Aziz Yıldırım: “İsmail Kartal was not on my mind”

Aziz Yıldırım said İsmail Kartal was not the person he had in mind. With the words, “İsmail Kartal was not on my mind,” Yıldırım said the idea of bringing Kartal in did not initially come from him.

Yıldırım then asked those around him whether they had all told him not to bring Aykut Kocaman and instead to bring İsmail Kartal. He named both coaches directly while describing the choice they had urged him to make.

The central point of Yıldırım’s remarks was the distinction between Kartal not being his own preference and those around him favoring Kartal. He characterized the choice as a shared request directed at him, asking: “Didn’t you all tell me, ‘Don’t bring Aykut Kocaman; bring İsmail Kartal’?”