Besiktas has traded Ilhan Mansiz to the Japaneese club Vissel Kobe for €3.5m(aprox. $5 million). Ilhan is the most popular player in Japan next only to David Beckham. Ilhan leaves Besiktas just before they begin the UEFA Cup. He will sure be missed. He will still be on the Turkish national team though. http://www.uefa.com/competitions/UEFACup/news/Kind=1/newsId=143781.html http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=afp-fbl_tur_jpn_ilhan&prov=afp&type=lgns http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=reu-ilhan&prov=reuters&type=lgns http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=reu-kobeilhan&prov=reuters&type=lgns
>why the hell did they have him go? Going into all the reasons that went into the sale of Ilhman Mansiz would take forever, so i will just mention some of the factors. First off Ilhan is a great liability to the Besiktas team in terms of consistency. When is playing well he gives the team great strength but you must bear in mind this is not very often. Ilhan had a great world cup which made him look like a much better player than he really is. He is lazy, his pace leaves much to be desired, has trouble keeping his cool on the pitch, and above all he is not what i'd call a quality finisher. If you've watched enough of Ilhan playing for besiktas you realize afew things such as how when he is in scoring position in the box he will not use well placed shots on goal, 90% of the time he goes for the highlight reel and pretty much hits the ball as hard as he can. The amount of money besiktas recieved for Ilhan was much more than what he is really worth on the soccer pitch, i'd say about double. His popularity in japan warented such a transfer fee as it was mostly a business transaction more so than a soccer move. Hopefully besiktas will use the money from the Ilhan transfer and the chapionsleague earnings to bring in a player to fill the gap Ilhan left. Certainly the so-called Romanian Cobra is not the answer.
" Certainly the so-called Romanian Cobra is not the answer." hahahhahahahahah He isn't playin' for Kobe either nowadays; we all know about his injury. They have just discovered it. And 15 million dollars gone ...