Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Trabzonspor know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Trabzonspor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Trabzonspor hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ernest Muçi signs something — a contract at Trabzonspor or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Trabzonspor. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Ernest Muçi is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Fabinho signs something — a contract at Trabzonspor or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
4 goals in 32 games at Gaziantep — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Trabzonspor updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Ernest Muçi
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 81 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Trabzonspor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Trabzonspor know it.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Trabzonspor can tell you which week it ends in.
“71 caps was 71 more than the boy who started ever expected.” At 34 he has stepped away from the national side and has not stepped away from Trabzonspor.
Boardroom3 May 2027
Nobody left the Trabzonspor 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.
“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 Trabzonspor hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Trabzonspor pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Trabzonspor know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Konyaspor in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Two goals and a mark of 8.96 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Trabzonspor pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Cengiz Erkin could afford to be generous.
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.
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Trabzonspor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Fenerbahce go through and Trabzonspor go home, 1‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
It finished 1-4. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
The words a physio says slowly. 24 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.
“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 Trabzonspor hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Onuralp Çakıroğlu is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Fenerbahce next, which means a week that starts on Monday. Everything else on this page will be forgotten by Saturday; this fixture will not be forgotten for a year.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
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.
33 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Trabzonspor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Genclerbirligi will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Trabzonspor 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. 8.00 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Ernest Muçi at his very best
The words a physio says slowly. 42 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Trabzonspor heard it as anything else.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Trabzonspor can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
He is 18 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.
49 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Trabzonspor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.13 at 34, 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.” Trabzonspor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Trabzonspor can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and Trabzonspor now know that too.
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 Antalyaspor; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
59 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Trabzonspor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
A brace, and Ernest Muçi takes the afternoon — 8.74
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ernest Muçi provided it, and the 8.74 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Trabzonspor can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and Trabzonspor now know that too.
69 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Trabzonspor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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 midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 10 actions, 7.33, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
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.
77 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Trabzonspor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Mohamed Salah obliged against Alanyaspor. 3‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Trabzonspor.
62 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.30 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
A mark of 8.10 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Trabzonspor hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
85 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Trabzonspor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑1 against Fatih Karagumruk, and it could have been more.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
A brace, and Umut Nayir takes the afternoon — 9.07
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Umut Nayir provided it, and the 9.07 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Two goals and a mark of 9.05 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Trabzonspor hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Trabzonspor have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
The words a physio says slowly. 92 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.
“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 deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 0 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Vanspor have kept their man, and Trabzonspor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Mohamed Salah had Trabzonspor level again within 4 minutes, and Besiktas never got to play with a lead at all.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Tony Nwakaeme
The words a physio says slowly. 101 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 Trabzonspor, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Boluspor for Ozan Tufan 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Arsenii Batahov scored, was marked 7.89, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Trabzonspor asked and Antalyaspor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
109 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Trabzonspor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
A brace, and Mohamed Salah takes the afternoon — 9.25
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mohamed Salah provided it, and the 9.25 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Galatasaray paid $9.4M and Trabzonspor took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all 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.
Trabzonspor asked and Corum FK 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. Ernest Muçi scored in the 89th minute, Samsunspor had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Trabzonspor took the lot.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Ozan Tufan had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
He is going to AS Roma, the club has $37.7M 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.
The offer from Galatasaray for Mohamed Salah 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.
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.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Trabzonspor had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Add another name to the list: Galatasaray have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Franculino. The answer from Trabzonspor has not changed — yet.
Match2 Jan 2027
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for Trabzonspor. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
“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 Trabzonspor know it.
Trabzonspor asked and Amedspor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Trabzonspor can pretend not to have heard.
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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.61 at 34, 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mathias Fjørtoft Løvik is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Cengiz Erkin kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Tony Nwakaeme's mistake
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
Marked 8.02 — 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.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Cengiz Erkin, on a 3‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mohamed Salah signs something — a contract at Trabzonspor or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
A brace, and Franculino takes the afternoon — 9.19
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Franculino provided it, and the 9.19 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.56 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Franculino in the middle of it, and Alanyaspor unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Trabzonspor prefer.
“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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Ernest Muçi
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Ernest Muçi has come out of that comparison in the side, and Trabzonspor have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Trabzonspor heard it as anything else.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
160% of the income goes out in wages at Trabzonspor
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout30 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 1‑4 Cengiz Erkin left the room before anybody could ask which.
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 Aral Şimşir
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.66 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Franculino was on a different afternoon to everybody else
10.00. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
9 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Trabzonspor and Genclerbirligi in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Marked 7.63 on 11 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. Fenerbahce on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mohamed Salah signs something — a contract at Trabzonspor or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
A 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 Mustafa Eskihellaç has written the date down.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Tony Nwakaeme obliged against Keciorengucu. 2‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Trabzonspor.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.66 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 Trabzonspor hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.92, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.50 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Trabzonspor heard it as anything else.
It finished 3‑1, and it was Franculino’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Trabzonspor.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
160% of the income goes out in wages at Trabzonspor
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Franculino 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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Ernest Muçi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.23. 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. 8.48 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Something was said to Paul Onuachu and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Cengiz Erkin was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Trabzonspor dressing room was either.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.19 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ernest Muçi. 2‑1 against Basaksehir, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.63 — 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Cengiz Erkin could afford to be generous.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Franculino has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Trabzonspor heard it as anything else.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Basaksehir in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.83 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
At 22 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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
222% of the income goes out in wages at Trabzonspor
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
5 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 award goes to Mohamed Salah, and nobody around here is inclined to argue with the choice.
Squad5 Oct 2026
10 new faces, and Trabzonspor are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Cengiz Erkin, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Two goals and a mark of 8.59 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Franculino signs something — a contract at Trabzonspor or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Ernest Muçi had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ruslan Malinovskyi. 2‑0 against Galatasaray, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Cengiz Erkin on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
“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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Trabzonspor close the window on a squad of their own making
12 in and 4 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Ruslan Malinovskyi is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Trabzonspor have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
Squad7 Sep 2026
10 new faces, and Trabzonspor are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Ernest Muçi
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Ernest Muçi has come out of that comparison in the side, and Trabzonspor have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Add another name to the list: Club Brugge have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Batista Mendy. The answer from Trabzonspor has not changed — yet.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Trabzonspor and Kayserispor, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
“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 Trabzonspor, and it is not being withdrawn.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.17 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Trabzonspor can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Ernest Muçi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.62. 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.
Alanyaspor paid $170.0K and Trabzonspor took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Trabzonspor asked and Corum FK 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Trabzonspor have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.47 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Konyaspor have kept their man, and Trabzonspor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Defensive actions: 19. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Ernest Muçi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.04. 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.
Noah Saviolo 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 offer from Basaksehir for Batista Mendy 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.
“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 phone has started ringing about René Mitongo again, and this time the name on the line is Omonia 29M. Trabzonspor are listening politely and promising nothing.
Trabzonspor asked and Amedspor 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Merih Guler has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Noah Saviolo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Aug 2026
12 new faces, and Trabzonspor are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Trabzonspor has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
In brief
The dugoutAral Şimşir knocks on the manager's door
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Trabzonspor heard it as anything else.
Mohamed Salah 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.
“78 caps is more than I ever expected, and it is time somebody else had them.” At 35 he is finished with his country and nowhere near finished with Trabzonspor.
Still no offer on the table, and Batista Mendy’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
In brief
SquadWords at Trabzonspor training over how hard people work