Turkey - Vestel Venüs Sultanlar Ligi - 2019/2020

    Beliz Başkır also renewed with the club

    Yasemin Özel is playing as Opp

    Celeste Plak will play for Aydin next season (she confirmed at her instagram-account).

    I hope hope hope so much they drop the 14 clubs thing last minute, Çanakkale and Halkbank are not making transfers so it could be possible. The level could be so good.


    Turkish league looks possibly so strong next season, the 3 top clubs we know of, but also THY, Aydin, Galatasaray who already have great transfers. Meanwhile Yeşilyurt can be a dark horse with so many youngsters and smart foreigner. Beşiktaş and PTT have good locals and need a few foreigners only to finish it off. So they could possibly be on the list too. We can add Beylikdüzü VI too if they renew with Megan Lee and Annie Drews. Karayollari and Nilüfer are more silent so they could be the bottom, however we know Nilüfer always pops up with last minute transfers and then finish the season better then everyone thought. There was a rumour Merve Atlier went to Karayollari, so they might take a young squad similar to Yeşilyurt, but not sure if it can be as good. I suppose they will be last placed atm.


    This is good news after Turkish league had a flop season last one. What I liked most was that managements were finally not dumb af and transferred the right locals for their teams to have as base, all of them so far:thumbup:8)


    Let's see who the teams transfer more!

    I hated the 14 teams idea from the beginning, it is never good for the quality of the league. Also it prolongs the season unnecessarily long, shortening from the national team preparation time

    Maret Balkestein-Grothues confirmed her transfer to Aydin today on instagram.

    Quote from Ksenia

    14 teams confirmed ?


    It may fit to Russian or Polish leagues where less and mid-leveled foreign players. But Italian and Turkish leagues have many strong players like Boskovic, Egonu, Mihailovic, Gabi, Hill, Wolosz and etc. and that is why I think it will be hard to fill the gap among those teams.

    It was confirmed before that there will be 14 but I just get a feeling they might cancel the decision last minute, nothing official about it yet though.

    omg Aydın BşB management <3:lol::super:


    'Beautiful city, very strong mayor and great team, no worries everything will be alright'.


    Posting the pro-opposition, anti erdogan messages all around in their social medias lol

    I love their fearless anti-Erdogan approach ahaha I hope they beat the sh*! out of VakifBank next season :p


    For people not familiar with it, the Aydın city mayor is the lady from the main progressive opposition party. "Everything will be alright" is their slogan :D Since Turkey is very corrupt many teams are scared to show their support but not Aydın BşB :box:


    Go Aydın!!!:rose::super:

    There is a rumour that there will be indeed 12 teams btw now but also that Karayollari is going to give away their VVSL ticket to Sariyer Bld. (who missed out on VVSL by point-ratio as 3rd placed) due to financial issues. Imo this would be great, Sariyer is way more capable of spending coins for a good team

    Quote from beri

    There is a rumour that there will be indeed 12 teams btw now but also that Karayollari is going to give away their VVSL ticket to Sariyer Bld. (who missed out on VVSL by point-ratio as 3rd placed) due to financial issues. Imo this would be great, Sariyer is way more capable of spending coins for a good team

    Thats indeed good news but again too many Istanbul teams :(

    The biggest dilemma of this year in VVSL will be Vakifbank's choice about Haak and Ebrar. After watching an outstanding performance from Ebrar, it is clear that she needs to play regularly in a team as opposite to be ready for future. Meanwhile, Vakifbank transffered Haak, who is a great prospect and also in need of playing regularly. They also transferred Gözde Yilmaz but I am sure it is fine for both sides that she will be a bench player. The options are:


    - Haak plays opposite and Ebrar is a back up opposite and OH.

    - Haak plays opposite and Ebrar plays OH all season, which is bad for the NT since the team needs a strong opposite desperately.

    - Ebrar is loaned to another Turkish from VVSL or in my preference to an Italian team, with a requirement that she plays as opposite regularly.

    - Ebrar is loaned to a Div 1 team with double license, which means she will play in a lower league which will not help her at all.

    - Ebrar plays regularly as opposite in Vakifbank and Haak is a bench opposite, which is bad for Haak's development.


    I think this is a terrible situation for Haak, Ebrar, Guidetti and Vakifbank. If they can't find a good solution, they will sacrifice either Haak or Ebrar's development. If they sacrifice Ebrar, they will be criticised heavily by local media and TVF. If they sacrifice Haak, they will lose prestige in global volleyball society and future prospects will probably think twice before signing a contract with Vakifbank and working with Guidetti. What do you think is the best option?

    Since guidetti is the trainer of the NT, I'm pretty sure he will invest on Ebrar instead of Haak. He has benched world-class opps previously (Sheila, sloetjes) so I don't think he will think twice. I expect him to play with ccansu-ebrar-gabi-meliha-rasic-zehra as long as ebrar keeps this shape till the end of summer. I can imagine that guidetti might want to use ebrar as oh and Haak as starting opp but neither Meliha not Gabi would be enough to play in a 2-player receiving system. I wish he could have kept Robinson who is one of the rare ohs who can work in such system.


    I wonder if Vakıfbank will transfer a foreign setter in the case that neither Buse Ünal nor ezgi dilik won't accept to be backup setter. There are really not many options left among local setters. On the other hand, guidetti never transferred foreign setter for European cup matches before. He likes sticking with local setters instead.


    By the way who will be their backup outsides? Since both derya and Tuğba are playing in Yeşilyurt, there are no outsides left (maybe gözde Yılmaz will be back up oh?🤔)

    I think Gözde Yilmaz and if she stays, Ebrar will be one of their back up OH. The other one is a question mark yet but the only available option now is Humay Topaloglu who left Besiktas yesterday. Can't think of an another OH, maybe Cansu Cetin, but I think she signed 2 years contract with GS.

    I think Ebrar will play as OH for majority of the season and sometimes Opp, I don't see the problem with this, Ebrar can play well as OH too and can receive decent, she is not receiving bad like Mihajlovic or Vasileva or something. Besides every Opp even can use the defensive skills very well in the later parts of their carreer, even Egonu played as OH before. Hande is good as Opp too let's not forget, being able to have both Hande and Ebrar on court will be amazing for Turkish NT, I think Ebrar can receive better then Hande tbh who really struggles badly majority of the time, but does really well as Opp.


    Ebrar as OH saved us vs Poland too :lol: she was much better then even Meliha that day, Gabi is more stable then both, I can see a Gabi-Ebrar-Haak trio work, they are all young too and can develop more as the season goes on! It will be epic imo

    Also it will be very good learning experience for Ebrar to focus on the defensive (more passive) side of the sport.


    One of her biggest flaws atm is being overly agressive to a point she starts making too many errors or just hits super hard blindly when things don't go well, vs Poland and Japan who kept scrambling to keep every ball up 1 more time she struggled a bit, when she came in as OH she was more calm and hit more placed instead of only blind full force and she started scoring more and more and learned contributing in defense is only as important! Tbh I think there is no better way for Ebrar's development then playing a year as OH!

    Quote from beri

    I think Ebrar will play as OH for majority of the season and sometimes Opp, I don't see the problem with this, Ebrar can play well as OH too and can receive decent, she is not receiving bad like Mihajlovic or Vasileva or something. Besides every Opp even can use the defensive skills very well in the later parts of their carreer, even Egonu played as OH before. Hande is good as Opp too let's not forget, being able to have both Hande and Ebrar on court will be amazing for Turkish NT, I think Ebrar can receive better then Hande tbh who really struggles badly majority of the time, but does really well as Opp.


    Ebrar as OH saved us vs Poland too :lol: she was much better then even Meliha that day, Gabi is more stable then both, I can see a Gabi-Ebrar-Haak trio work, they are all young too and can develop more as the season goes on! It will be epic imo

    I expect a Gabi-Ebrar-Haak trio as well. Meliha will be their 4th option. Form of the players can change starting line up.

    I read a interview with Haak ( was posted here) and she was asked how she ended it up with Scandicci....she said she told her agent she wanted a club where she would be playing full time.... That shows what a smart girl she is.... I believe she`s still smart and before she signed with Vakifibank one of her conditions was that she would be their starting OPP....


    Keep in mind a player knows what her role will be before signing with the club, they also know what are the club plan and expectations. Some players will sign with a club and they know they won`t be starting but there`s a chance they will get playing time eventually. So if Vakifibank and Haak agreed she will be the starting OPP, that`s the plan and Guidetti won`t change, if he does of course Haak would have a problem....That would change only as the season goes on and the line up is not working, and if Haak is not performing well....then of course he would bench her and start Ebrar.


    Sheilla was never benched because Guidetti favored Sloetjes.... Sheilla was benched because Sloetjes was playing better.....just like the times Sloetjes got benched recently was because she was not playing well.