Galatasaray has launched galatasaray.com (galatasaray.org is the club’s official webpage) where you may now watch the club’s official broadcast channel GSTV online for FREE.

GSTV is pretty impressive with a wide variety of programming to choose from. You may watch the club’s own news reports, view one-on-one interviews with the players and coaching staff (for all of you that just can’t get enough of Rijkaard), or you may watch Classic Galatasaray Games and watch us tear apart Barcelona, Milan, and Fener, at home and away.

Needless to say, the channel is in Turkish (we aren’t Barcelona yet), but the language of football is universal. The broadcast is in its infancy so we can only expect it to get better with time.

One of the biggest developments since I’ve been gone is the fact that every semi-respectable Spanish footy journal under the sun is screaming that Galatsaray is on the brink of bringing ex-Real Madrid manager Bernd Schuster to Istanbul on a three year 18 million dollar contract. Schuster is no stranger to the football world as being the ex manager of Real Madrid and was able to bring (straight out of his wiki entry) “beautiful football to the Santiago Bernabeu stadium with Real Madrid having the strongest offence, not beaten at home from the start of the league” He led Madrid to a title on a record amount of points in Spanish league history. He was also succesful with lesser Madrid club, Getafe.

What’s my opinion on Schuster? If you can get him, sign him. At this point we need a manager that can juggle the many stars on this team and turn them into a goal scoring machine that we know it can be. We need his discipline and his German tactical prowess. Barring a second place finish, (i.e, a miracle) it looks like Bulent will not be at the helm next year. To be honest I am kinda dissapointed in Bulents stint with us. I understand the terrible conditions under which he took over, but I at least expected him to reinvigorate the side, something I never really saw.

Coming to the sticky issue of transfers, both in and out, it looks like the Two Stooges will again try to go out and “find new talent”. Something that apparently “never ends at Galatasaray”.

Much talk has been made of the future of Umit Karan and Hasan Sas. Hasan’s contract ends this year while Umit hasn’t scored a single league goal this season. Lets not forget that Umit has scored 133 goals in the past 13 seasons, a respectable 10 goals per season ratio. While the Turkish media are swearing on their mothers graves that both won’t be part of the set-up next season, I don’t really expect either of them to leave. I predict that they’ll give Umit another chance next year and for them to keep Hasan as an older “good influence” on the kids. Which is would be the right decision.

So what do you guys think? Schuster in? Hasan and Umit out? Any suggestions for next year? Leave a comment below!

Meira will probably not be missed, especially snce he just arrived. He never seemed to clearly gel into the squad and never really formed a critical bond with his fellow central defender Servet. Our defense this year has been a horror show from every concievable angle. For years the one thing we could count on this team was its central defense and it’s goalkeeper. This year the defense part of that was shit.

However this means that Meira will not be playing in the critical match away at Hamburg this Thursday. At this point in time we have only the 35 year old horror show Emre Asik fit and ready to play against Hamburg. Servet and Emre Gungor are injured while Meira has fled the coop. I don’t think we’re ever going to see a full strength squad.

A couple of phone calls later, Galatasaray managed to resign CimBom legend Bulent Korkmaz. Bulent’s played a little over a 1000 matches with the CimBom and his No.3 jerseys has (apparently not) been retired. For Bulent to return like this makes us very excited and very hopeful. We would love to see Bulent lift more trophies with us, this time as our manager.

As we stand right now, we are in 6th place in the league, and 8 points adrift from Sivasspor. Right now we are not eligible to play in Europe next year, something I don’t want to even think of. This Thursday we have a do or die match against Bordeaux, another team not in the best of form. At the very start of the season I stated that our ONLY goal this season is to win the UEFA Cup in Fener’s stadium. It’s looking more and more that that will be our only real chance to win silverware.

Despite these dark clouds, I trust my team, and I trust Bulent. I know this team has what it takes to overcome any obstacle in its way. I know that if our players just get that spark, get that CimBom spirit in their hearts, that there is no team on this Earth that can stop us. I know that this season will end in glory for us.

1. Denizlispor 0-2 Galatasaray

Very efficient if lackluster performance of the side. Instead of being negative, I’d say that Baros is an absolute goal machine and I’d like to point out that he’s scored in every league match in which he’s worn those new pink Nike boots. His 16th league goal came in this match. Good performance by Arda as well. We need Kewell back.

2. Sivasspor 1-1 Galatasaray (3-1 on penalties)

Biggest shock, we’re out of the Turkish cup. Not toooo disappointing. I’d rather lose early than later on and ruin team morale just as we’re entering the UEFA Cup journey. Umit’s gotta go. Only two goals in the entire season and he couldn’t score the decisive penalty. Nonda’s gotta go. He just walked around for 100 minutes and slowed down our attacks. I almost cried after seeing Yaser break down after missing his penalty. Kudos to Hakan Balta for being the only competent one to actually score.

3. Lincoln and Baros ara back from injury

Speaks for itself. We’ve got Kayserispor on Saturday, a team which has conceded the least amount of goals in the league but has scored one of the least as well.

I have to be there when this stadium is inaugurated. I wonder if they’ll give Hakan Sukur the testimonial he so deserves.

But I expect Servet to be ready for this match. So far he hasn’t missed a single match this season, playing in every one of our league, European, and cup (minus Malatyaspor last week) matches. That’s all because Servet’s an absolute beast. His sheer strength coupled with that 6′3 body makes a mountain in our defense. While you can argue that he’s a bit lacking in agility and speed, Meira usually makes up for that. In addition I have never seen Servet lose an aeiral challange. The man is that good.

And so the Galatasaray board have rewarded Servet by extending his contract through the 2012-2013 season, that makes Servet ours until hes 31. In exchange his salary will be increased but it most likely will not be at the same level of Meira.

Another defender that deserves mention is Emre Asik. He’s one of the only players that managed to play for the four Istanbul teams, Istanbulspor, Fenerbahce, Besiktas, and Galatasaray. However hes been with us since 2000, though he was loaned out to Besiktas for three seasons. It seems that at the age of 35, Emre has decided to retire with us and be remembered as a CimBomlu. As I’ve always said, there is always room on this team for those who show love to the Yellow-Red jersey. Something that greedy lying little dog over at Aziz Baba’s lap can learn. Look at that other bastard Fatih Akyel. Now he’s rotting away at the second league with Kasimpasa.

Now all eyes are turned to Saturday’s match against Sivasspor. Let’s take a look at what awaits us:

1. -20 degree weather
2. Broken radiator in the visiting team locker room
3. Frozen solid pitch that still has snow on it
4. Extra long and sharp studs that were distributed to the Sivasspor players
5. A very vicious fan base that wants revenge for last years 5-3 thrashing

Hmm… well we’ve seen worse so I’d say it’ll be a fair fight. Bring it on. As the Turks say, “Biz zoru Severiz!” “We like it the hard way!”

As Skibbe said, this match is gonna be a hard one that will depend on luck. Victory will do wonders for us. Since the loss at Fener, we have 6 victories and a draw in 7 matches. Let’s not forget that the deluded folks at Trabzon will be taking a trip to the mob at Kadikoy. A draw there or a victory to the birds (I don’t like writing Fener more than once in a paragraph) coupled with our victory at Sivas will catapult us to the top of the league. These are the kinds of weeks that make champions.

After resigning after a disappointing season in 2007, Gerets was soon picked up by the famous Fench club Olympique de Marseille, and began to work his magic over there as well, taking a club struggling at the bottom all the way to a very respectable place. This year Marseille are trying to do better by unseating Olympique Lyonnais from their thrones. All the best Gerets, you really are a CimBom legend.

For some time now the Turkish media has reported that Gerets would like to bring Galatasaray’s star forward Umit Karan over to France to bolster his squad. Gerets knows that in the championship winning season of 05/06, Umit was the lead scorer and at times scored some pretty amazing goals out of nowhere (including an absolute 1988 Van Basten like goal against Manisaspor). Today its been written that Gerets is looking at Umit as well as Brandao of Shakhtar Donetsk and Henrik Larsson.

My opinion? Quite frankly I would be disappointed to see such a great forward go, but if Umit himself wants to go, then the door should be open for him. After a harsh injury earlier, Umit has struggled to regain his old form, with only one goal this season. In addition Skibbe has only been playing a single forward up front, Milan Baros, so Umit, and Nonda for that matter, has struggled to find a place in the first team squad. Perhaps a change in scenery is just what Umit needs.

However a couple of months into the season, Linderoth was devestated with an inflamed pelvic muscle which ended his footballing career for quite some time, forcing him to travel all the way to the United States for specialist treatment. For a player that never suffered a major injury up to that time, Tobias must have been depressed over it. However he was able to make the Sweden national side that took part in Euro 2008 and started pre season training with the team and took part in a couple of competitive matches as well under Michael Skibbe. However Linderoth was struck again with injuries after a thigh strain that put him out for a month.

However the Galatasaray doctors have revealed that Tobias’ injuries have passed and he will most likely be ready to take part in this weekends matchup at Genclerbirligi. This come as Ayhan is banned for a match after accumulating yellow cards. We’re definitly gonna need Linderoth in this long campaign if we are to go as far we possibly can. So let’s welcome back Linderoth, our great Swedish Viking!