Janderson wins it after the whistle should have gone
96 minutes played. Janderson found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Samsunspor went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Janderson provided it, and the 9.04 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 Goztepe can pretend not to have heard.
Guilherme Luiz was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
At 19 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.
Guilherme Luiz 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 a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Guilherme Luiz has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juan Santos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
0‑2 to Gaziantep, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Juan Santos 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: 17. 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
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutEfkan Bekiroğlu has become a man the manager trusts
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Héliton was one of the reasons people came, and $3.6M does not replace that by itself.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Goztepe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Malcom Bokélé 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Goztepe can tell you which week it ends in.
“I watch every Goztepe game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Rizespor runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Juan Santos 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Yusuf Erdoğan and Goztepe agree another 1 years.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Baran Yilmaz
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Baran Yilmaz has come out of that comparison in the side, and Goztepe have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Guilherme Luiz 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 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 Goztepe know it.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danijel Aleksić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑4 Sinan Celik left the room before anybody could ask which.
Beaten 4 times, 5 saves, and an afternoon that will go on his record whether it was his fault or the defence’s. It is the quiet unfairness of the position.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Goztepe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Goztepe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Santos 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.
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 Jeh is on it.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Goztepe have no good answer.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Goztepe, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Bodrum FK are out and Goztepe go through, 2‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Guilherme Luiz, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.06
A mark of 8.06 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Guilherme Luiz was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 21 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.
Level with 88 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Goztepe had all but put away. Genclerbirligi will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
In brief
SquadWords at Goztepe training over how hard people work
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Jeh wants continental football; whether Goztepe can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Goztepe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Malcom Bokélé 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 dugout2 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Sinan Celik to a room that had heard them before.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Guilherme Luiz is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Danijel Aleksić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Goztepe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Santos 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Sinan Celik after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Antalyaspor the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Goztepe will enjoy reviewing.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Goztepe can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Malcom Bokélé 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.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Guilherme Luiz 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Tibet Durakçay is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
At 37, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Goztepe know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Goztepe can pretend not to have heard.
Guilherme Luiz 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 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 Goztepe know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juan Santos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
13 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Goztepe can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Goztepe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Efkan Bekiroğlu is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Allan Godói 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Onur Ayık was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.55 on the card, and the Goztepe support went home talking about one name.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Sinan Celik chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Fatih Karagumruk defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Yusuf Erdoğan’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Goztepe needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Baran Yilmaz is living that version at Goztepe, and it tends to show in the first month.
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 dugout14 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Sinan Celik to a room that had heard them before.
The dugoutJakub Szumski knocks on the manager's door
6Edition
The Goztepe Herald
7 Sep 2026
From our football correspondentSteady
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 15 signed and 9 gone
That is the business done at Goztepe 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.
Goztepe ran out of time with Konyaspor. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Besiktas have kept their man, and Goztepe go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Danijel Aleksić 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.
12 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Goztepe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Santos is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Besiktas arrived with $8.3M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
The deal with Konyaspor 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.
Arda Okan Kurtulan has gone, the accounts have $8.3M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
“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 Goztepe, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Antalyaspor have kept their man, and Goztepe go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Goztepe can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
$6.5M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
Kayserispor will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Goztepe were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Bandirmaspor had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
He is going to Besiktas, the club has $6.5M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Goztepe can pretend not to have heard.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $77.9K — a club that wants Josip Ćalušić enough to be asked twice.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Goztepe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
$11.1M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to Igdir FK; Goztepe go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
He is going to Jablonec, the club has $11.1M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Yusuf Erdoğan has just signed for Goztepe, and for once the answer mattered.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $344.9K — a club that wants Hüseyin Türkmen enough to be asked twice.
Goztepe have gone to Konyaspor with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The offer from Umraniyespor for Rhaldney 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.
Goztepe asked and Besiktas 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.
$880.0K on the table at Igdir FK. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $940.0K — a club that wants Doğan Erdoğan enough to be asked twice.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Semih Ucar 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. Volkan Bayindir is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Goztepe are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Guilherme Luiz 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 name of Juan Santos has come up in conversations Goztepe were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.