Second in the table, two points off your biggest rivals, just seven matches left to play…and the theme dominating a club’s next course of action is not how to finish the campaign perfectly, but a potential departure from the country’s top division. So incensed have been Fenerbahçe at the treatment they perceive to have received this term that they gave their supporters, their members, the chance to vote to exit the league – and though that incredulous path has been averted, it may only be temporarily.
Matters came to a head last month. Fenerbahçe beat Trabzonspor – third in the table but a whopping 30 points back from Fener in second – late on and then, shortly after the whistle, Trabzonspor fans entered the pitch and proceeded to run towards some Fener players, attacking some of them along the way.
With two or three players pushing back at those attacking them, the Turkish Football Federation reported a total of five individuals from the club to the authorities, leaving Fenerbahçe incensed that they had been punished for Trabzonspor failings.
As a result, the board opted to give members the chance to vote to leave the Süper Lig – but they opted against, with the club saying the option was now off the table until the end of the season at least.
With that out the way, focus must return to on-pitch matters and the realisation that a 20th title is still in their grasp – which would see them close in on Galatasaray’s record of 23, rather than letting their rivals extend it. Notably, it would also be a first league title in a full decade for Fener, who have finished runners-up four times since their last championship triumph back in 2014.
While nobody can come close to Fenerbahçe’s 23-times status as runners-up, that’s not one record they want to keep adding to.
Which means a massive end-of-season run is required – easier said than done when their very next fixture pits them against Galatasaray, in the Turkish Super Cup. Fireworks happen in those fixtures anyway; the spectre of silverware and off-pitch arguments is hardly likely to lighten the mood.
Beyond that, Fener are still in the hunt for European silverware too, up against Olympiacos in the Europa Conference League.
But in seven remaining league fixtures, five are not just must-win, but absolutely should-win. Five are against teams currently placed between bottom of the table and tenth. Given one defeat in their league campaign so far, it would be a shock if Fenerbahçe dropped points against any of them.
And then the two remaining fixtures: home to Besiktas, usually a top-three rival but this year fourth and trailing by a massive 35 points…and away to Galatasaray, on the penultimate week of the campaign.
Needless to say, that’s expected to be when the title can be won and lost, when the hardships, frustrations or injustices of a season must be overcome.
Away from home it might be, but there’s still reason to believe that they can overhaul the gap if it’s still two points at that time, or perhaps merely hold a lead of their own if results in the meantime go their way.
Across the course of the campaign, Gala edge clean sheets and possession but Fenerbahçe have a better expected goals rate, far more actual goals scored, the most touches in the opposition penalty box, the league’s top goalscorer in Edin Džeko, the player with the best goals per 90 contribution in Michy Batshuayi and the player with the most big chances created in Dušan Tadić.
For those of a more meddlesome mind, they’ve also won the most penalties, but perhaps we shouldn’t go there.
Against all that, is Galatasaray’s mighty home record. Played 16, won 16, conceded just 12. They have been utterly untouchable domestically – yet Fenerbahçe are within a whisker of being so on their travels, winning 14 and drawing one of 15.
It tees the fixture up as the perfect title-decider-in-waiting…should Fener not implode in the meantime and lose their way, either after the off-pitch focus or whatever madness transpires in the Super Cup.
Now that the vote is done and Fenerbahçe are remaining in the Süper Lig, 19 May should, perhaps, be marked in the calendar as the day when the real stand-up-and-be-counted must take place. Given what’s at stake and the history between the clubs, the Turkish Federation might just need to be on standby once more then, too.
(Cover image from IMAGO)
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