Stuck in Antalya - A Samuel Eto'o story.

Just seen this on BBC Sport, great idea to mimic it, didn't think it'd be long till someone took this opportunity!

Welcome to Antalya



Home of Turkish Super Lig side Antalyaspor



A small side compared to Turkey's more well known Istanbul sides with not much of a history to shout about. The clubs only domestic triumphs to date being the club winning the 2.Lig twice, in 1982 and 1986. They also finished as runners-up for the Turkish Cup in 2000.

After last season's promotion the ambitious president of the club really wanted to make a statement in their first season of top flight Turkish football so set out to bring some big names to Antalya.

Due to Turkey's push for hosting the 2020 Euro's Antalyaspor were built a new stadium courtesy of the government. This being the 33,000 Centennial Arena



In the summer 0f 2015 Antalyaspor's ambitious president Gultekin Gencer broke the bank and brought in a marquee signing for this Turkish minnow club Samuel Eto'o.



He almost landed Brazilian legend Ronaldinho with the player even confirming the move on social media only for it to fall through a few days later.

This piece was taken from an article at that time which really shows the ambition the President has for this club.

Gultekin Gencer said that the 35-year-old Brazilian forward’s arrival is imminent after terms were agreed – and promised that the newly promoted club, who signed Eto’o last week after his departure from Sampdoria, have not finished in the transfer market.

“We reached an agreement with Ronaldinho,” he told TRT Spor. “I think within two days it’ll be made official.

“Besides Eto’o and Ronaldinho, we will make another big-name signing. When it’s done, we’ll set the world on fire!”

Ronaldinho appeared to confirm his intention to join Antalyaspor, who were promoted to Turkey’s Super Lig last season, in an Instagram video in which he said: “Hi to everyone. I will be in Turkey with you soon.”

Been waiting a while for an excuse to start a Turkish story after i had a great one with Basaksehir a few years ago. No club really appealed until i spotted this.

Really looking forward to it!

It's nice to be a manager in Turkey.I'll be following ... i do a career in Turkey too but with of course the biggest team in Turkey Besiktas JK Good luck.

16/12/15
It's just one day until my first game in charge of this club and i've been put in a really good position to work with here at Antalyaspor. The outgoing Yusuf Simsek has left the club in a very healthy position, sitting just 3rd in the Super Lig.
After a great start to the season it was agreed i'd take charge of the team just before a Turkish Cup group match. This was so i can ease myself in before we get back to our push for top spots in the league.



I really needed to try and embed my ideas within the team on how i wanted to play. After playing with the team and reviewing the players more once i took over i found there was a real lack of quality so we are kind of lucky to be sat in the position we are in at the minute.

With only 2 or 3 key players including myself i really needed to focus on our style of play and get the tactics right to make up for the lack of quality in some area's. We weren't going to play fancy but hopefully we are going to get some results to keep us up here.

The president agreed i would continue on as a player manager on my 68k p/w salary to see out my three year contract whilst being on a 13k p/w extra for my managerial role. He advised there would not be much funds if any at all to spend in January due to this.
I could see my wage really had dried up our accounts but my contract was signed in the summer, nothing i can do about that now.

Cheers mate. Besiktas is my favoured Istanbul club so will be following that story of yours as well!

30/1/16

My first match we got off to a great start getting a win in the cup, but still it was evident the way we played during the match a change of tactics was needed.

I set out to make us difficult to play against. Long balls, hard tackling and a lot of pressing on the opposition at a high tempo.



It took us a few games and a couple of losses to bed this in but it looked to finally pay off when we bagged a 1-0 win at home to top of the league Besiktas.



Our difficult style of play seemed to show here with just an own goal separating us, no fancy goals and no fancy football but a great result.



With 2 wins and 2 losses in the league since i took charge this still kept us in a healthy spot of 4th position, still just a few points off 1st and 2nd. We were also through to the quarter finals of the Turkish cup, drawn against Besiktas for a 2 legged tie. The cup is something i really want to go for this season.

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January Transfer window

Just as the President warned when i took over there indeed was no funds available to spend in January. We were really weak in midfield and needed just a little more quality upfront so i set out looking for loans which required no monthly fee and no wage contribution and also on the look out for any free agent who wanted to come cheaply.

There wasn't much around but after a call to my old club Barcelona we managed to agree a loan move for 21 year old midfielder Gumbau with no fee's attached. He wasn't anything special but would be a starter for me in centre midfield.

Our 2nd and final signing was none other than Alessandro Del Piero on a free transfer, asking just £350 p/w which was great.



He wouldn't be tearing up the league but will provide great back up for myself and should be great to have around the squad.

Good start to the season ... but it's bad that you managed to beat Besiktas and with an own goal ... Ersan won't be playing anymore .Keep going !!

nice start mate

10/2/16 - Turkish Cup Quarter-final 1st Leg.

Next up was Besiktas at home in the cup and going from our last game against Besiktas i definitely fancied our chances.

This is how we have been lining up recently -

Diarra doing a great job so far this season with 13 goals for himself. I'm usually up top along side him to drop into a 4-4-2 when fit but i've been really struggling with injuries recently.

Guilherme is another key man, our playmaker. When he's out injured the team looks lost at time so we'll definitely want to look for back up in the summer.


The Antalyaspor fans were out in force to help push their team into the semi's



What a match! From the whistle we were out the blocks and on top of Besiktas which led us to a goal in the first minute then onto a 4-0 lead at half time. Myself along with most fans in the stadium couldn't believe what we were seeing.

We kept it up in the 2nd half but sat a little deeper as i knew we couldn't keep this up all game. We got another in the 64th. This had me thinking this could end up 6, 7 or even 8 the way we are playing. I decided to slow the game down, give the lads a breather and resulted in Besiktas nicking a goal back late on. Then just a few minutes later a penalty after some erratic defending. I was thinking still, 5-2 isn't bad to take to Istanbul but what a save from our keeper to keep the score line to 5-1.

A fantastic result!



Our cup run seemed to be taking it's toll on us and we were brought straight back down to earth with a home loss against Rizespor, not the strongest in the league and after our last league game being a win away to Fenerbahce. This was a really disappointing loss.

2/3/16 - Turkish Cup Quarter-final 2nd Leg.



A really difficult match. Everything Gomez touched seemed to either go in or go really really close. In the end though we did it! We went through 5-3 on aggregate and into the Semi-finals of the Turkish Cup!

Our opponents we drew were 7th place Trabzonspor, not the easiest team to play against.



Again after our Cup game we seemed to struggle in the league. Im putting this down to the fact that when any of our first eleven are injured or exhausted we have no quality in our back up at all. This needed to be addressed in the summer.

Turkish Cup Semi-final 1st Leg.



It looked to be a nightmare start going 1-0 down early on but we pulled it back and now we take a 2-1 lead to Trabzon with the Cup Final on the the line. This scoreline was just too close for comfort for me.

Turkish Cup Semi-final 2nd Leg



The dream was over. At half-time we were cruising, 3-1 on aggregate! We fell apart though and the goals just kept coming for Trabzonspor.

This result really hurt considering what position we were in to make it to the final. Again, I put this down to the lack of depth in this squad.



After the first leg we fell apart in the league and we dropped like a stone from top 3 contenders down to a measly 7th place finish in the league. European football won't be visiting Antalya next season.



Kasimpasa were a real surprise of the season finishing runners up and in that coveted 2nd Champions League spot. I just can't get it out of my head that it could of been us in that 2nd spot if this squad had just that bit more quality.

Our strike force now consists of myself at 35 years of age, Del Piero at 41 years of age and our main man of this season with 21 goal Diarra him being 32 years of age. This position definitely needed addressing in the summer.

2016/17 Season

After the disappointing end to last season i knew we had to thicken our squad out with much more better players. Luckily the President seemed to agree with me in this area aswell so put down a £2M transfer fund for me but allowed to move the wage budget around and come up with about £4M if i wanted.

This was great, and i already had some targets in mind since January.

Transfers


I'm very happy with the targets we managed to bring in this summer. Although, after being unable to find a quality striker for any reasonable price we kind of had to settle on Maupay and hope he comes good. The boy has certainly got the talent.

Zakkali has been a steal on loan from Valencia, along with the other few Spanish youngsters i managed to bring in on very low fee's

.

After 2 tough opening games and coming away with 0 points this really put a dent in our opening of the new season, morale was down and we slumped to 5 defeats in a row. Some of them games were ones we should be winning no matter what.

Our tactics were similar to last season so i didn't know what the problem was. Them team was playing horribly. Maybe it was a gelling factor considering the amount of players i brought in from abroad?







The unacceptable 4-1 defeat at home to Bursapor seemed to be the boards breaking point. To be honest i don't blame them, the team just weren't playing for me anymore and were even arranging meetings to tell me they aren't happy with my management.

I'd officially lost the dressing room. It didn't help that the local press were pressuring myself and the board their constant headlines on why was i even given this role in the first place.



I felt that the board were going to cease my managerial contract by the end of this meeting but considering i still had 2 years remaining on my player contract i don't think they wanted this meeting to end in a bad manner. They threw questions at me on why this team is in this situation and my answers weren't good enough. They were telling me i wasn't wanted without saying it.
I came out and said maybe it was best if i resign if they don't believe in my abilities to turn it around and that was it. Meeting concluded.

After just 11 months I'm no longer manager of Antalyaspor, but i certainly didn't want to hang up my managers jacket just yet. This was a tough lesson I'm going to learn from.


My first sacking as a manager, hopefully my last.

unlucky mate interesting where u end up next

2016/17 Season

Just a few days later and a new manager had come through the doors. Croatian legend Stjepan Tomas.



Stjepan called me into my old office, now his. He explained his plans for the team and was really happy with some of the signings i'd brought in and set up for him to take over. He also mentioned i wasn't going to be in his first team plans. At 35 years old he didn't see me making much of an impact, but my 68k p/w contract meant he couldn't move me on.

So i was stuck here in Antalya.



The whole squad quickly took to Stjepan and his philosophies and it showed. He turned the team around instantly, focussing on the league to get us out of that bottom spot.

Just as he had said, i had had hardly gotten any game time. Just a few sub appearances in tie'd up games or to fill in for an injury.



I wasn't even giving him a reason to think about playing me either. My head was in another place, i just wanted out of Antalyaspor.

The only way i was leaving is if i bought out of my contract. Sure it was going to be expensive, but i definitely couldn't stay here another season. I called my agent and asked him to make me available for any teams with vacancies. Making sure that he highlighted the success i had with this newly promoted team in my first season in Turkey.


Now it was just a waiting game.

Where do u plan to go after Antalyaspor ? Nice first season but bad luck in the 2nd....

Just going to see what offers come in mate and pick an interesting one!