Turkish Delight – The Final Countdown

Sometimes in sport you can be good, but if you’re not great, then it’s often not enough.

So many examples you can think of; how wonderful at times were Klopp’s Liverpool side? Yet they have won as many Premier Leagues as Leicester and Blackburn (AS IT STANDS). Atletico Madrid have grafted for years under Simeone, yet they have not one but TWO monster clubs to compete with, and a mere 2 league titles to their name coupled with 2 defeats in Champions League finals to their city rivals. And of course, as I have stated in this blog series before, last season in the Turkish Super Lig, Fenerbahce getting 99 points, and NOT being crowned champions. On the whole, if you look at the results of Fener during Mourinho’s time in charge, they’re not close to BAD, but they also aren’t quite good enough to be the best. Right now, as we head into the final stages of the season; Fener made no real impression on the European stage, it would require a minor miracle to win the league title now, and as for the cup… they face their only superior in Turkish football. So it could well be a season of… nothing… at best it’s likely they could have another second place finish and a cup win. Would that be enough to meet the grand expectations the appointment of Mourinho and his subsequent spending on the playing squad has brought about? I am not so sure.

In the past, people have been able to somewhat look past Mourinho’s moaning because his team won and were successful. And whilst Fenerbahce have certainly won more than they haven’t this season, they are just OK rather than the best in the land. Is that acceptable? It’s certainly a question to be asked and something to be discussed. Since my last update, once more the results for Fener have been mainly fine, barring one huge disappointment (which we will go on to). A potentially tricky period was negotiated relatively well; a 3-1 league win over Kasimpasa was followed by advancing past Anderlecht in the Europa League before the much anticipated clash with rivals Gala. And of course, we had a NON-Turkish set of officials, which I am sure pleased Jose… somewhat…

The draw with Gala was followed by straightforward wins over Gaziantep 4-1 in the cup, followed by a 3-0 win at home to Antalyaspor. This left them in relatively good spirits heading into their Europa League tie with Rangers. A Rangers side who were under the management of former captain Barry Ferguson, after the club finally lost patience with Phillipe Clement. Despite his great playing career, Ferguson as a manager wasn’t quite at the level of his famous namesake… So the result of the first leg, proved quite the shocker!

Mourinho, despite the defeat, remained confident after the match… The build to the return leg was somewhat marred though by Mourinho falling out with one of his players over their weight and attitude, a story it feels like we have all heard from Jose before (somewhere it feels like Luke Shaw just felt a sharp pain and a shudder go down his spine).

Jose Mourinho mocks Allan Saint-Maximin’s POETRY skills and claims the Frenchman is overweight – as the Fenerbahce boss and winger exchange jibes in extraordinary war of words after Europa League omission | Daily Mail Online

Mourinho was though far more positive when speaking about Scottish football. And he brought up the possibility of the most tantalizing of prospects.

Jose Mourinho open to managing Celtic or Rangers – BBC Sport

And so on to the second league at a buoyant Ibrox Stadium. And for a long time it looked like an old-school Jose masterclass away in Europe… but not quite in the end…

Hugely disappointing, result wise anyway. Typically Mourinho was not effusive in his praise for the victorious opponents…

After their exit from the Europa League, Fener followed with a 0-0 draw against Samsunspor, despite the opposition falling to 10 men by the end of the game, Fener still couldn’t find a winning goal. That was followed by an early Friday evening match with Bodrum, which was not before one of the bigger transfer rumours of the season…

Of course, transfer rumors can come at anytime. But it made me chuckle when I saw this one emerge just after being knocked out of europe, suddenly Mourinho and Fenerbahce need a rebuild. In actuality, the upgrading of the playing squad is needed regardless in my opinion. Fener simply don’t have the strength in depth of quality that Galatasaray have. Maybe next season when they likely no longer have their mask-wearing Nigerian up front, that Gala will be a fair more beatable and catchable challenge for Fenerbahce to overcome? But the talk at this time wasn’t of striking options, it was at the opposite end of the pitch. Manchester City and their descent from unstoppable force to unreliable misfits has been one of the biggest football stories of the season. Seemingly nobody has been safe from the drop-off in performance, including their maverick yet wonderful goalkeeper Ederson. Once the envy of the world, the epitome of a modern goalkeeper with his ability to play out and to… keep the goal… but this season his occasional mistakes have seen him be dropped for a spell. And a year after apparently rejecting the riches of Saudi Arabia, it looks like he could well be on the move. With FENERBAHCE a possible landing spot… apparently…

Now, whilst I wouldn’t question adding a goalkeeper who I still think has quality, and would instantly be the top keeper in the Turkish Super Lig, I don’t think that it’s one of the main positions that Jose should be looking at strengthening. Dominik Livakovic is more than sufficient in the role, and so replacing him would seem harsh. Would Ederson be an upgrade? Yes probably. But given the fee and likely large wages the Brazilian would demand, I would think that those funds could be better invested in other areas of the playing squad… For me anyway… Albeit, the Croatian is not as assured as the number 1 goalkeeper at Fener as he once was. Substitute Irfan Egribayat has played 9 Super Lig games to Livakovic’s 16, and they both have 6 appearances a piece in the Europa League. Albeit Fener’s latest win with the Turkish goalkeeper in between the sticks, may have been with one eye on the impeding cup match with their fierce rivals a few days afterwards. Intriguing to see what line up Mourinho goes with in what really could prove to be a season defining match.

The win over Bodrum was a special match for the special one though, as his opposing number was Jose Morais. His fellow Portuguesa who he had as his assistant during his days at Porto, Inter Milan, Real Madrid and for a time during his second spell at Chelsea. It finished 4-2 and was a fairly routine win for the old master.

And so onto the much-anticipated cup match with their fiercest of rivals. And oh dear, oh dear… When Mourinho loses, he really does LOSE it doesn’t he?

The match itself was relatively normal, 2 goals from the great Victor Osimhen either side of a Sebastian Szymanski strike just before half time meant that there would likely be NO trophy for Jose of Fener this season either. I say it was a RELATIVELY normal match… That covered most of the match… Up until stoppage time when we had THREE red cards! Yandas for Fener, Demirbay and Yilmaz for Gala all were given their marching orders as tempers expectedly flared as the match came to an end. And that wasn’t even close to the end of the story…

Firstly we had THE INCIDENT…

As you can see, Mourinho appearing to put his hand towards the face of his opposite number. Which although it was pretty disgraceful behaviour, I am unsure if it really warranted Okan Buruk to fall to the ground like he had been shot. But that’s another story…

What was EVEN MORE incredible… Was Galatasaray’s social media activity afterwards…

For those of you who don’t speak Turkish, this tweet translates as “YOU WILL NOT ATTACK, YOU WILL DIGEST”. OK then…

AND THEN… We had… Well… I am not quite sure what to say… So just watch this… And listen to the glorious telling of this insane tweet from the Football Ramble podcast (HIGHLY recommend by the way)…

And after all of that… Mourinho was banned for 3 matches (so he will be absent for the games with Trabzonspor, Sivasspor and Kayserispor) and fined 292,500 Turkish lira (or £5955 to me and you). The Professional Football Disciplinary Board said they had taken Buruk’s actions into consideration, resulting in Mourinho being given a reduced suspension. Ferner assistant Salvatore Foti was given a four-match ban for an “insult towards an opposing team player’ while midfielder Mert Yandas was given a one-match suspension. Galatasaray had launched a CRIMINAL complaint with the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s office, but that was quickly dismissed. Fenerbahce quickly threw their support behind their manager, with the club saying that Buruk had acted “as if he had been shot” before claiming he had also made “disrespectful hand gestures” to provoke Mourinho.

More firmer backing came from club board member Fethi Pekin, who spoke to Sky Sports and told them the following:

“Mourinho represents everything this club is aiming for. Ambition, courage, and a relentless desire to win.. He does not take losing as an option… He is not here to coach 90 minutes of football. He is here to build a winning culture, and sometimes that means speaking up and standing firm in the face of provocation… What happened in the recent derby match was not just a football rivalry. It was an orchestrated effort to provoke our bench, our squad, our players, and our manager… Mourinho responded with a fire in himself and defiance of someone who refuses to be intimidated. And let me say this very, very, very clearly, as the board of Fenerbahce, we are fully behind Jose Mourinho… We did not hire Mourinho to adapt to this system… We hired him to raise the bar. And raising the bar makes people uncomfortable. That is fine. We are not here to play by old rules.”

So… Even if the rest of Turkish football isn’t with Mourinho, at least his own club are.

In Mourinho’s absence, Fener won comfortably 4-1 against Trabzonspor largely thanks to a Talisca hat trick. The gap to the league leaders just three points now, with just 8 games remaining. Oh, and of his 3, one of the goals in particular from Anderson Talisca stood out somewhat…

The weekend after and we had another relatively easy win for Fener, 3-1 away to Sivasspor. 3 points behind Gala now, with 7 matches remaining. But there was also time in the midst of all the chaos a title run-in can bring for some light-hearted fun on the training field… And it seems Mourinho and Allan Saint-Maximin have kissed and made up after their previous spat… with some assistance from man’s best friend…

Fener wrapped up April with a 3-1 win away to Gaziantep, but Galatasaray getting a comfortable win against Eyupspor meant that the gap at the top was back to 5 points. Surely it is their title to lose once more.

5 games to go, the final countdown is well and truly on, to the end of the season, and quite possibly, the end of the Mourinho ‘Turkish Delight’.

Josh.

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Turkish Delight – The Final Countdown

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