Besiktas defender Umit Bozkurt got a bit of a lashing from the Turkish press last week for his part in Ankaragucu's third goal in a league meeting the weekend before. Having heard his side of the story, though, we reckon the lad deserves a bit of sympathy and his Russian team-mate, Dmitri Khlestov, a crash course in Turkish catering specifically for well known football phrases, the likes of "hoof it", "row z" and "yoo hoo, there's a forward right behind you and unless you act promptly you might find yourself in a spot of trouble".

"Khlestov has been here for two years," said Umit, "but he can't speak Turkish yet. The only word he knows is 'sakin'. (Translation: 'calm' or 'quiet', used to indicate there is no danger). "I was facing the goal at the time and Khlestov was shouting 'Calm! Calm!' So I trusted him and left the ball to goalie Peter Kjaer . . . but Augustine Ahinful calmly scored."

Beskitas did at least win 4-3, so Umit was quite relaxed about the whole thing. But you get the feeling that unless Khlestov brushes up on his Turkish soon this will have been the sakin before the storm.