Tayfun Korkut the unlikely architect of Stuttgart's revival
https://www.theguardian.com/football...y_to_clipboard
This is the first story.
https://www.theguardian.com/football...y_to_clipboard
This is the first story.
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Cengiz Under's talent no longer a secret as he profits at Roma
https://www.theguardian.com/football...y_to_clipboard
And the second. -
It all follows on from yesterday's pseudo hagiography of Hakan Şükür.
What's going on?Comment
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Beşiktaş play tomorrow so there's more to come.Comment
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Few fans and little history but Basaksehir are challenging Turkey’s big three
https://www.theguardian.com/football...y_to_clipboardComment
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Read the article and think it's a hagiography. Why can't people who know something about Turkish football write the article rather than someone who knows fuck all?
Sorry to be boring and constantly repeat the same points but here goes.
Only 5 teams have ever won the Super Lig, the big three from Istanbul, Trabzonspor and Bursaspor. The big three have huge budgets, media coverage and can bases. Trabzonspor have a large budget and decent media coverage and fan base but cannot really compete with the big three. Bursaspor did a Leicester before Leicester. They have a tiny budget, virtually no media coverage and a fan base only in Bursa.
To try to push Başakşehir into this is wrong. This is a team based in an extremely conservative but well to do suburb of Istanbul, they have money, lots of it but no support. The club is part of the regime. Their manager is an Erdoğan supporter, they play in a stadium named after an Erdoğan supporter and their two most prominent Turkish players are Erdoğan supporters, Emre and Arda. The ground and the whole club is funded by the tax payer but it's trying to show it's inclusive and self sufficient. It's not.
Under their previous name they played in front of tens of home fans. The largest supporter group of up to 50 university students followed them to take the piss and also have some fun.
This is a club that makes the Red Bull franchises look positively enlightened.
This is a club that should be boycotted not written about in any favourable light.Comment
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There's a similarly scathing assessment, by one 'alperkaya123', just gone up in the comments seven minutes ago under that latest article. I take it that's not you, AE?
It's very odd to get such a run of these pieces. One wonders if it's just fairly ignorant journalists spying a superficially 'feel-good' story and not being aware of the background issues, or, as you sort of imply upthread, is there some concerted effort going on to massage the regime's reputation and help it gain ground in these areas of 'soft power', à la Abu Dhabi with Manchester City, etc.Comment
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Off to read the comments now.
The bastards won yesterday.Comment
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Generally a decent set of comments. Nobody has mentioned that both Başakşehir and Kasımpaşa are both, ALLEGEDLY, fronts for massive money laundering by regime supporters. It was mentioned who was on the board of the former. Join the two dots together.Comment
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http://ceftus.org/2018/03/19/ceftus-...artick_keddie/
Not sure if this interests anyone but thought I'd share it.Comment
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I went tonight and it was interesting, I've bought his book as well. If I'm honest I'm quite jealous as it's the book I'd like to have written.
https://turkeyfromtheterraces.com/stories/ The blog seems to be some of the best bits from the book.Comment
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