“Having a player like Orkun means Beşiktaş must be in the title race” – that was the central message in Mustafa Demirtaş’s assessment of the Beşiktaş-Antalyaspor match on the Serbest Sekiz show, and he backed it up with a very clear framework for next season.
Demirtaş underlined that the coming campaign has a non‑negotiable benchmark: if next April Beşiktaş are again outside the championship picture – and there has been no unfortunate setback with Orkun Kökçü – then, in his view, there is simply no acceptable explanation. A club that can field a midfielder of Orkun’s calibre has no excuse for drifting through another season as a bystander.
He reminded that he had previously used Trabzonspor as a reference point. The lesson from there, according to Demirtaş, is that you don’t necessarily need to burn through extraordinary sums of money to build a competitive team. Beşiktaş have already started to spend seriously, and strengthened again in the winter window, yet Trabzonspor currently look far more structured, planned and project‑driven as a team.
In the title race hierarchy, Demirtaş sees Galatasaray with a slight edge, but stresses that if Fenerbahçe are considered contenders on paper, then Trabzonspor deserve to be placed at essentially the same level. Against that backdrop, Beşiktaş – especially now that they possess a top‑class, Beşiktaş‑minded player like Orkun – should carry far greater expectations than they have in recent years.
For him, simply having someone of Orkun Kökçü’s profile in the Süper Lig is a huge competitive advantage in itself. Just as people have long said about Victor Osimhen that “it’s not easy to watch a number 9 of this level in this league,” Demirtaş believes a similar sentence now needs to be said about Orkun. This is a footballer whose natural place, under normal circumstances, would be in one of Europe’s top five leagues, in a high‑budget side genuinely pushing for the Champions League.
Demirtaş reminded that Orkun’s career trajectory was already heading firmly in that direction. By this age he had played over 4,000 minutes for Benfica, collecting significant experience as an offensive number 8. The expectation was that his next move would be to an even bigger club, yet he chose to sign for Beşiktaş instead. In Demirtaş’s eyes, that transfer was the hardest part of the puzzle – the truly “impossible” step that the club somehow managed to pull off.
From now on, he argues, the task is far more straightforward: surround this rare talent with the right pieces. When the most difficult move – bringing in a player of Orkun’s standing – has already been made, building a proper squad around him becomes a matter of planning and good decision‑making, not miracles. Especially when there is still time to act and the club’s budget is not in a disastrous state, Beşiktaş are obliged to complete this construction.
Demirtaş set a clear image of what must change: next season, when April arrives and football shows are analysing the run‑ins of Galatasaray, Fenerbahçe and Trabzonspor, Beşiktaş’s remaining fixtures must be part of the same conversation. Over the last five years, he noted, nobody has really cared about Beşiktaş’s schedule at this stage of the season because they were already out of the race – and that, for a club of this size, is simply unacceptable.
From the perspective of someone who has followed the game for decades, Demirtaş recalled very poor Beşiktaş seasons in the past, but said it is rare to see such a long block – five or six years – in which the team repeatedly falls out of contention so early. Historically, even in difficult cycles, Beşiktaş would at some point re‑enter the fight and often go on to win the title. That this hasn’t happened recently is problematic enough; when the squad now includes a player like Orkun Kökçü, he finds the current picture even harder to digest.
Watching every Beşiktaş match, he said, reinforces this feeling. It is not simply that Orkun produces goals and assists; he is not a player who exists only on the scoreboard. Operating as a number 8, he has directly contributed to 14 goals, and Demirtaş is convinced that figure could easily have been 14-15 higher if certain chances had been finished and some attacking sequences had been completed properly. Missed opportunities and half‑formed attacks have kept his numbers below their true potential.
Yet the discussion, he insisted, cannot be reduced to statistics. Orkun is not a Rafa Silva type who only comes alive in the final third. He influences almost every phase of play: he presses aggressively, tracks back to help the defence, positions himself intelligently between the lines, drops deep to dictate the tempo, hits long passes to launch counters and shapes attacks with the pass before the assist. If, on top of all that, he is still delivering 14 direct goal contributions, then Beşiktaş’s obligation is crystal clear – build a title‑challenging side around him.
Demirtaş deliberately stops short of guaranteeing a championship. Whether Beşiktaş become champions depends on many variables: fixture congestion, form swings, injuries, refereeing decisions, and the performance levels of rivals. But he draws a red line: they must at least be part of the race. If a team that has Orkun Kökçü in its midfield again finishes a season nowhere near the title, then one of two things must have gone badly wrong – either the club have had a disastrous transfer window or the technical staff have suffered a truly poor campaign.
He then turned to the squad’s construction and priorities. In his assessment, left‑back is not currently the most urgent problem. Rıdvan Yılmaz’s performances, he believes, are trending upwards. If Beşiktaş reach a point where the left‑back role is no longer viewed as a primary headache, that would actually be a sign that the club have solved more pressing issues elsewhere and progressed significantly in squad building.
The real needs, as Demirtaş sees them, are clearer: two proper wingers and a high‑quality number 8 to partner Orkun. If that spine is assembled correctly, many of the existing players can be used in more suitable, less exposed roles. He mentioned Al‑Musrati as an example – not because he is a bad footballer, but because in an ideal setup he should function more as a rotation piece: sometimes starting, sometimes coming on from the bench, rather than being overburdened as an undisputed pillar. With European competition in the equation, such a rotation becomes even more critical.
On the Jota Silva front, Demirtaş pointed to an intriguing case. Jota is often thought of strictly as a left winger, but his profile invites a broader tactical discussion. In his view, if Beşiktaş manage to acquire two dynamic, direct wide players with genuine one‑on‑one ability, Jota could be used more flexibly: as an inverted winger on the right, as a roaming inside forward, or even occasionally as an attacking midfielder in games where the team dominates possession. The key is to stop forcing players into roles they are unsuited for, and instead design a structure that maximises their strengths.
Demirtaş also underlined that the “second 8” next to Orkun is not just a positional label but a strategic decision. The player brought into that role, he argued, must combine energy, pressing intelligence and ball‑carrying ability. Orkun is at his most dangerous when he is not forced to carry the entire creative and physical burden of midfield alone. A partner who can share the work of progressing the ball and breaking lines would free him to appear more often in the final third, where his passing and finishing can directly decide matches.
In terms of playing style, he believes Beşiktaş should treat Orkun as the reference point of their footballing identity. The team’s tempo, pressing triggers and positional play should be designed around what allows him to influence the game most. That means constructing a midfield triangle that offers him both protection and options, full‑backs who can offer width so he doesn’t constantly have to drift wide to create, and forwards who make intelligent runs for his vertical passes. Without such a framework, the club risks wasting a once‑in‑a‑generation asset.
Demirtaş warned against the comfort of saying “we have time.” In modern football, he argued, windows of opportunity with players of this level are short. If the project does not advance quickly enough, a footballer like Orkun will inevitably attract offers and might eventually prefer to pursue his career again at the top of Europe. Beşiktaş must therefore approach the next two transfer periods not as routine business, but as decisive strategic moments that will determine whether this era becomes memorable or forgettable.
He also touched on the psychological side. A star of Orkun’s stature, who chose Beşiktaş despite having a path toward bigger European clubs, raises the internal bar. Younger players in the squad see that someone who proved himself at Benfica is wearing the same shirt and naturally elevate their own ambitions. However, if the team repeatedly finishes seasons in mid‑table comfort zones, that motivational effect can quickly turn into frustration. Protecting the competitive hunger of both the star and the supporting cast requires a project that constantly targets the top.
In the broader context of Turkish football, Demirtaş believes Orkun’s presence is an opportunity not just for Beşiktaş but for the league’s reputation. When a player who could easily be starting for a Champions League contender in a top league chooses the Süper Lig, it sends a message that the competition can still attract serious talent. If Beşiktaş capitalize on this by building a strong, modern, proactive team, they can become a showcase of how the league is evolving. Failing to do so, on the other hand, would reinforce the perception that such transfers are wasted on unstable projects.
Ultimately, his message was uncompromising: Beşiktaş have already accomplished the most extraordinary step by bringing Orkun Kökçü to Istanbul. From here on, excuses lose their value. With smart recruitment on the wings, the right partner in midfield, and a tactical plan that puts Orkun at the centre, Beşiktaş must re‑enter the title fight. Not as a dark horse appearing sporadically, but as a permanent fixture in the championship conversation every spring.
If next April arrives and Beşiktaş are once again watching the race from afar, Demirtaş argued, the discussion will no longer be about unlucky moments or isolated mistakes. It will be about a structural failure to build a team worthy of the quality they already possess. And for a club that can call on a player like Orkun Kökçü, that kind of failure is no longer something supporters should be asked to tolerate.