[Archived] Greetings From Ankara, Turkey!

[orcan]

Hi all!

Been so long since we had contact, so today i decided to check whether i was still registered to the forum, and it's good to see my username and password still working.

It might have been long but we all still remember you guys with a lot of respect and many good memories remain. When you attend a Gencler game, you still see people with blackburn scarfs and shirts. Thank you once again for being such good hosts.

So, if some of you wonder how Gencler is doing, here's what has happened since the 2003-2004 season.

In the 2003-2004 season, we finished the league in 10th position and lost 4-0 in the Turkish Cup final against Trabzon.

2004 - 2005. finished 5th

2005 - 2006. finished 6th

2006 - 2007. finished 6th

2007 - 2008. finished 15th (one above the relegation zone), lost in the cup final against Kayseri (ft 0-0, et 0-0, penalties 11-10)

2008 - 2009. finished 14th (stayed up by having a better points average with the other two teams finishing at the same point)

Ever since the season we played against Blackburn, we only qualified for the European Cups (UEFA Cup) once in the next season, beating HNK Rijeka (CRO) in the preliminary round and going out against Egaleo (GRE) in the first round.

We have had so many managers i can't even remember them all.

Almost all Gencler fans have a huge rift with the board. On May 2006, our president was re-elected by cheating. As he realized he was going to lose the election, in one week's time the club had 1000 new members and all voted in the election for the president. That was on the same day with the final game of the season and as we protested against it, we now have a banner-ban ever since. We can't take banners or even flags inside the stadium.

In the last three years, the club board cancelled the membership of most opposition, refused almost all membership applications and the president was re-elected by all votes minus one in the congress. He has been the president since 1977 and he will now remain for three more years.

Last season was incredibly painful. In the last game of the season we needed to secure a single point against Kayseri at home. At the beginning of the second half, we were 4-0 down, and we needed our fellow Ankara team, Ankaragücü to concede or score and they did concede (if you had watched the game, you would have understood what i meant). For 19 minutes we were the team that was going down. We finished level with two other teams and stayed up.

In the 2007 - 2008 season something strange happened. Our B team got promoted to the Turkish Super League. With all the necesary paperwork prepared in one week, the FA registered the club to play in the same division with us. We even had the same name (Genclerbirligi OFTAS was theirs), same colours, same training ground and shared the same stadium. But there was a different board of directors (a complete set-up) for our B team (they finished 4 places above us that season). Last year name of the team changed to Hacettepe, and they got relegated. As the club tried to create a balance within two teams, we almost ended getting relegated too (actually, Hacettepe got relegated on purpose or we think that a ban would have been imposed on us and the Turkish FA letting the same club have two teams in the same division).

This year it is getting even worse. We have a new manager. Thomas Doll, the former East German and then German national player. Only 3 players have been brought in (one is the goalkeeper of the team finishing last year in the very bottom of the league, 2 are young Turks living in Europe). We have brought in 6 or 7 players from our B team (again, relegated). No other transfers are expected.

This week we lost James Troisi (the Aussie from Newcastle Utd. Academy) to Kayseri in a strange fashion. He has a contract with us for 2 more years and he signed for Kayseri claiming there was a clause in his contract. The case has already been taken to FIFA.

Our squad includes Serbian national team's second choice goalkeeper (he is so bad), Bruce Djite and Mile Jedinak from the Oz, Jacques Momha, a decent Cameroonian left back, and some more unknown players as foreigners. The club decided not to renew the contracts of our best 2 players in the squad.

Can it get worse? Most of us believe we are going to get relegated this season. The season tickets are out (at 25 UK pounds) and there's almost no interest. Even I haven't decided on buying one (for sure I will buy one or two despite I know that we will go nuts in the stands in most of the games).

Anyway, if any of you plan to come to Turkey for any purpose, just let us know. Drop a line in the alkaralar.com forum and be our guests. Don't even book hotels, you're always most welcome in our homes.

Cheers!

Orcan

[Claytons Left Boot]

Hi Orcan - Good to hear from you again. The hospitality you guys showed us in Ankara was second to none. You were absolutely brilliant!! It is something I will never forget. Good to know that some opposing football fans do get along with each other without the need to fight and cause trouble.

A bit of a funny story here - the night after the game we were drinking in that big pub with the roof terrace in the city centre. Drank right through until 3 or 4am when we decided to get a taxi back to our hotel so we could then catch the early flight home. I was in the front with the taxi driver semi p!ssed (me, not the driver) and HOTSPOT (remember him?) and Bjarte (remember him?) were both three sheets to the wind and asleep in the back. The taxi driver hadn't a clue and we drove round for miles going down endless dirt tracks in the middle of nowhere. At one point we came to a petrol station in the pitch black and a guy was sweeping the forecourt with a long brush. Weird. No idea where our hotel was. He couldn't speak English but luckily I had the hotel details on a business card. Just when I was thinking we would miss the flight and have to rearrange it, we were stopped by a police car, on another pot holed dirt track somewhere in Turkey and thank the Lord they led us to the hotel a few miles away. We literally ran in the hotel and up to our room, stuffed everything into our cases (I distinctly remember Bjarte crawling/laughing in the corridor) before getting on the coach which was about to depart for the airport. We did have a top night though. Gav, Waggy and Tris were there amongst others.

Orcan - hope things pick up with Gencler who seem to be having a rough time of it.

Hope you ditched your Leeds shirt in favour of the Rovers one we gave you!!

PS I still have my Gencler shirt.

[LeChuck]

Sounds like a crazy few years there, especially all that B team stuff!

Whatever happened to that striker you had when you played us - Youla was it? I thought he looked brilliant at the time and destined to go to one of Europe's big leagues. I'm guessing it hasn't happened as I haven't heard of him since.

[Jackson]

Merhaba!

Oh and could you put in a good word for us with Tuncay, fella.

[champions1995]

It is a shame you have only qualified for the Uefa Cup once since, as you did pretty well in the 2003-04 Uefa Cup Campaign and only lost to eventual winners Valencia after extra time if I remember correctly.

[orcan]

@Claytons Left Boot

I still have my Blackburn shirt. I don't understand how it is still in mint condition as I have been wearing it so much.

I received a Fiorentina shirt from a colleague, it was worn by Pazzini (in an actual game). After I washed it for the first time, the Toyota add was in awful condition. So, the answer is yes, I have my Rovers shirt and I have no Leeds shirts. My Leeds shirt had Kewell's name on the back and I couldn't believe he came to Galatasaray. So I threw it away (by giving it to a Galatasaray fan friend)

@LeChuck

Youla moved to Besiktas. They didn't play him and then he first moved on loan to Metz, then on a permanent basis to Lille. He couldn't get in the Lille squad and last year he was loaned by Eskisehirspor scoring 14 goals. He is now an Eskisehirspor player and has just signed a three year contract there. I never liked his style but ever since he had gone we didn't have a good striker.

@Jackson

Turkish media is printing news about him linking him with Fenerbahce, Everton and Villa. What do you want to know?

@champions1995

We beat Valencia in Ankara and lost in extra time in the away leg. Our striker Mustafa Ozkan was sent off during the last moments of the regular time. We ended up being the only team which beat Valencia in UEFA Cup that year but those days are long gone.

[mhead]

Welcome Orcan.....you are a friend. The time to mid-August is very slow!

Tell us about you and your friend's reaction to our goodbye to the legend Tugay.

[orcan]

It was a huge story here in Turkey

When we met you guys, we were talking about your hospitality and how friendly you were.

We also were talking about how you respected and loved Tugay even back at that time.

You were singing "Tugay, you are my Turkish Delight`.

As we are Gencler fans, a team known for having the least amount of supporters (except for a couple of new municipal teams which are new and have no fans), no one cared about what we were telling about you.

At the time you had Tugay play for the last time, it was in every newspaper, every tv and on every news and sports website.

It wasn't there for a day, i mean weeks.

Now people are asking us about our trip to Blackburn (no one even knew that we traveled there).

And we are talking about our (once in a lifetime) experience.

Anyway, it'll take some time, say a couple of weeks, but I have a surprise for you guys.

When I was back from Blackburn, I went to the news channel which broadcast our fans' match.

It is unedited. The ones who have traveled here will remember some good memories I am sure.

I also do have the whole Blackburn - Gencler game on VHS (Turkish commentary though), but i doubt that'd be of any interest for you.

I will give you the links.

Long story short, you guys were amazing in your goodbye to Tugay.

[rovers1995]

Hi Orcan,

We love Tugay.

My favourite memory form the West Brom game was when you the Turkish supporters were walking around the stadium to cheers and applause from us the Rovers fans. It was fantastic. I just wondered about filming that took place. A lot of Turkish supporters wer filming Rovers fans in Tugay t-shirts and myself and my (at the time) 15 months old niece was on the film. This was her first Rovers game and she loved it. I just wondered what happened to these videos and whether or not you were one of the fantastic guys that filmed us the fans.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Tell us more about the Turkish news coverage of Tugay's last game Orcan,I'm sure it was very well recieved over there and what is the general feeling about Rovers in Turkey......free drinks all day for Rovers fans on Holiday?

[orcan]

ok, i will look up for all the news and try to provide translations for you about Tugay's last game in Turkish news.

just to keep you busy a bit, here is some photos which were taken by a Turkish fan on the day.

to give you a perspective about the coverage, all photos are from the news gallery of a well followed sports web site.

they have published 165 photos for this event (i just eliminated some).

when besiktas was crowned as champions, they used 115 photos

when federer won wimbledon they used 20 photos

in Turkish F1 grand prix, they had 136 photos for the 3 days in 2 separate galleries

and this was their record for pictures in a single gallery.

more will follow.

enjoy.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/oyy14e

[orcan]

Just went through my archives...

Here are the photos I gathered from the time we were there.

I want to start with my favorite. I didn't have much clue about what I was doing, but I am the one in the Rovers shirt (for those of you who don't know me).

Here are all photos I have from the days

http://www.sendspace.com/file/qwij1h

I have to thank JPW and SteB for hosting us while we were there.

Been so long, so it'll take some time (and your support) to remember you all (these are all nicknames, come on!)

Want to say hi to Mushy too. The crazy Norwegian Mr Bakke too. And all of you for sure.

[Alex Rover]

Ha ha, that picture is fantastic.

I also didn't know the disgraceful Bob Lord (mainly the man but I will include the stand in there) was sponsored by Warsteiner. A beer imported by license by Thwaites. Ha ha again.

[Tris]

Never miss the chance to get my own personal BBC clip in there when talking about the fans games against Gencler

[rovers1995]

Anyone else struggling to get onto the links provided with the pictures. I'm gutted, I well wanted to see them

[Kelbo]

Orcan,

We have never met, nor have we spoken on here before, its great to see fans from different parts of the world coming together through football, thats how things should be.

I hope your team has a better time soon and that the problems get sorted, maybe get Tugay as Manager, give him experience for when he comes to manage

Rovers!!

Thank you for posting and love to see you on here, let us know how Glenci rsults go.

My sister in law is maried to Levent a really nice Turkish guy from Istanbul, they live close by and we often have 'mezi' at weekend Barbeques butI think they will be moving to Turkey soon, when he sells the restaurant!!

One other thing, the football team I look after also has a Turkish lad in the team, his name, Tugay, not the real one, but thats his name!!

Kelbo

[orcan]

Never miss the chance to get my own personal BBC clip in there when talking about the fans games against Gencler

Ah Tris! Hi mate!

That goalkeeper went on to score all three goals on the 2nd leg of the fans' friendly

He later became the chairman of the supporters club and me and my friends had a big problem with him and his... err... say followers

After that incident i didn't attend any Gencler game for a whole season (we were @#/? anyways)

That was some goal and believe me the last time i watched that on youtube was a month ago

See me passing by you in the end hahaha

Cheers mate!

[rovers1995]

Orcan I can't see the photographs is there any way that you can help

[orcan]

@Kelbo

Nice to meet you mate. Football always comes first. Honestly I love football more than I love Gencler.

My dad's name is also Levent btw. Having worked as a chef in past, may I ask how much they want for the restaurant (the being a chef part is true, but I can't afford to buy it... no way)

Just tell me if I can be of any help when they are moving over here (I suggest they don't)

Orcan I can't see the photographs is there any way that you can help

do you have winrar?

or should i zip them and upload again?

[Kelbo]

@Kelbo

Nice to meet you mate. Football always comes first. Honestly I love football more than I love Gencler.

My dad's name is also Levent btw. Having worked as a chef in past, may I ask how much they want for the restaurant (the being a chef part is true, but I can't afford to buy it... no way)

Just tell me if I can be of any help when they are moving over here (I suggest they don't)

do you have winrar?

or should i zip them and upload again?

I will ask how much and PM you, he bought his first restaurant by swapping a Mercedes car!! He was a Graphic designer in Istanbul.

His family there have a house in Istanbul and a summer one in Side!!

Kelbo

PS. Tugay (not the real one) works for the take away kebab shop he sold three years ago!!

[orcan]

For the ones who couldn't open the rar and see the pics, here's the whole pack

http://rapidshare.com/files/253940964/Photos.zip.html

it can be downloaded 10 times in total though

please note this pack includes the same pics i posted links for previously.

rovers1995, this should be fine i guess

PS. Tugay (not the real one) works for the take away kebab shop he sold three years ago!!

As our chairman is senile now, maybe we can get your Tugay signed by Gencler.

Worth a shot!

[dj54nna]

Any chance of you sending us Arda Turan in the post?

[Tris]

Ah Tris! Hi mate!

That goalkeeper went on to score all three goals on the 2nd leg of the fans' friendly

See me passing by you in the end hahaha

Cheers mate!

Those fans friendly games home and away will probably go down as the best ever memories (as fans) for those of us lucky enough to play in them.

In the context of increasing panic and mistrust surrounding the forthcoming Euro 2004 qualifier between our two countries, fans from both of our clubs steamrollered the hype and the stereotype to bring out the best side of football, and show the world how things could and should be done.

I still have this on the wall at home, presented after the fans game out in Ankara -

The Daily Telegraph report on the actual game even mentioned the fans match - "Local television cameras filmed a goodwill match between the supporters, an amicable affair Blackburn lost 4-2. "We were given a fantastic welcome," said one of the Rovers fans."

The fact that Rovers fans won 5-3 back at Brockhall (for the 7 each aggregate) was somehow a perfect outcome to the whole thing. You deserved it on away goals, because whilst you took us to the best bars in Ankara for post-match entertainment, we dragged you to the Fernhurst

I'm sorry to hear that things at Gencler haven't been the best in recent years. Maybe both clubs will enjoy a revival sometime soon, and we'll have the chance to stage that fans game once again

[orcan]

One thing I still can't believe is that I watched the home game in the Blackburn stand with a Blackburn shirt.

If you consider that was the only UEFA cup came I could attend at home that season, that was strange, but loads of fun.

Some of you told the police I was your guide and I got in without a ticket! ahahah.

And there was one more thing. When we were at the Newcastle (the first pub we went to after the game), someone took me out, then to the office upstairs.

The police was waiting for me there. They made a short interrogation asking me who I was (they already knew me!) and what the heck I was doing with English fans. I just responded we were having fun. As it was out of their perception (they were awaiting fights and stuff) they were a bit ###### off.

And yes, we were accompanied by the police the whole night, but none of us realized.

[rovers1995]

Thanks Orcan i can see the pictures now. Thanks for the memories