Just filling space

Just like much of the writing on this blog, I often wonder whether much of what goes into the Ankara section of Hurriyet is more a case of filling up space rather than actually news.

One of the important stories in today's Ankara section is that two players from Ankaraspor had a birthday party. Amazing stuff.

But of slightly more importance was a little rant by Atilla Turker at Gencler's goalkeeper Jesus and also against midfielder Mehmet Nas.

Turker praises Jesus for the various fine saves he made during last Saturday's 4-1 win over Konya, but he also gets stuck into him for shouting at various players (our own) after the last second consolation goal scored by Konya.

Jesus was pretty upset at the time and at first refused to join the rest of the team who came over to where we were sitting to receive own congratulations.

"Professionalism is not just playing well... discipline and gentlemanliness are also necessary," Turker wrote.

I have to admit I was slightly confused as to why Jesus was so upset, but I guess he had just lost a bonus of a few thousand lira for failing to keep a clean sheet. Oh well.

But then Turker goes on to attack Mehmet Nas for getting two yellow cards and thus putting the team under huge pressure. He also had a go at us supporters for actually shouting out in support of Nas.

What the hell is Turker talking about? The reason why we were shouting our support for the bloke was because there was no way he deserved that second yellow card. The incident took place right in front of us: Nas went for the ball, got to it first and the opposition player fell. It was clean. When the whistle blew I actually thought we would get the foul. Instead Nas got a yellow, his second, and left the field.

Having said that, I'm sure Turker was watching from the press box and therefore didn't have a good view. On this occasion I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, probably the first time this blog has ever done such a thing.