Latest news with #Bulut
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Two Bundesliga clubs interested in Schalke 04's Taylun Bulut
Sport Bild reports that two Bundesliga sides are interested in acquiring Schalke 04's Taylan Bulut. Stuttgart and Freiburg have enquired about the 19-year-old, who is available via a €6m exit clause in his current contract. Bulut has made 22 league appearances for die Königsblauen this season, scoring one goal and registering one assist. Bulut primarily operates as a right-back, but can also play in central defence and higher up on the right wing. The former Bayer Leverkusen academy man broke through for Schalke this season, in the process raising his estimated market value from €250,000 to €5m. The German tabloid reports that Freiburg are willing to spend €8m on Bulut if they qualify for the Champions League. Advertisement Bulut had been linked with a move to Atalanta during the most recent January transfer window. RB Salzburg also maintain some interest in the Germany U19 international. A move elsewhere this summer appears likely in any case. GGFN | Peter Weis
BBC News
27-04-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
'This storm has been coming' – how Cardiff lost way
Agonising, embarrassing and, ultimately, City's relegation has felt a long time coming, much more than just one dismal it has been team has won fewer games in the Championship, and having gone through three managers during this campaign – making it eight in the past four years – the Bluebirds will be playing in the third tier next season, for the first time since Cardiff have been promoted to the Premier League twice in the past 12 years and still have a wage bill bigger than two thirds of their Championship peers, many will wonder why the club finds itself in such a the unavoidable truth is that this relegation is no accident, and is instead the stark result for a club that lost its way a long time ago."It's been an inevitability staring us in the face. It's death by a thousand cuts – I've felt it's been coming for years," former Cardiff striker Nathan Blake told BBC Sport Wales."There's a lot of responsibility that needs to be shared among a lot of people, rather than just focusing on the team or manager. You do have to look at those above and say 'maybe you've run your course'. I think they ran their course a long time ago."You do feel this storm has been coming." Managerial upheaval and 'lost identity' Cardiff had actually started this season with relative optimism, as the 2023-24 campaign was their first without changing manager since successive relegation battles, Erol Bulut came in and guided the Bluebirds to a respectable 12th-place hope was that they could build on that foundation but, instead, Cardiff made the worst start to a season in their history and Bulut was sacked after picking up just one point from their opening six games in the replacement Omer Riza oversaw an initial improvement but, having been brought in as interim manager in September, it was not until December – and in the midst of a nine-match winless run – that he was announced as Bulut's successor until the end of the instability is nothing new for Cardiff, who have had 16 different managers during Vincent Tan's 15-year ownership of the even by their standards, the protracted appointment of Riza drew sharp criticism from fans, with one supporters' group writing an open letter raising "serious concerns" about the state of the were also major doubts about Riza's suitability for the role, considering that his only previous EFL managerial experience had been a brief spell in which he got Leyton Orient relegated to the National League in Cardiff captain Jason Perry believes the "chaos" at board level and "toxic" atmosphere around the club had limited their options, while relegation rivals were appointing proven Championship operators such as Gary Rowett and Mark Robins to steer them to safety."They've not sleepwalked into this situation, they've run into it. It's an incredibly badly run club," Perry tells BBC Sport Wales."I know a lot of supporters who've followed this club for a long time but have told me they're never coming back now."They are supporters who saw more bad days than good days but they felt part of something, that the club represented them – but they don't feel that now."And I get that because I don't feel it as a former player. I find it hard to come here. I think the club has lost touch with what Cardiff is about, it's lost its identity and that hurts more than relegation. That really hurts." 'Tan out' but can Cardiff survive without him? That toxicity has been a theme of the Tan era, manifesting itself with unrest at games and numerous fan rebranding of Cardiff from their traditional blue to red in 2012 caused deep divisions, which have not fully healed for some even a decade after he reversed his recently, supporters have voiced their anger with two large demonstrations this season against the owner, chairman Mehmet Dalman and chief executive Ken perpetual lurching from one crisis to another is seen by many as a result of a lack of football knowledge on the board, denying the club a clear strategy or long-term plan."The board don't know what they're doing and haven't done since they first stepped through the door," says Blake."Things need to change. Whether they will or not, who knows, but if they don't, I just don't know where this ends."These fans deserve more, this city deserves more. To have a billionaire owner and still be in the position we're in… there needs to be a plan. The board needs to improve. I don't think anything changes until things change at the top."That was what fans were demanding at a protest before the draw against Oxford United on Easter Monday."We've been fighting a relegation battle for four years and we've had enough of it. The owner just doesn't want to know," Chris, one of the leaders of the protest holding a banner that read 'Tan Out', told BBC Sport Wales."He hasn't been to a game for years. We can't cope with Tan anymore. We don't know who would replace him but it can't get any worse."Therein lies the issue for those who want Tan gone: Cardiff are utterly dependent on their owner and there are currently no feasible club recorded pre-tax losses of £11.66m in its most recent accounts for the 2023-24 season, showing further support from Malaysian businessman added another £11.83m worth of loans, bringing the total owed to him to around £ club said the loans will be written off or converted to equity, while interest is also being waived. Tan has also provided a written commitment outlining his ongoing from directors and other connected parties have also increased by an additional £11m, taking the total to £ accounts for a large amount of that £40.3m so, although fans may call for the chairman and board to be sacked, it is not a case of simply dismissing a man so heavily invested in the Tan and Dalman can sell Cardiff to a buyer willing to match their valuation, they will be staying. And where Tan is concerned, the club cannot survive without him for Dalman himself wrote in the accounts, Cardiff remain "heavily reliant upon the continued financial support of our owner… without which the future of the club would look much more precarious". 'Expectations high but you know the divides' As long as Tan stays and the fans do not get the change they want, Cardiff will remain a club have been times when old wounds appear to have healed. On the day the Bluebirds were promoted to the Premier League in 2018, Tan was carried on the shoulders of some supporters as they spilled on to the Cardiff City Stadium for many others, the relationship is beyond repair."The situation looks hopeless for us," says Gwenllian Evans, who follows the team home and away."I think plenty still blame Tan and the board for the decisions they've made. There seems to be a lack of interest in the club from Tan, which is disappointing."As well as corroding the club's very soul, that division between its hierarchy and fanbase can affect matters on the described Cardiff as "a big pressure cooker ready to explode" during his tenure and, when he was asked if he thought the club was united in its fight against relegation, his blunt answer was "no I don't," before adding: "I think the expectations are so high at this club."It's the capital of the country, it's a club that's been in the Premier League and is a club that wants to do well, fans want to do well."You already know the divides. I think until that all comes together and there's acceptance of what it is and how we can move forward together, I don't think we'll ever improve."Riza was sacked a couple of days after that interview, a decision that came too late to change the course of Cardiff's Choo and other board members are believed to have wanted him gone during the March international window; some thought they should have pulled the trigger back in Warnock had been sounded out for a dramatic return to the club he saved from Championship relegation and took to the Premier League – but Tan stuck by Riza, a decision that proved profoundly down to League One will cost Cardiff millions of pounds in lost revenue from television coverage, sponsorship and prize money, while attendances will be expected to is no guarantee of a swift return to the Championship either. It took Cardiff 18 years to get back to this level when they were last relegated to the third tier in the 29 teams to have been in the Premier League and relegated to League One, six have never made it back to the Cardiff solve some of their most chronic, deepest-rooted issues, there will be nothing inevitable about their chances of a return.
Daily Tribune
16-04-2025
- Daily Tribune
Europe raids net 200 arrests and drugs haul
Police staged 'unprecedented' raids against four organised crime groups yesterday, arresting more than 200 people in five European countries, primarily in Turkey, in a 'massive blow' against drug-trafficking networks, officials said. Alongside the arrests, officers in Operation 'Bulut' ('Cloud' in Turkish) seized more than 21 tonnes of drugs, including 3.3 million MDMA tablets, said EU police agency Europol, which coordinated the sting. 'This was one of the biggest strikes against organised crime groups in recent years,' Andy Kraag, head of Europol's European Serious Organised Crime Centre, told AFP in an interview. Images of the raids s h owe d a r m e d p o l i c e storming into properties, apprehending suspects and pinning them to the floor before handcuffing them.
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Yahoo
'Unprecedented' Europe raids net 200 arrests, drugs haul
Police in Europe staged "unprecedented" raids against four organised crime groups on Tuesday, arresting more than 200 people across five countries, primarily in Turkey, in a "massive blow" against drug-trafficking networks. Alongside the arrests, officers in Operation "Bulut" ("Cloud" in Turkish) seized more than 21 tonnes of drugs, including 3.3 million MDMA tablets, said EU police agency Europol, which coordinated the sting. "This was one of the biggest strikes against organised crime groups in recent years," Andy Kraag, head of Europol's European Serious Organised Crime Centre, told AFP in an interview. Images of the raids showed armed police storming into properties, apprehending suspects and pinning them to the floor before handcuffing them. Authorities also confiscated drugs, vehicles and cash used by the groups. "This is a massive blow because I think it's unprecedented," said Kraag, adding the operation sent "a big message to organised crime." "And the message is basically that even though you might think that you're resilient, that you're a big player, at the end of the day, you will get dismantled," warned Kraag. Police detained a total of 234 people in the coordinated raids, 225 of whom were picked up in Turkey, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya told reporters earlier Tuesday. Yerlikaya said the groups were aiming to ship cocaine to Turkey and Europe by sea and land from South American countries, as well as heroin from Iran and Afghanistan, skunk cannabis through the Balkans, and ecstasy through Europe. The four dismantled groups were also involved in money laundering, violent crime, and other shady criminal activities. As well as Turkey, police made arrests in France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Spain. Europol's Kraag said authorities had detained the whole network of these groups "from the top boss to the low-end street criminal." The sting was made possible by reading messages from the cracking four years ago of encrypted communications platforms Sky ECC and ANOM used by criminals. Kraag told AFP that the "gold mine" of intercepted messages was "like the gift that keeps on giving." "They constantly lead to actionable intelligence and to ongoing operations," he said. "I would not exclude further arrests," added Kraag. fo-ric/jm
