EuroTrip | Part 37 | Financial Misery To Turkish Delight

In the face of financial disarray, veteran manager Trebor Mahtal led his Trabzonspor side to another 3rd-place finish, a European final and a Turkish Cup victory. But his greatest success had arguably been overcoming the financial challenges, as his £46m of profits saw them begin the 2056/57 campaign with £35m in the bank.

However, not content with the £180m of debt he’d imposed on Trabzonspor, club president Ozgur Karabacak announced plans to build an unnecessary new stadium, then spent £2m on undersoil heating in the current stadium. Go figure!

Trabzon’s best player Ege Ekinci refused to sign a new contract and joined left back Harry Dunbar in Saudi for a combined £15m, which freed up another £110k of wages. Mahtal replaced them with winger/striker Stefan Fassnig on a free from Ried and Serhat Sanbay for £1.2m from Galatasaray. He also brought in holding midfielder Mamadou Ndong for £1.4m from Arad, attacking midfielder Mert Akgun for £800k from Antalyaspor, 6ft 3in winger Jorge Santana for £600k from Penarol and goalkeeper Borislav Hodzic on a free from Crvena zvezda.

Mahtal had quietly built a really exciting squad that contained 10 players with at least 4.5-star potential and 20 with 4-star potential or more. Captain Ragnar Åshammer and right back Ryan Dobson were the only players over 27 and they had 16 players aged 21 or under. Mahtal stuck with the 4-2-3-1 that worked nicely last season, just making a few little tweaks to player roles.

A Bright Start To Season 2 In Turkey

The bookies still only fancied Trabzonspor to finish 6th with title odds of 33/1. Galatasaray and Fenerbahce were joint 3/1 favorites ahead of holers Besiktas at 10/3, Antalyaspor and Basaksehir (13/2 and 15/2). But Mahtal thought his young team would surprise those odds again.

His side showed why as last season’s top scorer Latif Cinar opened the scoring and Lassnig scored on debut in a 3-2 win at home to Antalyaspor but lost 2-0 at Basaksehir. Ndong’s first goal nicked a win over Adana, he bagged twice in a 3-2 win at Sakaryaspor and Lassnig got the only goal at home to Konyaspor. However, some disappointing displays by the frontline saw Mahtal promote recent academy graduate Metin Hurma, who scored his first senior goal in a 4-0 thumping of Hatayspor.

They kicked on a level as Lassnig’s brace led a superb 3-1 win over Galatasaray only to lose 1-0 at high-flying Kayserispor. Another disappointing away day at Pendikspor was followed by a superb performance at home to Besiktas as Metin scored at the start and end of the first half before Besiktas scored from a corner with their first attack. But Trabzon held on for Mahtal’s first win over Besiktas, their first in four years and only their 17th in 74 meetings in the last 33 years, which left them 4 points back from the leaders going into the new year.

Captain Åshammer decided he was homesick and headed back to Norway in January while midfielder Oscar Fontanils moved to Real Sporting for £1.8m. That freed up another £62k of wages to take the club’s spend below £200k per week, which is £350k under the budget. Mahtal only brought in one player, signing promising centre back Muhittin Engin for £3m from Galatasaray.

Trabzonspor began 2057 with a disappointing 2-0 defeat at Antalyaspor but Lassnig’s brace earned a 2-1 win at Adana and Muhittin scored on debut in a 3-0 domination of Sakaryaspor. That took them into a huge game at home to 3rd-place rivals Fenerbahce, which began well as libero Mahir Toprak tucked away a penalty before winger Alper Mutlu’s 35-yard wondergoal. A 2-1 victory left them a point behind Besiktas, who then got thumped 4-0 at Galatasaray to send Trabzonspor top for the first time.

Another Shot At The Conference League

Last season’s 3rd-place finish sent Trabzonspor into the Europa League playoff, which contained five of Mahtal’s former sides. And they drew one in Crvena zvezda, the team he won the competition with in 2034. Goalkeeper Rauf Ozdemir produced heroics in the home leg, making 8 saves after Lassnig scored early on, only to lose 2-0 in Serbia.

That dropped them into Mahtal’s beloved ECL, which served up some surprisingly tough fixtures. They began with a dire 0-0 at home to Young Boys before Latif earned an impressive 1-1 at PSV and Metin got the only goal at home to Olympiacos. They drew 0-0 at Mahtal’s former side Domzale then Mert’s late goal nicked a 3-2 at home to SJK, who obviously scored their only two shots on target. And a 3-2 win at Lechia moved them up to a 7th-place finish.

A potentially tough last-16 tie saw Trabzonspor face Freiburg. However, the German side only had six real players and Willy Dalbakken earned a 1-1 away before Latif scored the only goal back in Trabzon. An easier draw followed against Serbian side Spartak and they eased through 3-2 on aggregate. A surprisingly favourable semi final followed against Maccabi Petach-Tikva and Lassnig’s brace earned a superb 5-2 win in Israel. That allowed Mahtal to rotate for the home leg but a 2-1 win through winger Samet Akcicek and Ndong sent them into the manager’s 7th ECL Final!

Tasty Turkish Title Race

Trabzonspor found themselves right in the thick of the Turkish title race. They led Besiktas going into the final five games of the 2056/57 campaign, chasing their first title since 2022. And the title could well be decided by their trip to Besiktas on the penultimate day.

Game 1 – Samsunspor (11th, away): Besiktas won the day before Trabzonspor’s trip to Samsunspor, but the leaders responded with an easy 3-1 victory through Lassnig, Serhat and Mert.

Game 2 – Rizespor (14th, home): Besiktas played first again and suffered a surprise 3-1 defeat at home to 8th-place Ankaragucu. And Trabzonspor took full advantage as Alper and Latif strikes either side of half time secured a comfortable 2-0 win that took them 4 points clear.

Game 3 – Pendikspor (8th, home): Trabzon continued their good run as Mahir hit a 25-yarder after five minutes and created the second for Mert to earn another 2-0 victory. A day later, Besiktas went to Samsunspor and lost 1-0 – to hand Trabzon the title!

A rotated side managed to nick a 1-0 at Besiktas through the excellent Mahir and a fully backup 11 won 3-0 against Goztepe on the final day. Trabzonspor finished on 82 points, winning the title by a huge 13 points with a new club record 27 wins plus just 1 draw and 6 defeats, scoring a league-high 65 and conceding 28. Oddly, they didn’t have any top individual performers other than Rauf’s 14 clean sheets only bettered by Besiktas’ keeper getting 18.

Another Conference League Final

12 months on from losing to Newcastle in the Final, another English opponent lay in wait as Trabzonspor took on Aston Villa, who defeated Dinamo 5-3 in the semis. 57,000 fans from England and Turkey converged in Spain as the two sides met at Estadio Olímpico de Seville. Mahtal lost Alper to injury the day before the Final, so lined up:

Rauf; Dobson, Muhittin, Mahir, Serhat; Nahit, Koray; Lassnig, Mert, Dalbakken; Latif
Subs: Metin, Hodzic, Recep, Goodwin, Santana, Ndong, Yigit, Yusuf, Samet, Mehmet

Trabzonspor started brightly as Mahir’s header crashed off the bar from an early free kick. Both sides had long-range shots well saved before Mert missed a sitter from 10 yards out, and they went in 0-0 at the break despite Trabzon having 11 shots to 2. They continued to be the better side after the break but wasted more chances. However, a substitution paid off as Samet replaced Mert and, with 3 minutes to go, was played in behind by Serhat and found the top corner from a tight angle. But Villa obviously went down the other end and scored a back post header.

Nothing happened in extra time so Villa undeservedly took it to penalties. Rauf saved Villa’s first spot kick and his attackers scored every penalty through to Dobson having the decider. And the right back held his nerve to tuck the ball into the bottom right corner.

Trabzonspor won the Europa Conference League!!

From Financial Misery To Turkish Delight

Mahtal had worked wonders to take a team seemingly doomed to financial chaos to their first title in 35 years and more European glory. This was very much a team effort with converted libero Mahir the star man with 10 goals and 11 assists, along with Lassnig’s 19 goals and 9 assists, Metin’s 10 goals and 3 assists and Dalbakken’s 9 goals but only 5 assists.

They finished the season with £30m in the bank but still £135m in debt, which wasn’t going to be helped by Karabacak announcing the new stadium would cost £131m, bizarrely using gate receipts to pay the rent! So Mahtal knew this was the right time to get out of Turkey. He departs Trabzonspor after 780 days and 117 games, of which he won 83, drew 12 and lost 22, scoring 224 and conceding 116.