IS TUNCAY SANLI "GREATEST TURK IN HISTORY?........."

Thanks to my blogger friend Oz Kanka who writes about Ankara football teams from Ankara posted this first time.

A well known Football columnist from England Peter Huges, called Tuncay Sanli "Greatest Turk in History" in his recent article!...

What is so absurd, He mentioned his name along with Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

Like my friend said in his blog sometimes the columnist go a bit over board, when they mix apples with oranges!....

Here is the article writing by Peter Huges..............

HE'S THE GREATEST TURK IN HISTORY...

Peter Hughes; 3 March 2009

…or so the song goes.

And with the greatest respect to Orhan Pamuk, Sertab Erener, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and even Sulyman the Magnificent, you have to think that when he’s on form, Tuncay Sanli IS the greatest Turk in history.

It’s great to have him back.

It was a mystery where he disappeared to. Whether it was his efforts in last summer’s European Championships taking their toll, having his head turned by talk of a move to Chelsea or even just a dislike of the North East winter, it has been clear that Tuncay has not been on top form of late.

Whatever the reason was, it has had a direct influence on the club’s form.

At the beginning of the season, he was outstanding. His hundred miles an hour, non-stop style led us to some great results and he seemed to be behind our every move.

He then picked up an injury playing for Turkey and missed all of our games in September. We lost them all.

He then came back into the team and we started to climb the table once more. After two good months, in which he was probably our best player, we were in the top half of the table and looking towards a UEFA Cup (sorry – Europa League) place.

After a hat trick for his country, he got a brace in our win at Villa Park and he, and the Boro, were in imperious form. We had the longest unbeaten run in the Premiership and things were looking good.

But then something went wrong.

Maybe he just ran out of steam. Maybe he was thinking of the warm beaches of Marmaris, when all he could have was the not so warm beaches at Marske.

Whatever went wrong, it affected the whole team.

I said earlier in the season that he is the link man, the man who makes the runs, the man who makes the space and just as importantly, the man who motivates the crowd. He is ‘the heart’ of the team.

When the heart stopped beating, the team seemed to die.

For three months, it looked like touch and go for the Boro. Many thought they wouldn’t pull round.

But then came the Wednesday match against the Hammers. He was linked up front with Aliadiere and he was a changed man. Back came the old Tunch. His bouncy run, his boundless energy… he was bound to score.

A goal in the twentieth minute and all was good in the world again.

Unlike some teams, we do take our cup runs seriously on Teesside. However, the priority is survival. The game against Liverpool was always going to be tough and so it proved.

They had 72% of the possession, nine corners to our two and twenty-three shots to our five.

We battled away though and when man of the match Stewey put in a dangerous corner, we got the stroke of luck we haven’t had for a while.

But just when you thought their pressure would tell, once again the former Fenerbahçe frontman fired home.

It could well be that it is the return of the warm weather (if you can ever call it warm on Teesside in February), that has brought out the best in Tunch. Or it could be good management to drop him from the away games at Man City and West Ham.

Gareth said that he felt he was feeling a bit jaded and wanted to give him chance to recharge his batteries. Well it certainly seems to have worked.

And God knows we needed him back.

Before the Liverpool game, we had had only one League win at the Riverside in over six months!

Before Alonso’s own goal, we had only scored once in fifteen hours of League football!

And yet now, instead of thinking about how much season tickets will cost in the Championship, we are looking forward to games for the first time in ages.

In our next five League matches we play the teams that are currently in fourteenth, sixteenth, nineteenth, tenth and thirteenth in the table.

One win could move us up into thirteenth place. What a great time to start hitting form again.

We are now unbeaten in four games and have only lost three out of our eleven games this year.

It’s amazing how a few good results totally change your outlook on life. A couple of good wins and we will shoot up the table. Hell, if we’d managed to get a win at West Ham earlier this season, we would only be six points off a place in Europe!

And if we ever do get back into Europe, I know we will give it our best shot.

What’s the point of spending all season trying to qualify for Europe and then playing a reserve team in the actual competition?

I cannot understand why Aston Villa did not put a decent team out against CSKA Moscow. It was their only chance of silverware this season and they didn’t turn up.

It’s like a family saving up all year for a holiday in Spain and then not going so they can work some overtime to try and go to Florida next year.

Although I have some sympathy with ’Arry having to play Shaktar three days before a Cup Final, he still sent out a weakened team to Ukraine in the first leg and so lost the tie.

Their players will be drained physically and emotionally after going out of both competitions in four days and it gives us a great chance to pick up three points down the Lane on Wednesday night.

It may be years before Spurs play in Europe again. It may also be years before the Boro play in Europe again but at least we went down fighting in the blaze of glory that is a European final.

If only we had shown the same fighting spirit that we showed on those wonderful European nights at the Riverside against bloody Cardiff. If we had done, we could have been making our way to Tuncay’s old stomping grounds in Istanbul for the Final in May.

http://www.comeonboro.com/columns/212923.php