Football Season Guide

Although Antalya made a good start to the last season with coach Yusuf Simsek, his time in charge could last only until the early days of 2016’s December. After the South coast city side played a couple of fixtures with a caretaker coach, Jose Morais came in. Although his team struggled for a couple of days, the board insisted to work with him and they could finish the last season in the midtable. The early days of February were sad for them as the coach fought with cerebral bleeding. During the summer, they were generally busy to deny the departure gossips of Samuel Eto’o rather than strengthen the squad. At the end, former Barcelona man stayed in the club. Fans of the Super League clubs are complaining about not to have enough amount of players but Antalya have a different problem. Their current squad is very crowded. It may be considered that the coach have a wide range team but it causes a very big problem. A couple of weeks ago, it was understood that they have a big debt. Most of the players have not been paid for a couple of months. It could be said that they did not face any major departure during the summer. However, they have added some useful players. First of all, Emre Gural and Deniz Kadah were signed in. Although the board denied it, it is known that the duo were added as a possible replacement for Eto’o who is still wanted by the title holders Besiktas. On the net, they already had Ozan, Fornezzi and Mbolhi. Ferhat Kaplan was also signed in. One of them is expected to leave before the summer transfer market is closed. To concede a lot was the biggest problem of the team in the last season. None of those defenders left. Only change is the arrival of Kenan Horic. It seems like he is not that level to improve the things. Since they have lost two wingers in the summer, they brought Anil Koc and Rennie in. The duo’s performance is a question mark for now. In the friendly fixtures, they did not face any defeat yet but most of the rivals were weak except Club Brugge. In general, Antalya are going to compete with the same team. So they are likely to spend a comfortable season, if they can collect more points on the road.