Football Season Guide

Goztepe managed to gain promotion to the top flight after a fourteen years absence when they defeated Eskisehir in the play-off final following a penalty shoot-out. They are one of the more popular clubs outside the big four in Turkey and were also the first Turkish club to ever play in a European semi-final. The president has declared that he wants to establish the club as one of the permanent teams in the Super Lig. In order to improve the squad level to compete in the top flight, they parted the company with some fringe players from last season as expected. So far, they have built a pretty strong midfield. First of all, they added the experienced Selcuk Sahin, Rajko Rotman, Andre Castro and Oscar Scarione, who all know the league’s dynamics very well. This is considered as a big advantage for Goztepe. Axel Ngando and Yoan Gouffran were also signed in order to increase the offensive creativity. The club managed to keep last season’s top goal scorer Adis Jahovic and Nabil Ghilas was added to the attack from relegated Gaziantep. It is known that the board are trying to bring one more killer striker for the tough season as well as a right winger. At the moment, the defence is the weakest part of the squad. The level of the existing defensive players is far below the league’s quality. They need at least three signings in this area. It seems like former Besiktas keeper Gunay Guvenc will play at the top level as a regular for the first time. His performances will be a big question mark. That is why the club are trying to bring in a more experienced keeper too. As for the coach, the board came to an agreement with Tamer Tuna who has been working as the assistant of Besiktas’s manager Senol Gunes for two seasons. In this period, he has gained great experience. He is a very suitable appointment for a newly promoted team. However, his only handicap is that he has never been a head coach before. If he can improve the quality of the backline and the goalkeeping position, he can manage his new team towards reaching their season goal.