Ankaragucu transfer update!

 

According to Yurtspor Ankaragucu have agreed deals with Erdem Ozgenc from Tuzlaspor, Ali Akin and Yusuf Abdioglu from Hatayspor, Cem Ekinci from Keciorengucu and Ishak Camak from Bandirmaspor. The club have also been reported to have agreed deals with  Owusu Kwabena from Qarabag and are in talks with Moryke Fofana from Yeni Malatyaspor.

Fofana in particular could be a good signing for Lig 1, he is a player i have always liked especially with Konya for his flair and skill. Hopefully he can add better numbers dropping down a division. 

From the existing squad, Thiago Pinto, Stelios Kitsiou, Daniel Lukasik, Endri Cekici and Torger Borven will all stay with the club unless they receive acceptable bids from other clubs. Amongst the Turkish players Alper Potuk, Ibrahim Akdag, Atakan Cankaya, Sahverdi Cetin, Embiya, Ali Kaan Alperen and Berke will all remain too unless suitable bids come in. 

On top of the players who left a few weeks ago Idriz Voca has agreed to mutual termination and will now be free to find another club. The club are trying to make final arrangements to pay former players Moke, Scarione and Canteros before unveiling the new signings. 

Some news in the last hour, Faruk Koca has stated both he and Mustafa Dalci want Torgeir Borven to stay but the player wasn't to play in the Super Lig and they cant force him to play. Atakan Cankaya is also set to move on as he has offers both in Turkey and abroad. 

Ibrahim Akdag will pay his release clause and is set to leave the club in the next couple of days. He also confirmed Kitsiou and Endri are both staying at the club. Owusu Kwabena is coming to Ankara tomorrow to sign a 3 year deal on a free transfer. 

The club have met with Hugo Rodallega but have yet to decide if they want to proceed and sign the veteran Colombian. 

And finally, Faruk Koca wants to make the 19 Mayis Stadium the ground for Ankaragucu with Genclerbirligi taking Eryaman. We will await and see how much of the above is true. 

Ankaragucu news roundup!

 

Ankaragucu began pre season preparations last week and are set to head off to Kizilcahamam for this years training camp. We have a lot of news to bring you from the last couple of weeks, and as always with Ankaragucu, some good and some bad. 

Faruk Koca as expected won the recent elections against Metin Akyuz and claimed he has constructed the "best management in the history of Ankaragucu". Some Ankaragucu fans have done some research on the members of Koca's management team and agree on paper there are some strong individuals with a lot of money. 

Football however isn't just about money. You need people who understand the game, can hire the right people into key positions such as Manager, Sporting Director, Scouts, Youth Academy, Social Media, Marketing etc. Koca also made some ambitious statements last season when he said Ankaragucu would be in the Champions League in 4 years time. The team went on to be relegated. 

The new management team wasted no team with their first big decision, and incredible one at that, as they hired Mustafa Dalci who they parted ways with last season after poor results and despite 95% of Ankaragucu fans saying they don't want him as manager. Faruk Koca explained that he didnt want to dismiss Dalci last season but agreed to his resignation at the 2nd request. No one can understand why Faruk Koca wants to hire Dalci and use Emre Yildiz his agent either who came in for criticism last season. 

The appointment of Dalci has also raised question marks over the future of Torgeir Borven. The Norwegian striker was the clubs top scorer last season and was one of a few players unhappy playing under Dalci last season. Dalci preferred Jonathan Bolingi and Emre Gural to Borven and treated him very poorly. 

Borven has had offers from other Super Lig clubs including Alanyaspor and Gaziantep but he wants to stay at Ankaragucu and has asked for his contract to be renewed in line with other players. The club held a press conference yesterday where one of the Directors Haluk and Dalci both said they offered Borven a better contract. Borven has since denied this and is angry at the lies again coming from members of the club. 

Again, as so often is the case, we have a management incapable of telling the truth and treating people properly.

In more positive news the club have paid the outstanding salaries of all players and want to play all the clubs debts in the next 12 months which would be a fantastic achievement if they are successful.

Alper Potuk has also confirmed he wants to stay with the club and help Ankaragucu get back into the Super Lig despite offers from other Super Lig clubs. Ibrahim Akdag announced that he is leaving the club, but Ankaragucu released as statement saying he has 1 year left on his contract and if he wants to leave, his new club will have to pay a transfer fee.

On the transfer front, Erdem Ozgenc who has a succesfull period with the club in 2017-19 winning promotion from Lig 1 and playing well in Super Lig has returned on a 1 year contract. He will be joined by Cem Ekinci from Keciorengucu and it looks like Owusu Kwabena a 24 year old Ghanaian from Qarabag is also on his way to the Turkish Capital. 

Ankaragucu have signed a deal with Diadora to be the clubs new shirt and kit makers and it already looks like a big upgrade on Nike. The club have 3 new jerseys coming out and will let the fans chose the 4th. 

A new 19 Mayis Stadium is being built at the same location and will hold 45,000 seats. Ankaragucu will move in once it is finally constructed.

The Ankaragucu youth academy has been doing great things under Cengiz Paca and Levant Kale and they have been rewarded with 5 of their players being called up to the first team for pre season training.

French Born Emre Eren who was outstanding for the youth team joins Ulus Yilmaz, Halil Fatih Acikgoz, and Kaan Cinkaya who has just recently been called up for the Turkey U17 Squad. Sirozhiddin Astankulov a 15 year old striker from Kyrgyzstan has also been called up. The youngster is said to be one of the best prospects to come from the academy in a long time and scored 20 goals last season despite playing above his age group. 

Berke Gurbuz is also training with the first team. The 18 year old burst onto the scene 2 years ago but hasnt quite kicked on with question marks against his size and work rate. He clearly has the talent though and this will be a big season for him. 

As always, we will have all the latest news and developments as they happen over the summer!

Ankaragucu transfer update!

 

Ankaragucu have wasted no time in preparing for the coming season with agreements for 5 new players according to various sources. With more than 20 players departing the club, the squad this season will have a whole new look.

If reports are to be believed and Ankaragucu have made agreements with the 5 players, they have started their recruitment by signing players from Lig 1 who have experience playing in lower leagues. This for me isn't a bad idea if you mix in some youth products and better quality from abroad. 

One of the players said to have agreed a move to the club is centre back, Yusuf Abdioglu who previously played for Ankaragucu 3 years ago in Lig 1 and helped the club to promotion. I wasn't a fan of him especially after a horror showing against Altinordu. But he has played well with Hatayspor over the last 2 seasons and helped them win promotion to the Super Lig too.

His team mate Akin Alkan is also set to have agreed to join. The 31 year old Goalkeeper is available on a free transfer and will be a replacement for Korcan and Freidrich.

Umar Basit the 21 year old Striker from Ankaraspor as we mentioned previously and Cem Ekinci along with Tuzlaspor defender Yasin Gureler are the other 3 who are said to have agreed moves. We will await confirmation from Ankaragucu. 

Faruk Koca elected as Ankaragucu president!

 

Faruk Koca comfortably won the elections to become next Ankaragucu president at this afternoons congress. Metin Akyuz with the support of Mehmet Yiginer who presented the congress put up a late fight but in the end Koca won by 700 votes.

A couple of notable statements from Koca included him announcing he will pay off the clubs debts in the next 12 months and the club wont owe anyone a single penny. He also stated he sold all his family apartments to help pay to lift the transfer ban. Finally the team could be set to move back to the luxury training complex Saray Spor which will play a big part in helping attract new players sign for the club.

Faruk Koca has certainly made some bold statements, lets now see if he can fulfill them as he made a few last season and never lived up to them. The good news is that a few sources have claimed that the management team he has put together is very impressive. Time will tell. 

Ankaragucu - News Roundup!

 

Today is marks another important day for Ankaragucu as the clubs delegates will vote for the clubs next president. For the first time in 9 years there are 2 candidates who will go head to head for control of the Capital club. 

Fatih Mert announced his decision to step down as President at the end of the season paving the way for Faruk Koca to take full control. Metin Akyuz is the other candidate who was part of the Mehmet Yiginer regime but it looks doubtful that he will come out on top.

Whoever the successful candidate is, we can only hope that they bring stability and organisation back to the club. Torgeir Borven spoke out in a Norwegian newspaper earlier in the week about his wish to leave Ankaragucu. He stated his unhappiness about how unorganised things are and doesn't want to play in Lig 1. 

Its basics like paying players salaries, hiring a Sporting Director, investing in the youth academy and scouting that will change the long term future of Ankaragucu. If the new President doesn't address these issues then Ankaragucu will continue to mount up debt and fall down the leagues. 

On the transfer front, Ankaragucu are reported to have agreed a move for Ankaraspor forward Umar Basit who is a powerful and fast 21 year old Ghanaian. They are also said to have agreed a 500,000 TL move for Cem Ekinci who scored 11 goals for Keciorengucu last season in Lig 1. The 31 year old German has spent most of his career in the lower leagues. 

Thiago Pinto is attracting interest from Altay who have just been promoted to the Super Lig and Famlicao back in Portugal. Saba Lobjanidze has signed a 3 year deal with Hatayspor while Paintsil, Badji and Diousse go back to their parent clubs. 

Ante Kulusic, Michal Pazdan, Korcan Celikay, Emre Gural, Atilla Turan, Ricardo Freidrich, and Furkan Beklevic are all out of contract and will move on to new clubs. 

Alper Potuk and Stelios Kitsiou are likely to leave the club with neither wanting to play in Lig 1 and Hikmet Karaman is unlikely to return as manager with his contract expiring last month. 

We will have a further update later today on the election results .

Ankaragucu players terminate their contracts!

 

The familiar story of players not being paid their salary sadly returns to Ankaragucu as Zvonimir Sarlija becomes the first player to terminate his contract. Its believed 4-5 other players have also taken the decision as salary's haven't been paid for 5 months. 

Sarlija is reported to have been paid only 20K of his 360K Salary and is now free to sign with other clubs with Ankaragucu still having to pay his outstanding salary. Sarlija signed for the club in the summer for 300K and is one of very few players who the club could have commanded a fee. Unfortunately as so often the case, the club will now receive nothing and Sarlija becomes a very expensive signing for a club who was relegated. 

The other players who refused to play in the weekends game are unnamed at this stage but believed to be both Turkish and Foreign. Looking at the team line up Endri, Alper, and Ibrahim could be among those players. 

Hikmet Karaman took a pop at an incident that happened 5 weeks ago but wouldn't say what the said incident was, he believes this was the reason the club were relegated. Its also believed he has had a fall out with Thiago Pinto as he kept him on the bench against Alanya despite having no recognised left back to chose. 

Karaman himself has come in for criticism for taking so long to play Man of the Match Mert Topuz and insisting on Freidrich and Korcan who both continued to perform badly all season. He also failed to play any other youth players at the weekend and instead gave opportunities to failures such as Assane, Orkan, Saba, Sahverdi who have no futures with the club. 

The clubs elections will take place later this month as Fatih Mert has stepped down and it looks like Faruk Koca will be a candidate and potentially Mehmet Yiginer. 

Neither candidate is good new for Ankaragucu. I have no doubt both have the right intentions, but they have proven they dont know how to run a football club. 

Emre Gural has also announced on his Instagram that he has left the club as his contract wont be renewed. 

GENCLERBIRLIGI FALL AT THE LAST FENCE !!

 

 

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

 

A trip to Trabzon was a bridge too far for Gencler yesterday as they were comprehensively outplayed and so return to The Championship League next season.

 

Having said that, there can be no doubting Gencler’s fighting spirit, but their undoing occurred in January, February and into March when they went 11 matches without winning and dropped into the relegation zone.

 

Trabzon dominated the match yesterday and Gencler can thank Nordfeldt for an outstanding display between the sticks to keep the score line respectable.

 

Trabzonspor             2                       GENCLERBIRLIGI              1

 

Team – Nordfeldt, Polomat, Arda, Mert, Johansson, Toure, Soner, Yilmaz, Ayite, Berisbek and Stancu

 

Substitutes – Lima, Mugni and Ilker

 

It was all Trabzon in the 1^st half and Trabzon almost took the lead after 15 minutes when Nwakaeme hit the post from a shot just outside the box.       2 minutes later and the woodwork saved Gencler again when a shot came in and hit the crossbar.

 

The Trabzon barrage continued and Nordfeldt saved a goal bound shot by Nwakaeme and then a point blank shot inside the 6 yard box.

 

However, the break through arrived just before the half time whistle when a mistimed tackle by Arda allowed Ekuban through and he sent his shot inside the left post with Nordfeldt unable to reach it.

 

Gencler had one shot on target in the 1^st half when Ayite’s shot was saved by Ugurcan.

 

Into the 2^nd half and Trabzon was stunned after only 5 minutes when Ayite avoided 2 tackles and sent his fierce shot from just inside the box on the right into the net with Ugurcan well beaten.

 

Trabzon continued to dictate play and Nordfeldt made 2 crucial saves to frustrate them.    Then Trabzon thought they had restored their lead in the 70^th minute but it was correctly ruled offside.

 

Trabzon continued to press forward and 5 minutes later Nordfeldt to the rescue again to save another goal bound shot.

 

Into the last 10 minutes and was looking increasingly like a 1-1 stalemate, and then Trabzon scored in the 83^rd minute, but again it was correctly ruled out after the referee had consulted VAR and confirmed that Nwakaeme had fouled Arda before the final shot.

 

However, the winning goal arrived 3 minutes later when Afobe was played through with only Nordfeldt to beat and he made no mistake.    Claims were made for offside, but the replay clearly showed that Polomat had played Afobe onside.

 

Gencler did have a chance to score in the 75^th minute when a shot from Stancu just outside the box hit the top of the crossbar and went out of play.

 

So, Gencler can have no complaints with the outcome, but as I have said many times here this season, there can be no criticism of their fighting spirit.       They have a strong defence but they will perhaps be looking at strengthening their midfield for next season.

 

As we know from experience, there are no easy matches in The Championship League and it is very difficult to bounce straight back up.

 

On the upside, at least there will be the Ankara Derby to look forward to next season with Ankaragucu also relegated   !!

 

As always, watch this space when hostilities resume   !!

 

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim