Galatasaray head coach Okan Buruk will continue to laugh at disrespectful opinions about his Super Lig champions amid Jose Mourinho’s astonishing rant on the “system” in Turkey.
Fenerbahce boss Mourinho launched an extraordinary tirade against Turkish football and its officials earlier this month after a 3-2 win over Trabzonspor, where he claimed “to play against the system is the most difficult thing”.
Mourinho also stated “nobody abroad wants to watch the Turkish league”, but rival Buruk hit back after a thrilling Europa League victory over Tottenham maintained Gala’s flying start to the new campaign.
Dominant football ✅Remain undefeated ✅Three points ✅
This is a good night 😴#GSvTOT #UEL pic.twitter.com/iggTMkOiEE
— Galatasaray EN (@Galatasaray) November 7, 2024
Buruk was not asked about Mourinho’s comments in his pre-match press conference on Wednesday but following a 3-2 success in front of a raucous Rams Park crowd, the system question was put to former Turkey midfielder.
“We are always laughing at this of course but unfortunately not just for Galatasaray, this is not something they say about Galatasaray only,” Buruk said.
“When Besiktas became champions (in 2021), they said there was something going on behind the scenes. For Trabzonspor (in 2022), Besiktas, for Galatasaray they say this but it is not Galatasaray only.
“We are deserving it the whole season clearly playing like a champion. There is a lot of hard work going on.
“Sometimes we are not sleeping, sometimes we are not eating, we get tired and all the season – 11 months perhaps – we are working.
“All this hard work and after that you win the title, you celebrate but the other side (Fenerbahce) says, ‘we have deserve this and there is something going on behind the scenes’. I am just laughing at this.
“I continue with football and we need to stay in football. This very clearly we have shown on the pitch.
“We are representing Turkish football. We need to be competing very well, we have to show ourselves very well in Europe and also we need to compete in Turkey.
“Outside of that, all the blame is just disrespectful in my opinion. All the hard work, the hard work of the administrators or the president, I think the game we are playing is the only (important) thing.
“Everyone can throw dirt on anyone but what’s important is what you can show on the pitch.
“The Galatasaray team needs to stay on the pitch, show everything on the pitch and Turkish football is going to win at the end of the day.
“We cannot reduce the value of Turkish football. We cannot gain anything from that but winning this type of game, we are adding value to Turkish football and we have seen this clearly.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here