114 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.
Ernest Muçi 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Trabzonspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Batista Mendy 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.
121 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trabzonspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Aral Şimşir had Trabzonspor level again within 3 minutes, and Besiktas never got to play with a lead at all.
“I watch every Trabzonspor game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Alashkert runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
130 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Trabzonspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Batista Mendy 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.
Miguel Ángel Torrén 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.
Stefan Savić damages knee ligaments — 138 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 138 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.
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Batista Mendy 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.
Mustafa Eskihellaç 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Paul Onuachu. 1‑0 against Kayserispor, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
In brief
Player ratingsThe afternoon belonged to Paul Onuachu
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trabzonspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Aral Şimşir will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Trabzonspor escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trabzonspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Batista Mendy 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Torpedo Kutaisi will make the call about Noah Saviolo this week. Trabzonspor have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
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.
The offer from Galatasaray for Paul Onuachu 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Danilo Boza is living that version at Trabzonspor, and it tends to show in the first month.
Ernest Muçi 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 easiest signature of my career.” Danilo Boza and Trabzonspor agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Trabzonspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Batista Mendy 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.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Trabzonspor
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Serdar Omur is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Tolga Celik is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The offer from Galatasaray 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.
Ernest Muçi 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.
The offer from Qarabag for Noah Saviolo 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.
271 appearances across 8 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Sidny Lopes Cabral 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.
Batista Mendy 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.