12 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.
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.
Squad22 Feb 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.
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.
11 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
10 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.
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 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.
6 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.
9 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.
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Besiktas close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 4 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
“I want to 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.
8 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.
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.
Besiktas offered $500.0K; Konyaspor 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.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Leandro Trossard at his very best
Player ratingsYunus Akgün was on a different afternoon to everybody else
7 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Alanyaspor waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Besiktas is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Two goals and a mark of 8.45 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Business between these two is never simply business. Besiktas wanted Yunus Akgün, Galatasaray did not want to sell to them of all clubs, and the signature at the end of it says who won that argument.
Giresunspor will want this one forgotten quickly: 8‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Besiktas were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Konyaspor had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The offer went to Galatasaray this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The offer went to Gaziantep this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Fatih Karagumruk 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.
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.
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.
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 Fabio Miretti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Position 4, 40 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
“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 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.
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 never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
A clause somebody insisted on years ago, in a negotiation nobody remembers, has just paid Besiktas $72.0K. Élan Ricardo left a long time ago; the paperwork stayed.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
6‑1 against IMT, and a performance that will change how the rest of the competition talks about this club. Reputations in continental football are built in single evenings and this was one.
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.
Marked 10.00 — 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.
9 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 Ankaragucu.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
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 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.
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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
1‑2 against Sporting CP, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 9 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped 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.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Ernest Poku 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.
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.
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 Ernest Poku is on it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Necip Uysal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
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.” Cengiz Yildiz chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
A 4‑0 win over Kayserispor, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
A brace, and Oh Hyeon-Gyu takes the afternoon — 8.67
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Oh Hyeon-Gyu provided it, and the 8.67 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Successful dribbles: 29. 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.
1 for Fabio Miretti, marked 7.76, 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.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Besiktas did not have in the autumn.
Squad16 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.
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.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Kayserispor spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Besiktas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Salih Özcan.
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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Cengiz Yildiz could afford to be generous.
Successful dribbles: 40. 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.
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Besiktas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Position 2, 28 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.
“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.
10 goals and a season average of 7.38 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Milot Rashica
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Milot Rashica has come out of that comparison in the side, and Besiktas have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Necip Uysal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
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.” Cengiz Yildiz chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
0‑0 against Sparta Prague, 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.
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.
9 goals in one match, Milot Rashica on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Besiktas and Umraniyespor.
Match24 Oct 2026
Another one collected away from home
4 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.
In brief
Player ratingsLeandro Trossard was on a different afternoon to everybody else
SquadWords at Besiktas training over how hard people work
Player ratingsWilfred Ndidi ran the middle of the pitch — 6.81
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.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad19 Oct 2026
8 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 dugout19 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Cengiz Yildiz to a room that had heard them before.
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.
14 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.
1 for Salih Özcan, marked 7.94, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Besiktas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match10 Oct 2026
Another one collected away from home
3 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.
With 7 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.
Derby days make names, and Leandro Trossard made his against Fenerbahce. 3‑2, bragging rights secured, and one half of town will be tired of hearing about him by Tuesday.
23 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.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Besiktas scored in the 96th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
31 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.
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.
9.94. 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.
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.
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.
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
Player ratingsThe pass was always on for Oh Hyeon-Gyu
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Besiktas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Trabzonspor 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.
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.
9.83. 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.
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.
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 words a physio says slowly. 48 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Two goals and a mark of 8.91 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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.
Squad14 Sep 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.
56 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Besiktas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Besiktas close the window on a squad of their own making
12 in and 8 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.
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.
Václav Černý and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Sep 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.
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 5‑0 against Giresunspor, and it could have been more.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A brace, and Václav Černý takes the afternoon — 9.19
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Václav Černý provided it, and the 9.19 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
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.
In brief
Player ratingsLeandro Trossard was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Sporting CP paid $20.8M 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 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.
“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.
$2.2M was the most the club would pay and Kayserispor 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.
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.
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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Okay Yokuşlu is living that version at Besiktas, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Élan Ricardo had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
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.
“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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Volkan Unal is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
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.
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.