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[NEWS ANALYSIS] Is everything OK with Galatasaray, as Polat professes?
The Galatasaray ruler has, wittingly or unwittingly, opened a new can of worms with these comments. Simply put, the Galatasaray Lions are lying in a bed of roses, according to the pentagenarian Polat. And we say this as dramatic irony at its best.
For the record, dramatic irony in a very general sense is when the audience understands, but the speaker or character does not.
In the Polat case, the fans and football pundits in this country all understand that the club is in a pretty sad situation, but, unfortunately, the chairman does not -- and he is heaping praise upon his Lions, who are in a vegetative state.
Think about it, the Lions were beaten by 10-men Fenerbahçe Canaries -- their avowed foes -- in the inaugural pre-season Spor Toto Friendly Cup Borussia Park in Monchengladbach, Germany. Galatasaray therefore became the laughing stock of the tournament and a virtual talking point in town, long before 2010-11 kicked off.
In domestic action the Lions have emerged as the new whipping boy, winning only one of their three Spor Toto Super League matches so far. They were beaten 2-1 away by Sivasspor in week one, lost 2-0 to defending champion in week two, before luckily stumbling upon a winning formula to overcome struggling Eskişehirspor 3-1 away in week three.
Europe? This is not something to write home about! The Galatasaray Lions -- the UEFA Cup and UEFA Super Cup winners in 2000 -- were sent packing from the playoff stage of the UEFA Europa League by obscure Karpaty Lviv of Ukraine (3-3 on the away goals rule). That Galatasaray scored in the 90th minute against a 10-man Karpaty in the second leg in Ukraine only to concede an equalizer two minutes later made the elimination even harder to swallow.
The Galatasaray Lions, a team that has won the most titles (along with Fenerbahçe) with 17 championships to their credit, are currently placed in an unfamiliar 12th position in the 18-strong standings. They have been eliminated from all European competitions this season -- condemned, from now on, to watching European football in 2010-11 on television from their den in Florya.
And Mr. Polat claims the team is not in crisis? We say categorically, on the evidence before us, that the Galatasaray Lions are not only facing a crisis, but a full-blown one.
The Galatasaray chairman also boasted about making big bucks from selling star players during the pre-season (and replacing them with unknowns). “For the first time in the history of Galatasaray, we made $18 million from transfers,” he gloated.
Well done, Mr. Polat! Good business mentality, but the statistics speak for themselves. The Lions have been all over the place this season.
Furthermore, the Galatasaray monarch has every right to exhort his team. But that in no way conceals the fact that all is not well with Galatasaray. Some diehard fans have even gone into hiding to avoid being laughed at, taunted, mocked and ridiculed.
And worst still, there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel.
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