(Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
Like the cute kitty in the picture (which was taken in the UEFA Cup final in Sükrü Saracoglu, Istanbul), the Turkish League season is going up the stairs as it is the last game-week next Saturday.
In the previous two articles that I have written upon this topic, I have summarized the overall view of the league (#1) and updated the situation (#2) later on.
With only nine games to be played in two days, there are still three candidates for the championship, Besiktas being the strongest favorites, Sivasspor trailing, and Trabzonspor looking for those two to fall off. This definitely adds excitement to the closing days of an extraordinary season.
The extraordinary-ness is caused by the lack of presence of Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray in this fight for the top spot.
Sivasspor being the fire cracker of this season and the previous one, Trabzonspor, too are hanging in the top spots which they have failed to appear for around 20 years. Besiktas is the team with most number of titles after Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray but they have failed to keep up with the challenge in the previous years.
They have not managed to win the league since their centennial year, which was in 2003. Since then they failed to keep it up.
Besiktas started the league in an acceptable form but their elimination in the UEFA Cup caused a change in managerial position. Ertugrul Saglam was replaced with Mustafa Denizli, who had won the league title in Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe in the past.
If next week's games come up with no surprise, he will be the first manager to lift the league trophy with the top three fliers of Turkish football. Him being a native manager adds to that.
Ertugrul Saglam, who has been sacked after Metalist Kharkiv knocked his team out, is now in control of Besiktas' fierce rivals, Bursaspor, and he is still fighting for the last spot for European Cups next season.
Galatasaray who also chose to sack their manager after a heavy loss in a league game against Kocaeli, replaced Skibbe with their loyal and beloved ex-captain, Bülent Korkmaz. He was lucky to knock out Bordeaux just as soon as he took the throne but was eliminated by Hamburg in the next round, rather dramatically at home ground.
Bülent Korkmaz's place is under threat right now following a bad streak of results in the league who put them in fifth position, Paul Le Guen rumoured to be his replacement next season.
Fenerbahçe meanwhile struggled to beat the low profile teams in the league while almost dominating his games they played with the top-six teams in the league. They failed to fight on the pitch, both home and away and lost unbelievable number of points in the last minutes of their games.
Aragones is the name discussed more than anyone else. Fenerbahçe board resisted sacking him despite the common pressure, it is rumoured that the huge financial compensation in Luis' contract is the main reason behind that. Fenerbahçe went on to board election last weekend and the recent board is re-elected, they are rumoured to find a solution to the managerial dilemma.
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