"The two teams need to make plans for the next season. For this reason we need to immediately conclude a deal. Our talks are continuing and on our side there are no problems. We are waiting for a decision from the Ankaragucu board," Little Gokcek told NTV Spor.
"God willing no trifling matter will cause a hitch. I'm praying that this will happen as soon as possible."
That "trifling matter" could well end up being who gets what when it comes to director spots. The team will still be called Ankaragucu but will almost certainly be chaired by Little Gokcek.
Little Gokcek summed up the reasoning behind such a deal by saying that Ankaragucu had the fans, while Ankaraspor had the money.
Earlier reports said that a merger deal would result in Izmir's Karsiyaka being promoted to the top flight but it now appears that it would mean a reduction from 18 to 17 teams in the Super Lig. I assume that means next year only two teams will be relegated.
As Faustian pacts go, it is a pretty good one. Ankaragucu selling its soul in the hope of winning the league in its centenary year.
Still, nothing has been signed yet. Meanwhile, rumour has it that the new Ankaragucu badge will look a little bit like this and the new team will play all its home matches at Yenikent.
The last rumours were started by us of course.
Don't f%*& with us Gokcek!!!
ReplyDeleteLiked the new badge u have designed. But instead of Little Gökçek, we can use Gökçeksonn! A new transfer for Gucu, from the steppes of Yenikent :)
ReplyDeleteWhat's Yenikent like? This is Mental news! Deli gibi! We should take the money and keep everything else. Culture, style, history, stadium. Our chairman is a numpty anyway. How bad is MacGokcek? Does he ban beer in parks? What does Harun say? What does Eski say? My favourite pub for childhood just closed down, so no happy with all this change. great childhood mind.
ReplyDeleteKirkcaldy Kanka
Kirkcaldy Kanka asked "Does he ban beer in parks?"
ReplyDeleteNot just beer, one of his goons told off my son (who was three at the time) for walking on the grass at one of his parks. That goon certainly got an earful from me.
Now now now boyz .... don't get too excited and act like Gecikondu Boyz !!!
ReplyDeleteI may be alone in this (certainly Kaleci Kanka doesn't agree with me !) but let's face it ... do we want to be an isolated Capital City in the world of footie ... or do we want to be like Sivas and Trabzon and challenge the Istanbul Three ??
Let's put politics and religion aside in footie and do what's best for our city I say. OK, so Glasgow didn't do it for religious reasons, but Edinburgh did !
However, Edinburgh can't compete with Glasgow for money due to the population gap, but at least they shed the 'religious divide' and welcome ALL as Hibs supporters.
So, that brings us to Ankara ........
Do we really want to be a backwater for the future, or shall we put our assets together and at least try to challenge like Sivas and Trabzon have been doing for the past few years ?
If Melih and MacMelih are willing to give us the dosh, keep our team name .... ANKARAGUCU ...., keep our sari/lacivert, keep our 19 Mayis Stadium, and assure our fans that they will not kick them in the goolies, then what's the problem ??!!
What Melih does with 'The Stadium from Hell' is not important.
What is important is that we can put our assets together to form a strong team, ie ....
Melih's money and Ankaragucu's potential to fill 19 Mayis Stadium.
Hacettepe (on the way down to the 2nd League) has 19 supporters and Ankaraspor has 39 supporters.
So, if we add 39 to to 20,000 it makes .... hmmmmm .... just a minute while I check my pocket calculator ..... ok .... gottit ........ 20,039 !!!
C'mon guys ... get real. We need some help. Cemal Aydin has proved in the past that he is not willing to part with his dosh for Ankaragucu, so why not go with Melih and see if he is as good as his word.
Burt Lancaster said in 'The Crimson Pirate' .... only believe half of what you see or hear. OK, good words, but let's give Melih a chance to prove Burt Lancaster wrong I say !!
Comments ???
My gosh. A proper debate on "The round ball in Ankara". Must be a first.
ReplyDeleteMy objections to this are manifold.
First up is that Ankaraspor are a municipal club. Where did Ankaraspor get the money to get into the Super Lig in the first place and where have they got the money to stay in it. I have yet to see a proper breakdown of the club's finances, but I did see this story in spor.haberler.com dated 15 May, 2009 (ie less than two weeks ago). I quote from the story on a the report of an auditor from the Sayistay (Court of Accounts) looking into the rather opaque finances of Ankaraspor. I quote:
"In the report it is claimed that the municipality transferred 6 million TL to a professional football team (ie Ankaraspor) through the "Ankara Büyükşehir Belediyesi Gençlik Spor Kulübü", an amateur organisation. Furthermore in the report it was stated that the transfer installment for Umit Aydin, who was transferred to Ankaraspor in 2005, was paid for from the account of the (amateur) Ankara Buyuksehir Belediyisi Genclik Spor Kulubu account."
The story goes on to say that it is not even clear what the exact budget of Ankaraspor is, nor what property they own in Ankara.
The matter has not reached a judicial conclusion but it does make one ask where exactly is all the money for Ankaraspor coming from, and whether it is being legally obtained. By law municipal funds are not to be spent on professional football teams, they are supposed to be spent on things like roads, or the metro line on which work has been halted because... er... the municipality has run out of money. All this makes Little Gokcek's arguments about Ankaraspor "having money" sound a bit suspect.
I'm not even going to go into the fact that Gokcek was personally responsible for destroying the pub where we used used to meet before matches just because he doesn't like alcohol (okay then, I did get into it). Please don't forget that he had Genclik Park closed down in 2002 for refurbishment and still, seven years later, it is yet to re-open. When it does re-open you can be pretty sure there won't be any pubs for us to enjoy a pre-match Efes.
Does Ankaragucu really want to get into bed with this lot. I'd say no.
Sir Eski Kanka argues that if we really want to really be going for the title we should be pooling our resources and embracing a merger. For me, I can only quote our soon-to-be-gone comrade Mountaineering Kanka who just one post before this one said:
"For anyone who may come across this blog posting, my final appeal would be for you to always support your home team. It doesn’t matter if they don’t win a single match. You should support them. Without them, you are nothing. Following a team just because they always win a lot of games may be fun in the short term, but it is certainly not admirable. Sticking with a team through thick and thin translates to so many other areas of life."
Here, here.
I can think of one positive though. Six games into next season and Ankaragucu are somewhere in the bottom third of the table... and the crowds sing....
ReplyDeleteIstifa
Istifa
Little Gokcek istifa
I like that chant.
ReplyDeleteI'm all in favor of AnkaraGucu rising to the top, but we don't need to ally ourselves with some religious wacko to do it. All we need is for the people of Ankara to stop freakin' supporting Istanbul teams and to start reveling in their birthright. That happens, and walla... there's your money.
This isn't the crossroads and no deals with the devil should be made. What's the track record on such deals?
Early Monday morning and still no news on whether a deal has been signed... problems perhaps?
ReplyDeleteDespite the myriad drawbacks of associating with the Gokcek crowd, there is something to be said in support of Eski Kanka's argument.
ReplyDeleteFrom my perspective, there is a distinct difference between supporting our club through thick and thin and accepting the institutionalization of mediocrity under the current management. It has long been obvious that Cemal Aydin is content to collect his Digiturk revenue and let Ankaragucu languish within a stone's throw of relegation. I suffered through plenty of disheartening matches this season and will continue to do so (if necessary) for the rest of my time in Ankara, but I would at least like to know that the team on the pitch is the absolute best it can be.
A union with Ankaraspor is likely to produce that solid defender and additional goal-scoring threat that were so sorely lacking this past year. I'm excited to see what that team could do in the SuperLig.
It is good for both Ankara and Turkish professional soccer as a whole to have a championship contender in the Republic's capital city.