From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market24 Aug 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Spartak Moscow had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Match22 Aug 2026
5‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 76 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.68, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Václav Černý takes the match ball home
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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 The request is on a desk at Besiktas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Match22 Aug 2026
Václav Černý among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Václav Černý on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Besiktas and Kasimpasa.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Besiktas training over how hard people work
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Player ratings
Ninety minutes of Václav Černý at his very best
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The terraces
One of their own: Fabio Miretti
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match15 Aug 2026
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 86 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market17 Aug 2026
Besiktas pay Goztepe $9.2M for a proper upgrade
Goztepe did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $9.2M for Anthony Dennis, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A brace, and Oh Hyeon-Gyu takes the afternoon — 8.54
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Oh Hyeon-Gyu provided it, and the 8.54 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Anthony Dennis arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Anthony Dennis has, at Besiktas, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Market17 Aug 2026
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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Besiktas — 7.95
1 for Orkun Kökçü, marked 7.95, 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
Mustafa Hekimoğlu has left for Kasimpasa in a $3.0M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Market17 Aug 2026
Eyupspor come back empty-handed
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.
In brief
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Squad
Tempers go at Besiktas
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Squad
A row about effort at Besiktas
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
94 days out for Gökhan Sazdağı after a fracture
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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Besiktas have done the hard part with Goztepe, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Market10 Aug 2026
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.
Market10 Aug 2026
CSKA Moscow come back empty-handed
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.
Market10 Aug 2026
“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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Trabzonspor have kept their man, and Besiktas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market10 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Orkun Kökçü and Besiktas agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Besiktas
Orkun Kökçü and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
Besiktas say no — this time
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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A career in one shirt: Necip Uysal
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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Leandro Trossard and Besiktas agree another 3 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Besiktas
Alexander Nübel and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 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.