Galatasaray SK: 1 match behind closed doors, 1 match played away from Istanbul.
Adnan Polat: 45 day ban
Arda: 3 match ban
Emre Aşık: 2 match ban
Sabri Sarıoğlu: 2 match ban

Fenerbahçe: “Enough to buy a football or two” fine
The Uruguayan Bastard: 5 matches
Animal: 3 matches
Semih Şentürk: 3 matches

Of course these punishments are all bullshit. Must I remind everyone that NO blood was shed, NO weapons were used, and that NO punches were actually landed (Arda’s handbag doesn’t count).

I don’t understand what Emre’s crime was. The man was beaten up by Lugano and yet he sees both a red card and a 2 match ban. No my friends that’s not just any BS, that’s Turkish BS. Arda was attacked from behind by Semih and for throwing his arms around, he sees a red card and a 3 match ban. And finally Sabri did not commit a single red card offense during the match and so the referee doesnt punish him with a red card. And yet the Federation punishes him with a 2 match ban.

And can someone please tell me why Lugano isn’t being banned for at least 5 months? In every match he plays in, he either stomps on an opponent’s foot, bashes them with his elbow, and of course his endless cursing towards the referees (although to be fair, most of them deserve it).

Volkan “The Animal” Demirel should have been banned from Turkish football. If Nouma was banned because of his “tombala”, then why shouldn’t Volkan be banned too. Both have disgusting records of unprofessional actions and now Volkan has gone one step further by comitting an indecent and lewd act, something illegal where I come from.

But thankfully our two stooges Adnan Sezgin and Haldun Ustunel have publically declared that they will appeal the verdicts. Heres what the punishments should be reduced too:

Galatasaray: No Punishment
Arda: 1 match ban
Emre Asik: No punishment
Sabri: No punishment

And I guess Semih should be given a 1 match ban only.

But we all know that the Federation won’t do anything favorable for us. They’ve already screwed our season over with their referees, why would they do anything that might give us even the slightest of chances to mount a title comeback?

I blame today’s loss on all of the injured players. If they’re not men, they shouldn’t be playing professional football.

I’d also like to extend a heartfelt “Fuck you” to our Brazilian Bastard Lincoln. Who the fuck are you to curse at a real legend? Bulent doesn’t have time to appease your sorry washed up ass. This summer we’ve just gotta bite the bullet and send him packing. Put him into the “failed transfer” bin. An additional fuck you goes out to the jealous Fenerli’s and Besiktasli’s who openly supported Hamburg and according to, Martin Jol, gave detailed info on Galatasaray’s style of play.

Feel free to leave any other statements on anger, surprise, and just plain disappointment below as well as any Anti-Bulent bullshit.

Today an ex-Galatasaray board member, Abdurrahman Albayrak revealed details into how Arsenal were so close to sign the 25 year old star. According to Albayrak, Arsenal sent a delegation to bring Hasan back to London as Arsene Wenger had been looking into him for quite some time. Arsenal apparently made a starting bid of 7.5 million Dollars and seemed very interested into buying Hasan. Galatasaray decided to play hard ball and asked for 12 million dollars. Bear in mind that Galatasray had recently lost 26 million dollars over Jardel’s departure from the club.

After some heated negotiation, Galatasaray lowered their price to 10 million dollars and asked for Arsenal’s final take-it-or-drop-it bid. In a show of good faith Galatasaray refused to meet with the delegations of Lazio and A.C Milan who were also very interested in the winger. It is rumored that Lazio had a 17 million dollar bid ready for both Hasan Sas and Bulent Korkmaz. Arsenal’s final bid was at 9 million dollars. Albayrak stated that they insisted on 10 million dolars and so the transfer died then and there.

Hasan Sas stayed on with the club and would go on to win more titles, but he would always seem broken by his failure to make it to Europe. Hasan became more agressive and violent, seeing many red cards for cursing at referees and attacking opponents and even team mates on occasion. Hasan went from being the Golden Boy of Turkish football to the black sheep.

1. He knows our football better than any others
Bulent’s tenure with Galatasaray saw him playing in the classic 4-3-1-2 formation for many years. Bulent knows the tactics of the fluid midfield, pacy wings, talented strikers, and the iron defence that this formation needs. Galatasaray has also brought in players to fulfill these roles, and they let Bulent know of the needs of the team and how to fill them. He’s seen action with many other managers all trying to perfect this system and he knows what kind of players are needed.

2. He already has a perfect team, he just needs to get it to work

It is a fact that we have the best squad in the league. However we’re 8 points off the pace because Skibbe couldn’t get his 116 million Euro squad to beat Kocaelispor, Eskisehirspor, and Antalyaspor (x2), all newly promoted teams. That’s 10 points right there. So what will Bulent do differently? Bulent will instill the desire and discipline that is absolutely non-existent in this team. He won’t be as strict as Feldkamp, but he’ll do whatever is necessary to right this ship.

3. He is a good manager

I watched Bulent’s matches with the clubs he managed. Erciyesspor was a crisis team which Bulent inspired to fight a mighty battle to escape relegation, something they nearly accomplished. He led the team to an impressive 1-1 draw with Fener (Semih’s tying goal being offside), and brought Erciyes to the finals of the Turkish Cup against Besiktas in which they were denied two clear penalties and Besiktas should have been playing with 10 men.

With Bursaspor he formed a very offensive team that in my opinion, was just unlucky. Bursa just kept either giving away 1-0 leads or lost matches in which they should have at least came away with a point. The Bursa-GS match is a perfect example. He brought in effective players like Tum in as well. This was his only job in which he started a season with.

Genclerbirligi is a completely different story. He joined the club after the dictator Cavcav promised Bulent job security and the right to rebuild the team before viciously sacking him when Bulent oppossed certain business dealings.

Bulent knows football better than most other Turkish players. He always had teh desire to win, no matter what the cost. That’s very important in management. He won’t be “pleased with the result” against Kayseri when it’s 0-0. He will insist on getting that goal, something that will have an impact on the players.

4. He loves this club

If a man loves his club, he’ll do anything to see his club be succesful, whether he be a player, a fan, a board member, or a manager. Bulent loves this club so very much. He gave playing in Italy as well as millions of dollars just so he could stay with his boyhood team. It’s only natural that he will work day and night to make Galatasaray succesful.

5. He’s from Malatya

Nuff said.

When Fatih Terim was put in charge of Galatasaray people criticized the board for putting a manager who was unsuccesful everywhere he went, even though he managed a “big team” (Turkey) beforehand. There are many similarities between Fatih Terim and Bulent Korkmaz. Both were legendary defenders who loved the CimBom jersey very much. Both were brought to this team in troubled times. And hopefully both will be remembered as great managers for our club.

That being said, nothing is out of reach. While our chances for the title are looking bad, theyre not gone. A good string of results from “new-manager-syndrome” could see us fight our way to a champions league spot. If we win this Thursday, we’re in the round of 16 against a team that’s around Hertha Berlin in the standings. Nothing is lost yet, and yet we have so much to gain.

I have a good feeling about Bulent and I know he is going to be very succesful with us. Could you imagine Bulent lifting up the UEFA Cup for a second time with us at Kadikoy? First as a player then as a manager. Could you imagine Bulent adding more trophies and medals to his cabinet. Bulent wants to be succesful, now can we please all get behind him and chant his name???

GALATASARAY-KAYSERİSPOR: 1-1
Stadium: Ali Sami Yen
Referees: Selçuk Dereli, Hüseyin Fidan, Muharrem Yılmaz

Red Card: min. 28 Lincoln
Goals: min. 27 Nonda; min. 90 Mehmet Eren

We started off well, we got the goal in the 28th minutes after a wonderful play by Nonda. Mind you this is another goal by a man ive written off a few posts ago. Then it began. Before the goal Lincoln was brought down by a Kayserispor player and was booked for diving. Was it a dive? I want to say no, but there’s something in my mind that just doesnt feel comfortable about it. Did the Kayserispor player mistime his challenge? Yes. Did Lincoln get hooked onto his leg? Yes. Was it sudden and without any time for Lincoln to actually see the challenge and dive? Yes. Then what’s wrong here? Maybe its because its Lincoln. At the end of the day Lincoln was brought down and we should have been awarded a penalty. Instead Lincoln gets the yellow card.

Soon after the goal, Selcuk Dereli realizes that Galatasaray will probably go on and take all three points if the game continues like this so he decides to take action. When a Kayserispor player decides to take a quick foul, Lincoln tries to block its movement, and so the ref books him again and sends him off. I’m not going to discuss the fact that blockingoff a quick foul is not grounds for a yellow card. Instead I’m going to talk about the fact that Emre Asik is completely at fault for Lincoln’s dismissal. Right before the foul, Emre Asik grabbed the ball and stopped the Kayseri player from taking the foul for a few seconds before the ball was given back to another player who hit Lincoln with the ball. If Emre left the original Kayseri player to play, Lincoln wouldn’t have gotten involved. But no. Our idiot has to be anti-professional. This is what happens when you have no more central defenders.

The game continued without a single Kayseri chance for a goal against 10 man Galatasaray. Milan Baros was struck on the head by a Kayseri defender which resulted in him bleeeding. He then smeared his hand in the blood and smothered it on the ref. Well done Milan, you could have been banned for life. Soon after that, Milan Baros was brought down in the penalty box and was not awarded a penalty. And finally in the 91st minute, a weak shot by Mehmet Eren was deflected off Tobias Linderoth who returned after months away from football, and found teh back of the net as De Sanctis was completely dumbfounded.

I’m not angry at the referee at all. No actually I’m angry the Galatasaray board for never opening up their mouths and trying to save this team from the referees. When a referee made a simple mistake in a Fener match, the good swine of Fener’s board member swore that they would try to pull away from the Turkish league and play in the Sapmi league. There was not a single error made against Fener again. Instead everything went Fener’s way (Konyaspor, Ankaraspor, Eskisehirspor). When something went the wrong way for Besiktas, they yelled up and down that “Besiktas is bigger than what people may think” and that “If we slam our fists on teh table nobody can remain under it” and my personal favorite “For the next match, we’re only going to play our youngsters and we’re going to lock the Inonu stadium to our fans”. They went out with a full strength squad with fans protesting the poor management of the team. They lost 1-2. Same goes for Trabzonspor. When they conceded a late goal against a Bursaspor that comletely outplayed them for 90 minutes, protests were designed and black balloons were released.

I’m not advocating the same insanity that these lesser teams decided on. However we need to do something quick and decisive. Otherwise this will continue.

GALATASARAY – SİVASSPOR: 1-1
Stadium: Ali Sami Yen
Referees: Hüseyin Göçek, Alpaslan Dedeş, Kemal Yılmaz

Yellow Cards: min. 30 Diallo, min. 45 Mohamed, min. 69 İbrahim, min. 73 Sezer, min. 87 Abdurrahman, min. 90+4 Petkoviç (Sivasspor), min. 43 Arda, min. 73 Sabri, min. 90+3 Emre Aşık (Galatasaray)

The match was just Galatasaray sending waves of waves of attacks on the Sivas defense which yet again was formed of 11 players playing very rough football against our youngsters. I’m very glad that the Ali Sami Yen faithful cursed at the Sivasspor players and management in the most vicious ways possible, simply because they deserved it.

Sivas does not play football. All they do is put defenders behind the ball, play rough and get lucky.
I would like someone to come forward and show me what Sivas does positively. As Sivas’ manager Bulent Uygun says, “this shows what can be done by a handful of people”. Yes Bulent Bey, this is what can be done by a handful of people. However if even one or two of those people leave, everything will collapse. Many of Sivas’ players will see their contracts end this season, and then Sivas like many other Anatolian clubs with similar aspirations will fade into obscurity and return to the lower leagues where it belongs.

However there are a few things to be said about our side. First off there are some players that need to leave. For starters, Umit Karan and Shabani Nonda have got to go. Both have been terrible form this season, with Umit not havign scored a single league goal. I’m sorry Umit but it seems your nightlife has finally caught up with you and has devestated you as everyone had been expecting. Secondly, Linderoths gotta go. Hes been with us for a injury ridden season and a half and I can’t remember him playing a single match for us. I’m very sorry Tobias, but it just didn’t work out.

Next, this team needs a radical overhaul of its right side. We don’t have a right back on this team. Sabri and Baris are NOT right backs. You can’t expect them to do defense. We need a proper right winger also. If it means spending big, then so be it. We need someone like Okan who can tear apart defenders with his speed and cross the ball inside for Milan to score. If only Arda could play on the right side, then we could have him there and Kewell on the left side. Finally we need a new forward. Mehmet Yildiz would be a good signing especially since his contract ends this summer.

We are definitly not in panic mode. We are still the clear favorites to win this league. However dumb mistakes here and there can ruin everything if they get out of hand. This weekend we’ll be up against strugglnig Denizlispor. What we need is a good pick-me-upper. Im calling for a very sound thrashing of Denizli, 3-0. It’ll do wonders for our shot morale and will restate our intention to win. And let’s not forget the trip to Bordeaux coming up soon in February.

Last Thursday, Ankaraspor’s old “honorable” president Melih Gokcek went on national TV and accused the referee of their previous week’s encounter with Fenerbahce, of making three blaring mistakes which gave Fener their victory last week. Interesting;y enough he started his rant by stating: “I have always been a Fenerli. I am proud of my team (Fener). When Fener becomes champions, Im very happy and proud of them.

A few hours later Fener’s website posted a classic example of footballing bullshit by stating that “We are not involved in these dirty games” and that “Everything we do we do with our own sweat”. However the very next day, Fener president Aziz Yildirim was caught meeting with Melih Gokcek in a public park and having an hour long conversation, then appearing before cameras hand in hand, looking as gay as could be.

With this in mind let’s go back to Wednsday, a day filled with international friendlies. We now know that Galatasaray footballing director Adnan Sezgin called up the federation to ask for his team’s Saturday night fixture away at Ankaraspor be moved back by at least one day for a couple of reasons:

1. Several players were on foreign duty, many of them on the Turkish national teams at the same stadium where the Fed was watching Turkey take on Austria.
2. Fernando Meira was with the Portuguese squad for a friendly with Brazil. That’s 18 hours both ways. Kewell on teh other hand was with Australia squad.
3. Arda Turan had a serious episode with his hearting beating out of control and was only just released from hospital.
4. In addition to several chronically injured footballers (Emre Gungor, Tobias Linderoth), Lincoln and Mehmet Topal were also inured but were done with their treatments and could make it to the match if the match was held a day or two days later.

And yet the fed decided not to accept Galatasaray’s REASONABLE request, instead giving Adnan Sezgin some serious lip over the propostion. Let’s not forget that this team is the number one supporter of the national team. Whenever the national team has been succesful, the national team was chockfull of Galatasaray players who have always born the weight of the national team. And yet they couldn’t even do this one favor for us. Nice.

Fast forward to Saturday night. Remember Melih Gokcek’s tirade. Fenerbahce has just been held to a draw not three hours ago. Galatasaray is giving the good fight against Ankaraspor. Minute two. Arda Turan is rugby tackled to the ground. No booking. Free kick. Arda Turan is held with two arms and is dragged down to the ground just before he can touch the ball into the back of the net. Referee has his eye on them two the whole time.

So why is the referee destroying our chances? Maybe it’s to appease Melih Gokcek after his vicious rant on Thursday? Maybe Melih Gokcek was acting on Fener’s behalf? Would explain his meeting with Fener’s satanical president. Just more example of a league that’s spiraling out of control. And yet our idiots can’t open their mouths in protest. If this happened to them…Ohohohoh…. There would be hell to pay.

Let’s ignore this scandal. Let’s focus on the match shall we? We see a stadium that is beyond third world. For those of you that don’t know the Yenikent ASAS stadium, it’s in the middle of nowhere. You literally have to leave the city, tread through some potato and tobacco farms just to reach it. The grass is 60% dead and withering. On the day of the match, the wind was incredibly strong. It totally ruined the match. Crosses went the wrong way, Keepers couldn’t distribute the ball, even passes were affected. Add to this the fact that Ankaraspor just parked the bus in front of goal and didn’t do anything to win the game. Well, you get the idea. If Ankaraspor had a real stadium to play on, this match could have been a lot different.

And so ends another week in the Turkcell Super Lig.

Harry Kewell can play as a left winger, a central attacking midfielder, and a second forward. Kewell was signed by English side Leeds United at the age of 15. He made his debut at the age of only 17 for Leeds and followed this up by his debut for the Australian national side only months later. Kewell was a vital part of a very succesful Leeds side that gained much respect throughout the footballing world.

In the 1999/2000 Leeds United-Galatasaray UEFA cup semifnal match, Kewell was sent off. However everything turned out good as Galatasaray went on to win the UEFA cup by beating Arsenal in a thrilling match which was decided by penalties. In the 2000/2001 champions league season, Kewell helped Leeds United reach the semifinals. He was also chosen the PFA youth player of the year. However as financial problems took hold at Leeds United, Kewell left for Liverpool. He would go on to state that his injuries were worsened by the Leeds physios and that he found very little support by his teammates.

In the 05/06 season with Liverpool, Kewell truly showed his class as he provided plenty of goals and assists for his team. However injuries persisted in hampering his real abilities and Kewell soon found himself spending more time with his doctors then with his team. And finally in the summer of 2008 Kewell moved on a free transfer to the champions of Turkey, Galatasaray.

Kewell will do wonders at Galatasaray, Im sure of it. Theirs nothing Turkish fans love more than a winger who shows his desire for victory along with an ability to get past defenders, something he can easily do in Turkey. There is however the potential problem of injuries. According to the Galatasaray medical staff, Kewell is in good condition and can start pre-season training immediatly.

At the offical unveiling of Kewell and resulting press conference, Kewell stated that “I wanted to move on and this is the best way. I can’t wait to get started, it’s just what I’m looking forward to, a new challenge.” If that’s what you’re looking for Harry, then you’ve found just the place. Next year Harry Kewell will be wearing the number 19 on his uniform. He stated that 19 was the number that he wore back when he first started at Leeds. The Galatasaray faithful just can’t wait for Kewell to step out onto the Ali Sami Yen pitch. I’m sure he remembers the fans back in 2000. Im sure he cant wait as well.

I could hardly state it better myself Harry.

However I will continue to write for the Turkey blog, informing people of the latest news about the Ay-Yildizlar, as well as match anlaysis and post/prematch info. So go visit and support our team.