 89th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Ernest Poku decided nobody was going anywhere. Konyaspor had no time left to answer.
Besiktas and Antalyaspor have settled on $1.1M. 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.
Everything agreed with Konyaspor, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
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.
“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. Antalyaspor have kept their man, and Besiktas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Giresunspor will want this one forgotten quickly: 7‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Besiktas were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A brace, and Ernest Poku takes the afternoon — 8.33
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ernest Poku provided it, and the 8.33 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
He is going to Everton, the club has $33.4M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Besiktas asked and Antalyaspor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Václav Černý 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.
Besiktas asked and Gaziantep said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The offer from Giresunspor for Emirhan Topçu 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.
“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.
$1.9M was the most the club would pay and Gaziantep 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.
Václav Černý 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.
Galatasaray will not enjoy the photographs. Yunus Akgün has signed for Besiktas, and everyone involved understands that this particular deal was never only about football.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Yunus Akgün is living that version at Besiktas, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
Besiktas asked and Konyaspor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Gaziantep waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Besiktas is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Taylan Bulut had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The offer went to Kayserispor 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 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 and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Aug 2026
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.
In brief
The dugoutOrkun Kökçü knocks on the manager’s door
The offer from Antalyaspor 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.
18 seasons and 337 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
“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 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.
Squad3 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.