Monday 27 April 2009

Talking Turkiye with StJohn's Number 1 Manager, Cihangir Kirac

Our roving reporter caught up with Cihangir Kirac, the manager of perennial number 1 rated side Turkiye, who found the time to talk about life beginning at 30, Galatasaray, the Amiga 500 and his team's amazing run.

Having just won the Team of the Week Award for the tenth time in fourteen weeks, as a manager how does it feel to be in charge of the gameworld's top team?

CK Well, it is of course a big thing for me. I am really glad to be the top team for this long and the aim of the game is to be the best - so, because of that, every time I win this award I am more than happy!

When recent Team of the Week Awards have been announced, a number of your fellow managers have responded to your team's accolade either with congratulations or with criticism. Do you have anything that you'd like to say to the managers of StJohn?

CK I really work hard for this award and I don't understand some of the criticisms. This award is given to the team which has to be the best team of that week. I win more points than all the other managers in that WEEK! As a result, anybody can win that award if they win more games than me and, if you think about it this way, if you beat a higher ranked team you earn more points. So if I win 20 games and another team with a lower ranking wins 20 games he or she will be the team of the week!

A number of these managers would like to know the secret of your success! Do you have any tips that you would like to share?

CK I did play in other gameworlds, so I know some players better than the new managers and I have been playing this game since the first Championship Manager on the Amiga 500. So I can say that experience is THE factor. Also, I can't understand some other managers, when they say the players are old or something. For example, when I played Football Manager 2006 (my favourite) I had Zlatan Ibrahimovic - pictured - he scored 50 goals a season and once he was 34, he scored 45-42, so I think I credit old players more (this might be my secret).

Four other teams have won the Team of the Week Award: the now-defunct Globe Trotters United, Aussie Gus' Red Reg FC, Kuba Poznanski's AC Warsaw and Kadir Uysal's Wasted Turkish Youth. Do you consider any of these teams as your rivals for the gameworld's number 1 spot, or is there another team that you reckon as a threat?

CK Of course, anybody in the first 20 always threathens me. Look, people have David Villa, Fernando Torres, Lionel Messi, Pato, Sergio Aguero, Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo etc. I don't have these players and these players make a lot of difference!


A number of other teams in StJohn's top 10 are very youth-orientated, while your squad looks instead to experience. As this is the average age of your squad, is it true that life begins at 30?

CK As I mentioned before, I believe in some players like Martin Petrov: he made more assists than the games he played in one season, while he was 33. I think in long term they will achieve more but I don't like to play this game without well known players and I have the ones I can afford. By the way I am almost 30, so I see these players as my generation!


You have invested more in your players and their wages than in stadium construction, with sixty thousand fans fighting for eighteen thousand seats. Is the team before ground approach one that you would recommend, or was that just the way that things turned out?


CK Everybody has two choices: investing in their stadium or investing in their players. You can't have both for a long time. For me, I did not want to wait to afford good players so I bought all I can and that made me top of the rankings. Now I am building my stadium slowly. I think it is not too bad for me and I can earn more than the total wages, so I am happy(maybe I got lucky!).


Coming from the Xtreme Football Association, how do you rate your FA as a community?


CK I mentioned before that I played other gameworlds and in all the gameworlds, the best FA was the XFA. I think XFA is by far the best community!


Turkiye have won the XFA Premiership twice in a row, and the XFA Cup twice as well. What targets have you set yourself for this season?


CK If I can win the XFA Premiership, it is more important than every other cup for me. So, first comes XFA Premiership, then the XFA cup. However, I really want to win every cup I can!


Your closest contender for the XFA title is probably Saeed Shah's Hadjuk Spliff FC. How did you react when you heard that Sergio Aguero had left the Gravel Pit for £5.5m?


CK Well, I think he thought two or three good players are better than one great player and he is RIGHT - he had a good offence but now has a more balanced team, which makes him more frightening. But, of course, no defence wants to see Aguero, so we will play and see how it will effect things.


Lastly, as a real-life Galatasaray fan, has life as a Cimbom supporter influenced your Turkiye team?


CK First of all, I am really really proud of Galatasaray as they are the biggest club in Turkey and always are backbone of the national team. However, Galatasaray did not influenced my FML team. Emotionally, I wanted all the Galatasaray players and to play with the real life tactics of Galatasaray but it just did not happen!

Thanks for the interview, Cihangir, and good luck with the rest of the season!


CK I want to thank you for this opportunity and good luck to all my fellow managers!

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