tanora

23 hours ago, tonkaroost said:

That is awesome. Tosun seems to be liked wherever he goes (and even still when he leaves).

Oh yes. People still show him huge respect in Turkey, including opposite team supporters. I even installed a new set top box to watch premier league matches  

BBC Turkish made an interview with Cenk, I'll try to translate it for you. 

(You mostly know what he has said in his previous interviews, so I'll only translate the new things he's saying here. )

"I stay in Manchester now but I found a house in Liverpool and I'll buy it to move there soon."

"I usually spend my free time with my wife in Liverpool, Manchester and Cheshire. I also started driving a car, I got used to the traffic and the opposite side steering wheel."

"The game is being played so fast here and I adapted it."

"This matchday is against Liverpool, I'm excited to face them. I'm hoping to score in front of my crowd and hoping to get the 3 points for them."

"I'm trying to give advices to my friends in national team. The thing I mention is, they have to feel like a local person when they go abroad. If you keep living the same lifestyle, you can't succeed." (I think that's the most important sentence in whole interview, most of the Turkish players came back to Turkey because they refused to change/adapt the new country but Cenk knows the right formula.) 

"Self-esteem is very important for a striker, I feel confident in the pitch now."

"I think Ronaldo's goal was better than Zlatan's. But they both were superb goals."

"I had no difficulty with English when I went to USA. It was also easy to understand people in London. In here, they talk with scouse accent and when they speak fast, I miss some words and ask them to speak slower. "

"I love fish & chips"

"My best friend here is Davy Klaassen"

"I love the English supporters. They dedicate everything in matchdays. From the morning till midnight."

(a message to Turkish supporters) "Keep supporting me here and I'll make you proud"  

----

2 hours ago, Bailey said:

Thats hilarious... that just shows Allardyce's reputation around the world is the same as it is here!

I have one good news and one bad news for you.

Bad news: Sam is a bad manager.

Good news: He is not the worst manager. 

It will be unrelated in Cenk's topic but I have to write this paragraph. 

My team's (Fenerbahçe) current manager -Aykut Kocaman- is worse than him. He literally hates star players, always uses 4-5-1 formation and he's extremely fixed minded. No matter which team he's facing, he gets scared from them and puts at least 2 defensive midfielders in front of the defensive line. There had been times when he played with 4 of them, put them to the wings or behind the striker. He uses ancient Turkish words in press conferences which no one understands (I can at least understand what Sam says), always blames referees or his players, resigns after one defeat and comes back without saying anything 3 days later and so on. Its still painful to think about the players he sacrificed, including legendary Alex de Souza, who was one of the best players I've ever seen in football. 

Btw, I'm very glad to spread his reputation to an Everton forum. Sorry for the unrelated post but I'm sure you can understand me.

I thought you might be interested in what's being talked about Cenk & Everton in Turkey.

Here's one of the rare sane Turkish tv sport shows broadcasted (others are mostly crap), they talk about pre-determined subjects in a limited time. 

The one with the weird head band is thought as one of the best european football experts here and the fat one is indeed a basketball commentator but he talks about football too. Anyway,

Weird guy: X

Other one: Y

X: ".... ok, my turn for question then, can Cenk -who started in bench in his 3rd game- return to starting lineup again?"

Y: "I think yes, I think he's their best striker. But there's one thing -not spesifically for Cenk- if a player goes to another team and league, he may need some time to adapt. I'm not saying this is a must but this can happen. Some players adapt directly...

X: "Thierry Henry for example. But Alexander Lacazette still struggles..."

Y: "Moreover, Everton has serious problems about feeding the strikers. They pretty much play alone. You need to carry the ball up front, I get it but they expect him to be like Milan's Shevchenko, who was starting dribbling from middle of the pitch. Team needs to get used to play with him, he needs to get used to play with the others. Its only the 3rd matchday..."

X: "You know what's worse? If your manager is Sam Allerdyce, it's too hard to adapt him. I would have never adapted him if I was playing in his team. I'd go crazy. First game for example (mentioning Tottenham), for making Rooney play as playmaker, he put Sigurdsson -who always scores against Turkey- to left flank. What can he do in left wing? Tottehham couldn't make him play there, he went back to Swansea, played in his original position, did well and Everton bought him. Just make him play in his original position. 

Its really hard to understand Allerdyce, I talked to Cenk while the rumours were going on, I told him  "there's a young left winger there, Lookman, you'll be a perfect duo" and he sent Lookman to Leipzig. To Leipzig! I'll go crazy!!! Leipzig probably said "oh, another Bruma, let's buy him" and Sam probably looked at Lookman's stats in winning air balls/heading and said "meh". Those damn statistics! 

Y: "I would never sell a player to Leipzig. If they want to buy, he's probably way better than I think and I would never sell."

.....(unrelated)

Y: "its still to soon to talk"

X: "Cenk will do it eventually as he's very hardworking. No worries. Sam will go and Cenk will stay."

Y: "Yea, just give him some time and he will be ok."

On 1/22/2018 at 00:34, Aidan Lewis said:

A Turkish paper has been saying the Everton fans bood him off on Sat.

Its annoyed me there putting that shit out. It was obvious who we were booing.

I was watching the game from Turkish television and the commentators were confused too.

They were like

X: - "it shouldn't be for Cenk, right?"

Y: - "well, probably no. Maybe they're booing Niasse or the substitution itself"

X: - "hmm"

Y: - "they really are angry"

X: - "yea, shouldn't be for Cenk. He wasn't too good but not bad either. Anyway, back to the game.."

______

Don't worry about the newspapers here, no one actually cares about what they write.  

( In Turkey, the ratio of people reading newspapers is low, we have a population of 80 million and the total number of daily newspapers sold is around 3m. We have 3 sport themed newspapers and their daily number is 300k. )

http://www.medyatava.com/tiraj 

Hey friends,

I watched Tottenham game and read lots of comments. I think Cenk wasn't even close to his %50, probably he needs an adaption period for a couple of games. I watched his press conference too, unfortunately his translator didn't completely translate what he said. Cenk can speak English better than him and they would be a better duo if the translator speaks Turkish and Cenk translates what he says to English. Anyway, I'll post the link and translate the highlights again.

"I chose Everton because of its history and my dream was to play in PL. Also Sam Allerdyce wanted me here and that's why I'm here"

(About a recently published video of Beşiktaş - I'll post its link too) "I watched the vid, I was happy to see it and it was shot a couple weeks ago, I think the Beşiktaş president wanted me to be still in the video as he likes and respects me"

"It was a hard decision for me, yes. I've spent 3.5 years in Beşiktaş and we had 2 championships there. The friendship was great and the manager was like a father for me (Cenk lost his father a couple of years ago btw) But I thought my mission was over. People always have to go for new goals in their lives and I'm chasing my goals"

"I want to carry my team upwards and I'll try to score as many goals as I can. (team's situation) looks hard for this season but in next couple of years, I want (them) to compete for upper rows. This year, Sam wants us to be somewhere in this position in standings. We currently are 9th but I see our target as being 8th or 7th"

"Yes, we have spoken to another PL club (my note: I guess its Crystal Palace) but I don't want to mention its name"

"The difference was, the games in PL are played in way higher tempo and you have to be strong here. Strength is one of my plus sides and I think it will help me to adapt PL earlier than expected. I should have started better and I'm looking forward to playing at home, in front of our supporters next week. We will be better"

"Theo is a great signing, he's a proven footballer. He carries the ball very quick and crosses well, it will be a good contribution for us."

"Each one of my teammates helped me to settle here. I haven't seen any of the players acting cold against me (Turks have a prejudice like that -which is wrong- and he was probably told English people was cold so he wanted to mention it) and everyone really helped me. Rooney, Sigurdsson and Jagielka, mostly"

"Apart from other Turks, I was born and raised in Germany and I have their point of view. Germany and England are similar (my note: at least for Turks) and I think I'll prove myself here and stay here for years like Emre Belözoğlu, Tuncay Şanlı and Tugay Kerimoğlu"

"Being the most expensive player in Turkey makes me proud and I want to be an inspiration for young Turkish players"

"PL is the best league in the world and its an honor for me to be here"

(they asked same question again) "I think I stood out well for 60 mins and I'll be better after integrating the team and the tempo. The ball was always moving if there was no throw-ins (my note: the duration of ball in game is around 50 mins in Turkish league and should be around 60 mins PL.)

________

Hey, 

I'm also a Turkish supporter and after reading the topic, I thought I could also inform you about Cenk and give you a general idea of what to expect from him. 

I'm a Fenerbahçe fan indeed but I've watched all of the Beşiktaş matches this year. (That's because my team appointed a scabies manager who loves defensive football and watching Fenerbahçe games was torture for me.)  Anyway, Cenk was one of the players which I really respected from opposite teams. 

The thing you need to know about the Turkish league is, its a harsh league for players, especially offensive and creative players. You know, we don't have the most skillful defenders here and instead of using brain and guessing the next moves of the opponents, they tackle hard and use brute force to stop forward players. Cenk did well and made an impact in this league but that's not the only good thing about him.

He came to Gaziantepspor (a lesser Turkish league team) from E. Frankfurt at the age of 20 and that was a questionable choice because he would easily stay in Germany and keep playing in German national team (remember, he was also in U21 Germany squad). He chose the hard way because he had prove himself again. He was doing good in Gaziantepspor and then he moved to Beşiktaş. Big teams in Turkey are player grinders -especially for the local players- as the supporters don't usually trust Turkish players, media doesn't pay too much attention to them etc. The spotlights are on foreign players. Cenk was the secondary option for most of the time but he never gave up and kept working.

He played with Hugo Almeida, Demba Ba, Mario Gomez, Vincent Aboubakar at that time. Cenk made his impact with the goal he scored against Benfica. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gs1b3dkwhZ4

and then the people/media started to show him more respect about his football. He kept scoring more goals last year by taking more time and this year, he was the primary option for his team, putting the star transfer Alvaro Negredo to bench. 

Youtube compilations may give an idea about a player but they're not completely definitive. In Cenk's case, I think he is better than he seems on Youtube.

+ He can hold and carry the ball forward and create his own shot.

+ He likes passing. 

+  He's not too tall but he has a good timing and score with headers. 

+  He has lots of finishing moves in his inventory, creative player.

+  He has a good attitude and work ethic.

I can agree that he's still "unproven" and PL may be hard to adapt for a normal player but he always chose the hard way in his life and kept rising. I'm expecting him to be successful there. I hope Everton does better in League as well, as I will be watching your games from now on too