Okan Buruk: We will make transfers

Continuing their new season preparations in Austria, Galatasaray lost 3-0 to Italian Serie A side Venezia in their second friendly match of the camp. Following the match, Galatasaray manager Okan Buruk spoke to the press.

Emphasizing that these matches are intended to provide physical development, Buruk said, "Of course, you always want to win in terms of play, and you want to win these types of matches, but in the last two games, we haven't been able to deliver what was expected, both in terms of play and results, and we are aware of this. For the players returning from the national team, it is only the first week, their 7th day since starting training. They are not 100 percent ready. I actually intended to use them for shorter periods, but we added another 10 to 15 minutes to the second half; they came off at the 60th minute. Today, in certain parts, especially at the beginning of the match, we gave our opponent too many chances.

The end of the first half and the beginning of the second half were periods where we perhaps created more chances and were more involved in the game, up until about the 60th minute. Later, I don't think we finished well either. As a result, we didn't finish well, and in terms of play, we remained far below our performance level, but as I said, we are not ready as a team yet. We are trying to get ready, and we are trying to bring our players to the same level. We have a long time ahead of us to prepare for the league. We will work here for 3 more days. Tomorrow we have one training session, and then we have two days of double training sessions. This is a loading camp for us. We are here to increase the necessary training quality of our players, raise their physical quality, and then we have a friendly match after we return. But I think the most indicative match for us will be the Villarreal match on the 8th. It will be a match where we will be a bit more physically ready. But our player count is increasing, the number of players arriving is increasing. Today, we played Sane for about 15-20 minutes. We are trying to play our other players. We used our young players from time to time, and we tried to use them in certain parts today as well. Closing this training camp without injuries is the most important thing for me. If you ask, 'Are you sad about the results?', of course I am. It would be best to get the results, play well, and increase the players' physical quality, but we played against two teams that were more ready than us, and in this sense, I don't think we got what we wanted in terms of play or results," he said.

"We will become more physically ready"

Stating that they will be in better physical condition by the end of the camp, Okan Buruk said, "We trained last night, we trained this morning, and we played the match in the evening. Therefore, these training sessions and these matches are important minutes for us to be ready for the season. Here, of course, we are trying to give these minutes to our players by rotating them. We tried to use them mostly for 60 minutes each, and we made those changes. But as I said, they are not ready yet. Especially the fact that there is a large difference in the number of days for players coming from the national team is, of course, challenging us in this sense. But we will be ready, and as I said, when this two-week period passes better for us in terms of both play and physical condition, I think we will become more physically ready," he explained.

"I am very pleased with Jankat's performance"

Speaking about the young goalkeeper Jankat Yılmaz, Buruk said, "We used Günay in the previous match. Today, I think Jankat also did good things in the game and made important saves. He did good things from time to time, and there were ball losses from time to time, but we need to try in these types of matches; we tried to play out from the back with passes. Of course, he also tried to play long balls. Against a team that comes with man-to-man pressure, the mobility of the players during the game is very important. But Jankat's overall performance, the saves he made... I think he had a good match. He is already a name we trust very much, and he had a very good year. I am very pleased with his performance," he said.

"Our thoughts regarding the number of foreign players are clear"

Providing information about the foreign players who will leave the team, Okan Buruk said, "We are still seeing, we are giving minutes in training. We are trying to see our players, but what we will do with the foreign players is more or less clear. We have things in mind here. There is a foreign player rule that we don't have much room to maneuver with. This foreign player rule is, of course, one of the factors that challenges us in transfers as well. Therefore, we are more or less determining what we have in mind, but of course, the performances in this camp and in the matches are also effective. Performances in friendly matches can be misleading. If they were to take the field rested, we might be talking about something else, but they are already playing matches here along with a high training tempo. That's why we have players who cannot fully do what is expected of them. It's not just an evaluation in this sense, but of course, we have a draft in our minds. Regarding the number of foreign players, especially since we have a certain number of foreign players, our thoughts on that are clear," he stated.

"We will make transfers, and we will add good players to our squad"

Finally, stating that transfer efforts are ongoing, Buruk said, "From my perspective, and probably from the perspective of our president, our board of directors, if you asked all of us 'What would you want?', we would all, of course, want to make the transfers as soon as possible and come here like that. We are, of course, not happy about the pressure this creates on us. And for the motivation of the players, for unity, it is of course important to bring these transfers as soon as possible. But it is also important what kind of transfer you make here. There can be players you have to wait for. If you want to buy an elite player or if you want to wait for an elite player, that's why it sometimes takes time, it's not easy.

I always say this; a transfer is not something where you go to a market and every player has a price and you go and say 'I bought this, this, and these three'. Here, you need to convince the player to come here, you need to convince their club. It needs to be a player of the quality you want. In terms of price, there are transfer fees that are rising strangely in world football. When we look at it now, teams, especially in the Premier League or the most important teams in Europe's top 5 leagues, are constantly making transfers in the 100 million, 120 million band. But here, I just want this to be known, we have always said this, we are talking about it: We will make transfers, we are trying to do this as soon as possible. We will add good players to our squad. We all know that we are currently lacking. But it is quite normal for there to be pressure.

It is also quite normal for our fans to complain. As I said, but we will make transfers and we will try to add the best players to our squad. The earlier this happens, the better it is for us. Of course, we all need to be patient, but I think the most important thing is to buy the right players, to reinforce our squad in the right way, and to have two good squads ready for both the Champions League and the league. As I said, we will add the transfers to our squad as soon as possible.

I have no doubt about this. If I had any doubt, I would be the unhappiest person here. I have no doubt about our president's good intentions or the transfers he will make. Therefore, they should trust our president, our management, and us. We will try to make these transfers as soon as possible. But this sometimes takes time. If you wait for a good player, sometimes you have to wait for that time. Because the World Cup was played, players returned from the World Cup. Just as many players joined us late, there are players who joined many teams late. There are decisions that clubs will make regarding these players. That's why it can take some time here too. But none of us are happy about this time passing," he concluded.

News Source: 12punto