Uygun, now the technical adviser to TFF 3 (third division) Bursa side Nilüferspor, told reporters at the club’s Veledrom sports facilities on Saturday that he would sit down and talk if he receives serious offers from any club that fits his aspirations.“There are 14,000 or more coaches in Turkey,” Uygun noted. “Everyone’s a coach, or assumes he is one. Everyone, even the man in the street, dreams of coaching the national team. So do I,” he further asserted.
“If the [Turkish] national team is bent on succeeding in world and European championships, then I am ready to assume this role and promise I will do it to the best of my ability,” he added.
Uygun led Sivasspor, a team that operated on a shoestring budget, to a second place finish in the Turkcell Super League last season and made a name for himself. But most of the players on the Sivas squad, which barely missed out on the 2008-09 league championship, left for greener pastures, meaning Uygun had to form a brand new team with brand new players this season.
The new-look Sivasspor team performed well below par, earning one single point from seven league games. Uygun, nicknamed “the soldier” for saluting like a soldier while celebrating his goals during his playing days, could not stop the team’s free-fall and so decided to part ways with Sivasspor, popularly known as the Yiğidolar (Brave Men), on Oct. 4.
