29 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wagner Pina was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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 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.
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 Bukhara waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Trabzonspor is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The bid was some way short and Trabzonspor did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Trabzonspor 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Mustafa Under 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Tolga Tokoz 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.
13 goals in 23 games at Baniyas — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Trabzonspor updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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.
In brief
SquadA place in the month's best eleven for Batista Mendy
46 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Trabzonspor will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Position 2 and 64 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Match30 Jan 2027
After 13 games, Trabzonspor finally taste it again
The first defeat in 13 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.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.61 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Trabzonspor close the window on a squad of their own making
1 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.
“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.
13 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 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 will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Trabzonspor were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Trabzonspor will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The words a physio says slowly. 61 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Trabzonspor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Trabzonspor have paid $10.2M for Alexey Batrakov, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
The words a physio says slowly. 70 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.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and TSG Hoffenheim waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Trabzonspor is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Trabzonspor offered $12.2M; Galatasaray 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.
Trabzonspor asked and Galatasaray 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 words a physio says slowly. 78 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 offer from Galatasaray for Fabinho 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.
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.
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.
$390.0K on the table at Fatih Karagumruk. 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 words a physio says slowly. 88 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.
9 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.
6 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Trabzonspor 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.
Position 1, 52 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
The words a physio says slowly. 95 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.
Sivasspor will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Trabzonspor were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
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.
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.
104 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.
4‑0 against MSK Zilina, and a performance that will change how the rest of the competition talks about this club. Reputations in continental football are built in single evenings and this was one.
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 9.86 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Two goals and a mark of 8.34 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Two goals and a mark of 9.90 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Two goals and a mark of 9.65 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Onuralp Çevikkan is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
7 goals in one match, Franculino on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Trabzonspor and Alanyaspor.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Trabzonspor 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.
2‑0 against Brentford, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Umut Nayir was at the centre of the description.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.67 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
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.
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.
5‑2 against Fenerbahce, and the songs went on long after the whistle. League positions come and go; days like this get retold at family dinners for years.
Beat anybody else and it is three points. Beat them, with his name on it, and it is a year of bragging rights for Trabzonspor and a story that will outlast his contract.
“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.
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.
Out, 2‑2 to Fatih Karagumruk, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
1 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
2‑1 against Crvena Zvezda, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Paul Onuachu was at the centre of the description.
Two goals and a mark of 8.53 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
3 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Trabzonspor 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.
Aral Şimşir 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.
Marked 8.90 — 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.
“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.
Kaan Ayhan 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 finished 3‑1, and it was Batista Mendy’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Trabzonspor.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Batista Mendy was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.57. 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.
Marked 8.16 — 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.
1‑1 against Crvena Zvezda, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Mohamed Salah was at the centre of the description.
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 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.
400 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Marked 8.28 — 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.17 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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 an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.51 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Ernest Muçi 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Onuralp Çevikkan is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.36 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.95 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
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.
3‑0 against MSK Zilina, and a performance that will change how the rest of the competition talks about this club. Reputations in continental football are built in single evenings and this was one.
7.94, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
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.
Marked 8.42 — 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 8.17 — 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.
In brief
BoardroomWages swallow 108% of the Trabzonspor income
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.
Squad28 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
11 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.
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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Trabzonspor has been clear about where Melih Kabasakal stands, which is more than many ever get.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mustafa Eskihellaç trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Trabzonspor will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes Stefan Savić a promise
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Onuralp Çevikkan is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Trabzonspor and Brentford, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.04 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Onuralp Çevikkan had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
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.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
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.
Kaan Ayhan 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.
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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Eibar had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 16 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
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.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 8 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
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.
“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.
Adana Demirspor pay $2.8M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Trabzonspor offered $1.7M; Antalyaspor 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.
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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Trabzonspor and Gaziantep, 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.53 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The offer went to Antalyaspor 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.
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.
Trabzonspor asked and Kasimpasa said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Ernest Muçi 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 Trabzonspor and Basaksehir in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Fatih Karagumruk pay $6.8M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
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.
Besiktas paid $940.0K 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.
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.
“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.
The name of Tim Jabol-Folcarelli has come up in conversations Trabzonspor were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Cenk Bayindir 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sidny Lopes Cabral was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
11 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Trabzonspor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Trabzonspor would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
“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 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.
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.
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.