Veteran Turkish pundit: Players dig the hole for ex-Fener coach

ISTANBUL

Ersun Yanal. DHA Photo

Coach Ersun Yanal’s relations with the players led to the coach’s departure from Fenerbahçe, Turkish sports media veteran Şansal Büyüka said.

Yanal quit on Aug. 9, leaving the defending champions without a coach only two weeks before the start of the Spor Toto Super League campaign.

Büyüka, the head of the Turkish top-flight broadcaster Lig TV, claimed in his column at daily Milliyet that the players had convened some time in last season and harshly criticized Yanal to chairman Aziz Yıldırım.

“Apart from Alper [Potuk], Caner [Erkin] and moderate [Dirk] Kuyt, every player had said [their piece]. All of them complained about Yanal,” the veteran pundit wrote, saying the players found Yanal hard to communicate with.

Büyüka, however, added the main reason was some players did not like Yanal’s heavy training methods.
Fenerbahçe named İsmail Kartal as the caretaker coach on Aug. 10. Kartal has been serving as the assistant coach since 2010, three seasons under Aykut Kocaman and one under Yanal.