TWO things spring to mind when thinking about Turkish football. The first is that their fans are passionate and committed to the point of being certifiable.
To the uninitiated it appears to be Guy Fawkes Day every weekend in Turkey, such is their fondness for fire, flares and fireworks.
It was with this image in mind that Ronny Deila joked that, were he to attend this afternoon’s Istanbul derby between Besiktas and Fenerbahce, he would not head there alone.
“It would be good fun to be there,” he smiled. “Although I don’t know if I dare to be there. I would need police officers with me.”
The second most obvious thing to note about Turkish football is its ability to attract big-name European and South American players despite the local Süper Lig not being considered among world football’s elite.
Granted, like MLS in America, they are not always recruiting stars at the peak of their powers, but Turkey has still welcomed the sort of names who put bums on seats and help sell replica jerseys.
No wonder we are forever seeing footage of chaotic scenes at Turkish airports as the likes of Roberto Carlos, Franck Ribery, Lukas Podolski, Wesley Sneijder and, erm, Billy Mehmet are all whisked away into waiting cars to the sound of AK-47s being fired triumphantly into the air.
A quick glance through the Fenerbahce squad that will head to Scotland this week to face Celtic in matchday two of the Europa League group stage, confirms as much. Whatever it was that was waved under the noses of Robin van Persie, Nani, Raul Meireles, Diego, Bruno Alves, Lazar Markovic et al to persuade them to put down roots by the banks of the Bosphorus, it clearly worked. This is a Champions League side slumming it in European football’s lesser club competition.
And yet, it is also a team, now managed by Vitor Pereira once of Porto and Olympiacos, that somehow lost their opening group game 3-1 at home to Molde. Given the Norwegians were widely expected to be the fourth team in a three-horse race for qualification, what does Deila expect from Fenerbahce this week?
“I think we’ll meet a team hungry to avenge their last result in Europe,” said the Celtic manager.
“They are a team with a lot of quality. It’s going to be a very interesting game, a very exciting game, something to look forward to.
“Of course, I was surprised by that result but Molde are a very organised team. At Fenerbahce they have pressure all the time, like we have here. That’s something they have to deal with.
“They have started well in the league, they are up at the top, but everybody can lose a game – it’s how they react to it. We just have to make ourselves prepared and play at our best, then we’ll have a good chance to beat them.”
Scott Brown, the Celtic captain, also warned about the prospect of facing a wounded beast. “Fenerbahce are a decent team,” he said with typical Brown understatement.
“They have signed a lot of good players and it will be a real contest. Maybe they underestimated Molde a bit in the first game but I’m sure they won’t make the same mistake on Thursday.”
Deila did not dismiss the idea that perhaps some big names are now heading to Turkey for one last payday but warned it would be foolish to not take them seriously as a result.
“When they are older they seek new challenges. You can see that [Didier] Drogba was there but he came back to Chelsea again. We know that those players have the ability to cause problems to every defence in the world. And we have to make sure that we play at our best because if we do that we have a chance to beat everybody, especially at Celtic Park.”
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