Thursday 10 November 2011, 09:00
Guus Hiddink faces one of the biggest challenges of his illustrious career this week as his Turkey side face Croatia in the Euro 2012 play-offs. Well aware that his future as boss could hinge on the outcome...
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Thursday 15 September 2011, 16:14
Lights, camera, action! Amid a haze of uncertainty, the Turkish Super Lig finally got underway last weekend. Far from the usual fanfare of expectation, this season looks set to chug along like a steam...
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Friday 19 August 2011, 15:56
There is a general belief in the circles of Turkish football that to become recognised as a great of the national game, you must conquer Europe. Like Columbus crossing the Atlantic, the jump from the Super...
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Friday 12 August 2011, 15:28
There's nothing quite like a summer of scandal. And this year, Turkey has had it by the truckload. With a match-fixing scandal that has become international news, it is hardly a surprise that the season...
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Wednesday 04 May 2011, 14:45
As we all know by now, Trabzonspor and Fenerbahce are locked in a battle for the Super Lig title. Over the past few weeks (it’s been a while, I know) Fenerbahce have twice come back from the dead to keep...
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Wednesday 13 April 2011, 10:55
The winds of change have blown through Istanbul and spring has taken over. Green leaves have returned to city centre trees, the Bosphorus isn’t looking so gloomy and even the pigeons in Taksim Square are...
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Wednesday 06 April 2011, 17:29
Now, as many of you will remember, it was Trabzonspor who gifted Bursaspor their first ever Super Lig title by holding Fenerbahce to a draw on the final day of last season It is therefore a touch ironic...
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Wednesday 23 March 2011, 11:36
It was unusually comfortable, there was no sound of fingers on keyboards and I was surrounded by celebrities. When you swap Press Box for VIP box, this is the norm. Now back to reality, the blog’s weekend...
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Tuesday 15 March 2011, 11:51
It’s the most wonderful time of the year. No not Christmas. It’s DERBY WEEK! Like peacocks parading around a shire hall, the pre-derby weekend provides a perfect opportunity for Fenerbahce and Galatasaray...
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Thursday 03 March 2011, 12:16
Type, delete, type, delete, type, delete. After a weekend of so much entertainment, so much controversy and so much ridicule, it seems the blog is, for once, lost for words. Let’s start with the naughty...
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Wednesday 23 February 2011, 16:13
Call me a pessimist, but with Sunday's Besiktas/Fenerbahce derby being billed as the ‘Super Derby’, this blog couldn’t help but think it was going to be a letdown. Boy was I wrong! Using the words...
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Wednesday 16 February 2011, 13:12
Ah, Valentine’s Day - as depressing for some as it is heart-warming for others. However, while this blogger may have been left empty handed on Monday, I knew there was one love who wouldn’t let me down...
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Wednesday 09 February 2011, 10:16
A lovers tiff between the media and a club manager? Who’d have thought it...? When Gheorghe Hagi strolled into his post-match press conference you’d have been forgiven for thinking he was going to be in...
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Wednesday 02 February 2011, 13:10
I’m going to break a handful of rules from the Idiot's Guide to Journalism and start this blog with a video. A picture paints a thousand words, and this video may have been watched by more than 150...
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Tuesday 25 January 2011, 10:35
A mistake made by many is to presume that money will guarantee success. Just ask Florentino Perez over in Madrid. However, if Friday night’s opener to the second half of the Turkish Super Lig was anything...
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Wednesday 12 January 2011, 13:45
After a more than adequate break, the Turkish Super Lig gets back underway this weekend and what better a way to celebrate its return than to take a look back at the best...and worst of the first half...
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Thursday 16 December 2010, 10:27
The Good Trabzonspor The league leaders, and deservedly so. Senol Gunes’ men once again proved their title credentials with a battling win at Istanbul B.B. Under Gunes, Burak Yilmaz has looked twice the...
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Thursday 02 December 2010, 11:01
Note pad? Check! Camera? Check! El Clasico? Check! Without a doubt the single most impressive display of football I have ever seen. That was of course a reference to Barcelona’s ass-whooping of Real Madrid...
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Friday 26 November 2010, 09:30
"So how is it that this team managed to win the league last year?" The million dollar question I was asked by a fellow journalist during the Valencia – Bursaspor match on Wednesday evening. By...
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Wednesday 24 November 2010, 10:15
Twenty three minutes. The time it took for Alex De Souza - if he hadn’t done so already - to write himself into the history books at Fenerbahce. The club’s captain, and greatest player of recent times...
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Thursday 18 November 2010, 17:28
International week is like Marmite, you either love it or you hate it. Generally that decision revolves around whether it’s international ‘friendly’ week or actually a game that people give two hoots about...
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Tuesday 16 November 2010, 10:41
Anybody who has ever spent time in Spain will surely know that the Spanish way of describing laughter through text is to write ‘jaja’. Ironic then that, with a trip to Valencia looming next week, Bursaspor...
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Thursday 11 November 2010, 10:44
And then it happened...with two strikes of Umut Bulut’s right boot, Trabzonspor were propelled to the top of the league, displacing Bursaspor, and opening a chasm of 10 points between themselves and their...
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Friday 05 November 2010, 14:18
What would you think if, as a player, you looked to your own fans only to see them jumping up and down, making noise, with their backs turned in unison? You can feel the enthusiasm, the heat of passion...
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Tuesday 02 November 2010, 10:10
Turkey's titanic trio are all outside the top three for the first time after 10 games, reveals Sefa Atay ... They say there's a fine line between success and failure. If that line can be crossed...
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Tags: Bursaspor, Trabzonspor, Galatasaray, Fenerbahce, Besiktas, Gheorghe Hagi, Manchester United, Semih Senturk, Kasimpasa, Mateja Kezman, Kayserispor, Ivan Ergic, Alex De Souza, Yilmaz Vural, Sivasspor, Nicolas Anelka, Emre, Dani Guiza
Thursday 28 October 2010, 11:03
Strange things happened on Sunday night, not least the sight of the Galatasaray fans signing jubilantly, lighting flares and jumping up and down following their sides 0-0 draw at Fenerbahce. While others...
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Monday 25 October 2010, 15:51
It’s the day after the much anticipated derby and my feeling of disappointment has just turned to shock. As I reel through the morning papers I can’t help but notice Fanatik’s dedication of NINE pages...
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Thursday 21 October 2010, 11:54
Outraged, abused and let down - three phrases to sum up the blog’s feelings right now. Having slaved away on Tuesday evening, one eye on Ronaldinho in Madrid and the other on the computer screen, Galatasaray...
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Thursday 14 October 2010, 11:28
At about 8pm on Tuesday evening the clouds began to turn a dark shade of grey, the wind picked up in unfamiliar fashion and the realisation that the Turkish national side had just lost to Azerbaijan began...
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Monday 11 October 2010, 14:00
It’s why we love it. Football has that funny way of producing what is meant to be. So when Mesut Ozil lined up against Turkey for the first time in his career, after a week of questions about nationality...
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Friday 08 October 2010, 12:09
If Guus Hiddink wasn’t sweating before, he most certainly should be now. Not only do his Turkey side face a mountain of a task when they face Germany on Friday night – but they will also have to do it...
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Monday 04 October 2010, 16:58
The word untouchable is one that has often surrounded Fenerbahce and a select number of players. It is, however, quite obviously something that Aykut Kocaman cares very little for. Within weeks of taking...
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Wednesday 29 September 2010, 11:35
A blistering start to the season for a certain Ricardo Quaresma has sent to media into overdrive. Not only are they running out of superlatives to splash across their front pages, but they are also in...
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Thursday 23 September 2010, 14:02
It’s been a fairly uneventful week in the land of the golden horn. And no, I am not talking about Guti’s over exuberant reaction to scoring the derby equaliser. In fact, other than awaiting the TFF’s decision...
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Tuesday 21 September 2010, 11:24
Thirty-two... the number of minutes Turkish Delights has sat, thinking long and hard, about where to start with Sunday’s Fenerbahce-Besiktas derby – before remembering Bernd Schuster’s pre-match comments...
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Wednesday 15 September 2010, 13:06
Following the international ‘break’, the Super Lig was back in full throttle this weekend and it was a sense of the same old for many teams. Fenerbahce fans will be wishing it had never come back after...
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Wednesday 08 September 2010, 15:58
Ridvan Dilmen is not only one of the greatest footballers in Turkish history; he is also one of the only pundits who actually knows anything about football. It is for that precise reason that when he says...
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Monday 06 September 2010, 16:55
The blog is not happy. The new season began four weeks ago but TD, like a drunk teenager with jet lag, is still struggling to get to grips with the four day ‘weekend’ fixture schedule. The extent of this...
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Friday 03 September 2010, 09:45
As we enter the final day of Playmakers Week here on FourFourTwo.com, Turkish blogger Sefa Atay recalls the impact the Romanian made on Galatasaray... It could be the weather, the luxurious lifestyle or...
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Tuesday 31 August 2010, 13:11
The words ‘don’t tempt fate’ can often be heard around Turkey, and in the Trabzon area in particular. Club chairman Sadri Sener will have been wondering whether to celebrate or seek a witch doctor when...
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Wednesday 25 August 2010, 12:45
If TD was a betting blog, it would most certainly have not won any money this weekend. A surprise is not uncommon in the Super Lig, however, even with an aggressive scratch of the head, the blog is failing...
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Monday 23 August 2010, 14:46
What do Fenerbahce and Besiktas chairmen Aziz Yildirim and Yildirim Demiroren have in common? No, not the ability to go 90 minutes without changing their facial expression. They are both in desperate need...
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Wednesday 18 August 2010, 11:29
After the disappointment of losing the league title, coupled with failure to qualify for the Champions League, Fenerbahce’s 4-0 win over Antalyaspor on the opening weekend could not have been better timed...
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Friday 13 August 2010, 07:55
With the Turkish Super Lig season back in action this weekend, Turkish Delight has taken time out from its very busy schedule (ahem) to bring you a round-up of the summer months and a preview of the season...
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Friday 11 December 2009, 15:00
Hello hello, My name is John, and I will be blogging for FourFourTwo on the wonderful world of Turkish football. Why? I lived in Ankara for a while, during which time I developed a soft spot for Turkish...
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