There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.77 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Davinson Sánchez 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.
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad1 Oct 2029
Words at Galatasaray training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wilfried Singo 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 8.11 — 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.
Boardroom1 Oct 2029
Nobody left the Galatasaray dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
2‑0 against Lech, 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.24 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Galatasaray is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Uğurcan Çakır and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Words at Galatasaray training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fabinho 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.
Player ratings24 Sep 2029
Roland Sallai was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.39. 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.
“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 Galatasaray know it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alexey Batrakov provided it, and the 8.36 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.83 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
9 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.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Words at Galatasaray training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wilfried Singo 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 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.
Uğurcan Çakır 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 want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Galatasaray heard it as anything else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wilfried Singo 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 6 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped 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 Mohamed Salah is on it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Mauro Icardi
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alexey Batrakov provided it, and the 8.36 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.93 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 8 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Galatasaray 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fabinho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Two goals and a mark of 8.55 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and AZAL waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Galatasaray is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Galatasaray is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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.
Squad27 Aug 2029
Words at Galatasaray training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wilfried Singo 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 Yunus Akgün in the middle of it, and Konyaspor unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Alanyaspor waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Galatasaray is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Galatasaray have 4 straight wins of it.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Words at Galatasaray training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wilfried Singo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings20 Aug 2029
Wilfried Singo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.27. 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 rule about passports rather than about football has decided he cannot play. Galatasaray had more of them than the form allows, and somebody had to be the name that did not fit.
In brief
The dugoutLucas Torreira has become a man the manager trusts
“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.
“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 Galatasaray, and it is not being withdrawn.
Davinson Sánchez 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Galatasaray and Adana Demirspor in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Galatasaray lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
98 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Lucas Torreira 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 paper's favourite story and every manager's least. What happened is being dealt with internally, which is the phrase clubs use when they would rather nobody asked again.
Nobody at Galatasaray 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. Galatasaray know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Commercial news is the news nobody sings about and everything else is paid for with. The board will call it a partnership; the accountants will call it the difference between this squad and a smaller one.
The words a physio says slowly. 28 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Galatasaray is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 16 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.
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.
İlkay Gündoğan 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.
“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.
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 Davinson Sánchez is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lucas Torreira signs something — a contract at Galatasaray or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
$145.2M was the most the club would pay and Porto 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 words a physio says slowly. 37 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Alanyaspor waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Galatasaray is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Galatasaray this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 27 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fabinho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The name of Cenk Unal has come up in conversations Galatasaray were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Nobody at Galatasaray 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.
$136.0M on the table at Porto. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
45 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Galatasaray lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
$51.9M was the most the club would pay and Udinese 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 fee is $21.8M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Alanyaspor drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Halil Dervişoğlu had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Galatasaray have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Enis Destan is living that version at Galatasaray, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Words at Galatasaray training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wilfried Singo 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.
Enis Destan was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $21.8M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
The words a physio says slowly. 53 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.
Galatasaray have gone to Udinese 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.
Galatasaray have gone to Alanyaspor with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Antalyaspor have kept their man, and Galatasaray go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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 Galatasaray, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Galatasaray heard it as anything else.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Roland Sallai commits to Galatasaray for another 3 years.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Words at Galatasaray training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wilfried Singo 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.
60 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Galatasaray lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Galatasaray 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Galatasaray people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer from Giresunspor for Halil Dervişoğlu 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.
İlkay Gündoğan 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.
Nobody at Galatasaray 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.
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
The words a physio says slowly. 68 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Galatasaray have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wilfried Singo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Mauro Icardi has his answer from Galatasaray; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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 trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Galatasaray has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
78 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Galatasaray lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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.
Uğurcan Çakır 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 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 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Alanyaspor will make the call about Bertuğ Yıldırım this week. Galatasaray have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Nobody at Galatasaray 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.
In brief
BoardroomGalatasaray bank $933.3K from an old deal
The dugoutMaestro asks for a word with the manager
BoardroomThe Galatasaray production line keeps running
87 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Galatasaray lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Noah Saviolo is living that version at Galatasaray, and it tends to show in the first month.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alexey Batrakov and Galatasaray agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“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 Galatasaray hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Nobody at Galatasaray 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.
95 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Galatasaray lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Galatasaray and Trabzonspor have settled on $16.2M. 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Trabzonspor have kept their man, and Galatasaray 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.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Words at Galatasaray training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wilfried Singo 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.
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.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Yunus Akgün is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Nobody at Galatasaray 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. 104 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.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Mohamed Salah obliged against Fenerbahce. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Galatasaray.
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 Galatasaray have had the benefit of it.
There are goals, and then there are goals against that particular opponent. The Galatasaray support have their bragging rights for a year and they know exactly whose name is on them.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Mauro Icardi 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 Lucas Torreira is on it.
“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 Galatasaray hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Galatasaray have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
İlkay Gündoğan 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.
Squad21 May 2029
Words at Galatasaray training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fabinho 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 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Galatasaray. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
34 graduates, from a department now rated 9 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
98 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Squad14 May 2029
Aral Şimşir 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 Galatasaray 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Galatasaray. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Aral Şimşir has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Galatasaray have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aral Şimşir was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Kazeem Olaigbe 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.
Nobody at Galatasaray 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.
Squad7 May 2029
A place in the month's best eleven for Yunus Akgün
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Yunus Akgün has come out of that comparison in the side, and Galatasaray have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Uğurcan Çakır 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 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.
Aral Şimşir 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.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Lucas Torreira has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aral Şimşir was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Galatasaray 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 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; İlkay Gündoğan 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 Mohamed Salah is on it.
Ankaragucu will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Galatasaray were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Galatasaray heard it as anything else.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Galatasaray and Ankaragucu, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Match7 Apr 2029
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for Galatasaray. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 6‑0 against Kayserispor, and it could have been more.
Player ratings2 Apr 2029
A brace, and Aral Şimşir takes the afternoon — 9.23
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Aral Şimşir provided it, and the 9.23 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Two goals and a mark of 8.69 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.58 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Galatasaray and Kayserispor in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
In brief
SquadAral Şimşir falls out with a teammate over standards
Two goals and a mark of 8.64 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.64 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Words at Galatasaray training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aral Şimşir 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: Yunus Akgün. 2‑0 against Gaziantep, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
7 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of İlkay Gündoğan
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Galatasaray have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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 Lucas Torreira is on it.
1‑5. There is a level at which football is played every single week by clubs that have been doing it for fifty years, and an evening like this is what it feels like to arrive there without having done it.
20 goals and a season average of 7.68 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings12 Mar 2029
A brace, and Yunus Akgün takes the afternoon — 8.76
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Yunus Akgün provided it, and the 8.76 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.34 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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 Galatasaray hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Uğurcan Çakır 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.
6 goals in one match, Bertuğ Yıldırım on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Galatasaray and Bayern Munich.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Deniz Gül at his very best
SquadWords at Galatasaray training over how hard people work
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aral Şimşir was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
In brief
Player ratingsAral Şimşir was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Successful dribbles: 27. 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.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Getting past Uğurcan Çakır has become the hardest job in the division
18 clean sheets and counting. Forwards used to back themselves here; now they shoot early, shoot wide, and look for somebody to blame.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Umraniyespor tried to reorganise, Galatasaray did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Player ratings26 Feb 2029
Roland Sallai was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.16. 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 ratingsWilfried Singo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
The dugoutYunus Akgün has become a man the manager trusts
0‑4. There is a level at which football is played every single week by clubs that have been doing it for fifty years, and an evening like this is what it feels like to arrive there without having done it.
Match18 Feb 2029
After 18 games, Galatasaray finally taste it again
The first defeat in 18 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Bayern Munich; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
76 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Player ratings19 Feb 2029
A brace, and Mohamed Salah takes the afternoon — 9.30
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mohamed Salah provided it, and the 9.30 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
11 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.49 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.98 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“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 Galatasaray hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
4 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Words at Galatasaray training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aral Şimşir 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.
15 goals and a season average of 7.58 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
Deadline passes with 1 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Galatasaray 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 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.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.74 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Galatasaray and Istanbulspor in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
9 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aral Şimşir was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
7 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.
The chase for Kazeem Olaigbe ended with $12.8M changing hands and Trabzonspor out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Kazeem Olaigbe is living that version at Galatasaray, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yunus Akgün was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match20 Jan 2029
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Galatasaray. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Hatayspor will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Galatasaray were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Two goals and a mark of 9.49 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yunus Akgün 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 Carlos Cuesta. The answer from Galatasaray has not changed — yet.
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 offer went to Basaksehir 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.
Nothing signed, nothing denied, and a lot of people suddenly very careful about their wording. Supporters who have been through one of these know the quiet part lasts months.
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.
In brief
SquadWords at Galatasaray training over how hard people work
Giresunspor will want this one forgotten quickly: 7‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Galatasaray were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 10.00 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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 Galatasaray have had the benefit of 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.
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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Galatasaray and Giresunspor, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Adana Demirspor will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Galatasaray were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wilfried Singo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings25 Dec 2028
Roland Sallai was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.37. 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 10.00 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Galatasaray and Fatih Karagumruk in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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 performance of 8.33 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings18 Dec 2028
Aral Şimşir was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.25. 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.
0‑0 against Borussia Dortmund, 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.
“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 Galatasaray hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Galatasaray did not have in the autumn.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Yunus Akgün 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 first defeat in 6 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Borussia Dortmund; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Marked 7.13 on 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; İlkay Gündoğan will call it something else in private.
Nobody at Galatasaray 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.
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.
“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.
There are goals, and then there are goals against that particular opponent. The Galatasaray support have their bragging rights for a year and they know exactly whose name is on them.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” İlkay Gündoğan and Galatasaray agree another 2 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wilfried Singo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
İlkay Gündoğan 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.
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.
4‑0, and Mohamed Salah took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Galatasaray tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings27 Nov 2028
A brace, and Mohamed Salah takes the afternoon — 9.92
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mohamed Salah provided it, and the 9.92 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
45 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alexey Batrakov provided it, and the 8.45 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Match26 Nov 2028
Another one collected away from home
6 on the bounce on the road for Galatasaray. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Words at Galatasaray training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wilfried Singo 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.69 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.25 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
6 goals in one match, Yunus Akgün on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Galatasaray and Gaziantep.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wilfried Singo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings13 Nov 2028
Yunus Akgün was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.66. 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 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
1‑2 away to the standard of Club Brugge. 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.98 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.99 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Galatasaray heard it as anything else.
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 first defeat in 6 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Club Brugge; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Two goals and a mark of 9.88 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
33 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
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.
A season average of 7.47 with 10 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Words at Galatasaray training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yunus Akgün 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 8.19 — 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.
3‑1 against Club Brugge, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Alexey Batrakov was at the centre of the description.
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.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Words at Galatasaray training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yunus Akgün 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.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Alexey Batrakov. 1‑0 against Sivasspor, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Two goals and a mark of 8.21 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Umraniyespor made Galatasaray work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Words at Galatasaray training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aral Şimşir 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 performance of 8.25 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings16 Oct 2028
Jackson Muleka was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.03. 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.
Nobody at Galatasaray 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. Galatasaray know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
3‑0, and Yunus Akgün took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Galatasaray tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Words at Galatasaray training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yunus Akgün 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.
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.
Marked 8.45 — 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 8.39 — 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.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.34 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
0‑2 away to the standard of Borussia Dortmund. 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Galatasaray heard it as anything else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yunus Akgün was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Successful dribbles: 30. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Words at Galatasaray training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wilfried Singo 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 first defeat in 7 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Fenerbahce; the supporters will say both, in that order, all 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 Galatasaray this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Mohamed Salah is on it.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
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 Yildiz to a room that had heard them before.
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Galatasaray lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
4‑1 against Partizan, on a night that will be replayed at this club for a generation. Continental reputations are made in single evenings and this was the evening.
Two goals and a mark of 9.64 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Galatasaray have 7 straight wins of it.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Words at Galatasaray training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yunus Akgün 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.
Match17 Sep 2028
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for Galatasaray. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
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.
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Galatasaray lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.60 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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 Galatasaray 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 Yunus Akgün was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
33 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Galatasaray lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 15 arrived, 13 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“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 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.
8 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
The words a physio says slowly. 40 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Kacper Kozłowski has, at Galatasaray, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Galatasaray have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Words at Galatasaray training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yunus Akgün 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.
49 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Galatasaray lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Giresunspor will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Galatasaray were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
A brace, and Mohamed Salah takes the afternoon — 9.90
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mohamed Salah provided it, and the 9.90 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Trabzonspor wanted more than $15.2M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Words at Galatasaray training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yunus Akgün 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 31 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
Aral Şimşir was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.98. 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.
58 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Galatasaray lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Adana Demirspor will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Galatasaray were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
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.
Galatasaray 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.19 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
A new deal for the man in the dugout, and the clearest thing a board can say without calling a press conference about it. Stability is cheap to promise and expensive to deliver.
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.
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
Boardroom4 academy players handed senior numbers at Galatasaray
67 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Galatasaray lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Yunus Akgün 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.
Roland Sallai 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 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.
78 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Galatasaray lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Alexey Batrakov is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“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 Galatasaray hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Words at Galatasaray training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wilfried Singo 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.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Elias Jelert has improved at 25, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 4 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
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.
88 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Galatasaray lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wilfried Singo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Roland Sallai has improved at 31, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Galatasaray this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Galatasaray 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.
97 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Galatasaray lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Position 2, 91 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.
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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Yunus Akgün 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 Lucas Torreira is on it.
The words a physio says slowly. 105 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.
“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 Galatasaray, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Konyaspor have kept their man, and Galatasaray go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
At 23 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 Wilfried Singo 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 Mohamed Salah is on 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.
114 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Galatasaray lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
At 17 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Abdülkerim Bardakcı and Galatasaray agree another 3 years.
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 deal fell over and took everything it was going to pay for with it. The club wakes up with the same owner, the same budget and rather less goodwill.
Nobody at Galatasaray 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.
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
124 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Galatasaray lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Galatasaray people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Galatasaray 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yunus Akgün was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Can Kahveci is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ali Turuc has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Erdem Muldur is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Nobody at Galatasaray 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.
133 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Galatasaray lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Galatasaray 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.
Position 2, 91 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Bertuğ Yıldırım is living that version at Galatasaray, and it tends to show in the first month.
Roland Sallai 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.
Add another name to the list: Kayserispor have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Kazımcan Karataş. The answer from Galatasaray has not changed — yet.
In brief
SquadWords at Galatasaray training over how hard people work
The dugoutLucas Torreira has become a man the manager trusts
BoardroomGalatasaray bank $933.3K from an old deal
135 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Galatasaray lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The deal with Basaksehir 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.
Galatasaray 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Jackson Muleka has just signed for Galatasaray, and for once the answer mattered.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alexey Batrakov and Galatasaray agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Galatasaray heard it as anything else.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 9 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Konyaspor will make the call about Mario Lemina this week. Galatasaray have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
The clubs have shaken hands with Konyaspor; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Galatasaray 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 offer went to Basaksehir 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.
$3.9M 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.
“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.
Uğurcan Çakır 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.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Yunus Akgün 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 has had enough of the noise. Whether Galatasaray 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.
In brief
The dugoutYunus Akgün has become a man the manager trusts
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.
Fenerbahce go through and Galatasaray 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.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Galatasaray had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.21 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mario Lemina will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Galatasaray the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Aral Şimşir 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 Alexey Batrakov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Mario Lemina 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 Lucas Torreira is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Wilfried Zaha trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Galatasaray could ask drops and the wages Mario Lemina can ask rise.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Mauro Icardi has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
“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.
Squad15 May 2028
Yunus Akgün 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.
Mario Lemina 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 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.
Alexey Batrakov has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
Uğurcan Çakır was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” İlkay Gündoğan and Galatasaray agree another 2 years.
Squad8 May 2028
Words at Galatasaray training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexey Batrakov 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Galatasaray 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Galatasaray know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Maestro has written the date down.
Fatih Karagumruk will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Galatasaray were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.63 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mario Lemina will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Galatasaray the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Uğurcan Çakır 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.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexey Batrakov 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. Deniz Gül 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.
In brief
Player ratingsYunus Akgün was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Deniz Gül at his very best
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Galatasaray heard it as anything else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yunus Akgün 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 Lucas Torreira is on it.
Next up on the road: Fatih Karagumruk, position 15. The supporters who go will talk about it all week and the ones who do not will check their phones at ten to five.
The least glamorous thing a foreign signing ever does and the one that decides most of them. A player who can hear the shout behind him is a different footballer from one who cannot.
A season average of 7.52 with 20 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at Galatasaray training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yunus Akgün 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.
400 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
The 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 Besiktas; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
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 Mohamed Salah is on it.
Ankaragucu will want this one forgotten quickly: 7‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Galatasaray were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Two goals and a mark of 8.35 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Galatasaray and Ankaragucu in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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 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.
Nothing has been signed and nothing has been denied. Supporters who have lived through one of these before know the quiet part lasts months and the loud part lasts a week.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Galatasaray they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
12 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Yunus Akgün 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: Roland Sallai. 1‑0 against Kayserispor, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Galatasaray this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
11 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Yunus Akgün 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 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.
0‑3 against RB Leipzig. The honest reading is not that the players were poor; it is that the distance between this club and that one is currently measured in things money takes years to buy.
6‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
A brace, and Aral Şimşir takes the afternoon — 8.85
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Aral Şimşir provided it, and the 8.85 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.25 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Galatasaray this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Galatasaray and Basaksehir in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
In brief
SquadWords at Galatasaray training over how hard people work
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Deniz Gül provided it, and the 8.65 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Galatasaray heard it as anything else.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Yunus Akgün 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.
Marked 8.96 — 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.
Match11 Mar 2028
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Galatasaray. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.44 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Galatasaray is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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.
Lucas Torreira 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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Mario Lemina has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
1‑1 against RB Leipzig, 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.
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Umraniyespor will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Galatasaray were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.69 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 24. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Yunus Akgün 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Galatasaray this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.60 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Galatasaray have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at Galatasaray training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yunus Akgün 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 listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Kazımcan Karataş had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Konyaspor moved on, Mario Lemina reports back to Galatasaray, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 4 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Davinson Sánchez and Galatasaray agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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 Galatasaray supporters have already started telling it.
In brief
MarketMauro Icardi wants to know where this is going
SquadAlexey Batrakov falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
Galatasaray 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.
Position 3, 58 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.98 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
$1.4M was the most the club would pay and Trabzonspor 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.
Uğurcan Çakır and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Yunus Akgün 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.
Successful dribbles: 44. 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.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Galatasaray scored in the 101th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Deniz Gül provided it, and the 8.92 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Galatasaray can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Trabzonspor have kept their man, and Galatasaray go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Galatasaray heard it as anything else.
Galatasaray offered $1.5M; 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.
Galatasaray offered $33.9M; 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.
Galatasaray asked and Real Madrid said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Lucas Torreira scored in the 88th minute, Konyaspor had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Galatasaray took the lot.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.37 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
Galatasaray have gone to Trabzonspor 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.
$20.1M 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.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
A brace, and Mohamed Salah takes the afternoon — 10.00
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mohamed Salah provided it, and the 10.00 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Two goals and a mark of 9.49 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Galatasaray 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.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
A brace, and Yunus Akgün takes the afternoon — 8.73
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Yunus Akgün provided it, and the 8.73 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Galatasaray had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 5‑1 against Adana Demirspor, and it could have been more.
Player ratings27 Dec 2027
A brace, and Yunus Akgün takes the afternoon — 8.58
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Yunus Akgün provided it, and the 8.58 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.28 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Galatasaray and Adana Demirspor, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and İlkay Gündoğan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.50 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.38, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Yunus Akgün 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 goals and a season average of 7.29 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
Yunus Akgün 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.
Mario Lemina 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.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
Aral Şimşir was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.11. 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.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Erkan Yildiz on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Galatasaray heard it as anything else.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at Galatasaray training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yunus Akgün 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 found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Galatasaray pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Nobody at Galatasaray 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 ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
Position 2 and 40 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Match4 Dec 2027
After 11 games, Galatasaray finally taste it again
The first defeat in 11 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Besiktas; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Lucas Torreira 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.
“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 Galatasaray hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday. The order of those three tells you everything about what a football club actually values.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at Galatasaray training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. İlkay Gündoğan 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.
11 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.
2‑0 against Dinamo Bucharest, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Alexey Batrakov was at the centre of the description.
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 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.
5 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Yunus Akgün 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.
Kayserispor will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Galatasaray were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 86th, and Umraniyespor spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
13 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.39 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
7 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.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.24 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
With 9 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.
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.
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.
3‑0. 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alexey Batrakov provided it, and the 8.43 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.74 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
11 goals and a season average of 7.41. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Yunus Akgün 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 deal fell over and took everything it was going to pay for with it. The club wakes up with the same owner, the same budget and rather less goodwill.