So last night against Italy, the Turkish fans made their feelings pretty clear. Chants for Montella's head, direct abuse at federation president İbrahim Hacıosmanoğlu, and apparently the guy had to leave the stadium early. That's not a protest, that's a full-on mutiny. And honestly? I get it. But I also think we need to pump the brakes on this Turkey squad being some kind of golden generation.
Are we overrating this Turkey team?
I've been saying this for a while: people have started overrating this Turkey national team. Yes, the names look good on paper. Arda Güler, Kenan Yıldız, Hakan Çalhanoğlu, Ferdi Kadıoğlu, Orkun Kökçü, Can Uzun, Zeki Çelik, Ozan Kabak. That's a solid list. But when the sum of all parts is less than the individual parts, you know something's wrong. And that's exactly what we're seeing.
Montella got the job at a weird time. He inherited a squad that suddenly had three world-class players in the starting XI (Güler, Yıldız, Çalhanoğlu) and a few high-quality guys like Ferdi Kadıoğlu, who's at Brighton but probably moving to a big six club soon. In the past, we were lucky to have one or 1.5 global talents. Now we have several. But that doesn't automatically make us contenders. It just means we should be better than we are. And we're not.
The striker problem is real, and Montella knows it
We desperately need a striker. Montella keeps playing wingers upfront, and I kind of understand why. He looks at Barış Alper Yılmaz and Kerem Aktürkoğlu and thinks, "These guys are fast, they can press, maybe they can do a job." But it's not working. The fans are tired of seeing wingers as strikers. We need a proper No. 9. Until we find one, we're going to keep struggling to score goals, no matter how many creative midfielders we have.
And that's on the federation as much as Montella. They've had years to develop or naturalize a striker. Instead, we're stuck with makeshift solutions. It's frustrating because with Güler and Yıldız feeding balls, a decent striker could score 20 goals a year for us.
Why is the federation keeping a dead man walking?
Here's the weird part: the federation seems to have already decided to sack Montella after the World Cup. They know he has zero credit left. So why keep him for the Nations League? The theory going around is that they're protecting the next coach. If a new guy came in and failed in a group with France, Italy, and Belgium, fans would be calling for his head immediately. So instead, they let Montella take the fall. Result: players know the coach is getting sacked, the coach knows he's getting sacked, and nobody cares about these games except Arda, Ferdi, and a couple of others.
That's a terrible way to run a team. It's basically throwing away competitive matches to save face. And it's not fair to the fans who show up and sing their hearts out.
What's the actual solution here?
First, we need to accept that this squad, while talented, has holes. We need a striker, and we need a coach who can build a system around our best players. Montella isn't that guy. He's tried, but it's not working. The players look lost, and the fans have turned.
Second, the federation needs to stop playing political games. If you're going to sack him, do it now. Let a new coach come in and use the Nations League to experiment and build for the future. Yes, it might be painful against top teams, but at least there's a plan. Keeping a lame-duck coach just wastes everyone's time.
Third, we need to lower our expectations. We're not France or Spain. We have some great young players, but we're not a finished product. Qualifying for tournaments and making some noise is a realistic goal. Demanding semifinals every time is just setting ourselves up for disappointment.
At the end of the day, I feel for Montella. He's a decent coach who got handed a poisoned chalice. But the writing's on the wall. The fans have spoken, and the federation is already planning his exit. It's just a matter of time.
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