Samsunspor banked €34.45 million and conceded twice as many: the price of a summer sell-off

In the first six matchdays of the 2026-2026 season, Samsunspor conceded six goals, collected 11 points and scored eight. In the first six matchdays of 2026-2027, the Black Sea club has conceded 12, collected four points and scored six. Seven points evaporated across 540 minutes, and the goals-conceded column has exactly doubled. In the league table, that reads as a worrying start. In the accounts, it reads as a spectacular summer.

I sat down with their last four matches — the 0-2 defeat to Fenerbahçe, the 0-1 to Kocaelispor, the 1-5 to Arca Çorum FK, the 0-1 to Erzurumspor FK. What struck me was not the back line. It was the vast space in front of it, between the opponent's penalty area and the centre circle.

People call me a troublemaker. I call it seeing the run before it happens.

A summer that brought in €34.45 million

In the summer of 2026, Samsunspor sold five players and raised €34.45 million. Ali Badra Diabate left for €8 million. Marius Mouandilmadji left for €9 million including add-ons. Carlo Holse: €5.2 million. Rick van Drongelen: €5 million. Arbnor Muja: €1.5 million.

Earlier, during the winter transfer window, the red-and-white club completed its first sale of 2026: Anthony Musaba to Fenerbahçe for €5.75 million. Musaba had arrived at the start of that season for €1 million. Six months, nearly a fivefold return.

Ten new signings arrived to fill the gaps. The 2026-2027 season opened with a 3-3 home draw against Göztepe, followed by a 2-0 win away at Çaykur Rizespor. Then came four straight defeats: Fenerbahçe 0-2, Kocaelispor 0-1, Arca Çorum FK 1-5, Erzurumspor FK 0-1.

Last season, over the same stretch, Samsunspor won three, drew two and lost one. This season: one win, one draw, four defeats. From 11 points down to four. Goals scored fell from eight to six. Goals conceded rose from six to 12.

Anyone who looks only at the goals-conceded column will point at the centre-backs. The two columns have to be read together, and read together they tell a completely different story.

What was sold was not the defence

In Quang Nam I learned one thing: people hate you for being right a season before they are.

The positions of the five departed players say a great deal. Diabate, Mouandilmadji, Holse, Muja — four of those names played in the attacking third. Together they account for €23.7 million of the €34.45 million raised. The only centre-back sold was Rick van Drongelen.

When a club loses four attacking players in a single transfer window, it loses more than goals. It loses the ability to hold the ball in the opponent's half. It loses the duels in midfield. It loses what I still call the first line of defence: the pressing forward line.

This season Samsunspor are playing a bookkeeping version of anti-tiki-taka. The ball is no longer controlled high up the pitch. The revenue column, however, is controlled beautifully.

The specific numbers. In 2026-2026, over the first six matchdays: eight goals, or 1.33 per game. In 2026-2027, over the first six matchdays: six goals, or 1.0 per game. The drop is 0.33 goals per game. In the other direction, goals conceded went from 1.0 per game to 2.0 per game, a rise of exactly one goal per game.

If the defence were the root cause, the new attack would have to be scoring far less, or at least the same. In reality the new attack is still scoring at an acceptable rate. What has gone is the ability to pin opponents back, to squeeze them deep, to turn an opposition goal kick into a counterattack of their own.

The 1-5 defeat to Arca Çorum FK is the clearest example. A team does not ship five goals because its centre-backs are slow. It ships five because the lines in front keep losing the ball in dangerous areas, and the defence is forced to defend in an unprepared state: not enough bodies, not enough distance, not enough time.

Ten new signings do not solve the problem. Buying ten players does not mean replacing five positions. New players need time to learn the pressing structure, to learn where to stand when their own team has the ball. The season does not wait for them.

Where I could be wrong

I have to argue against myself, because a troublemaker has no exemption from his own reasoning.

Six matches is a small sample. The fixture lists of the two seasons are not the same. In 2026-2026 the opening six rounds may have been kinder. The schedule may have crammed Fenerbahçe, Kocaelispor and Arca Çorum FK into a single month, while last season the stronger opponents fell later in the calendar.

And something more important: the Musaba deal proves the Samsunspor model still works. Buy at €1 million, sell at €5.75 million six months later. If I dismiss the model over six rounds, I am dismissing the very thing that funds this club.

I may be wrong in reading six matches as a long-term trend. A side that loses four attacking pillars in one window will wobble for eight to 10 rounds and then settle. If that is the case, those 12 goals conceded are simply the tuition fee for a rebuild, and I will have to correct myself.

But if I am right, the problem lies in the structure, in the timing, in selling an entire attacking line in one summer. That decision was commercially sound and sporting nonsense, and that mistake cannot be fixed by buying more players.

The checkpoint

Checkpoint: round 10 of the 2026-2027 season, October 2026.

If by then Samsunspor are still conceding two goals a game, the sell-everything model has hit its ceiling, and the new attack has not yet learned to defend from the front. If the concession rate returns to around one goal a game, then those 12 goals were simply the invoice for a transition, and I will be the first to record that I misread the speed of the recovery.

What interests me is that a club can raise €34.45 million from five players and still be waiting for ten newcomers to learn where to stand. Football does not pay for the speed of the ledger. It only pays for the speed of the run.