Bülent Uygun

He began his career with Sakaryaspor at youth level, and went on to sign professionally for Kocaelispor in 1989. After four years, he then moved to Istanbul, playing three years with Turkish giants Fenerbahçe, scoring 39 goals in 107 matches. During the 1993–94 season he was Fenerbahçe's top scorer with 22 goals. He then moved back to his former club Kocaelispor in 1996. He has short spells with other clubs including Trabzonspor, Anadolu Üsküdar 1908 and Sivasspor. He was famous for celebrating his goals by giving a soldier's salute. He was capped 16 times for the Turkey Under-21 squad and 11 times for Turkey, scoring only twice for the senior squad. He also played 3 times for the National Olympic Team.

Sivasspor

Bülent took the job as manager of Sivasspor in 2006, with the club having just completed their first ever season in the top flight, after promotion from Turkey’s second tier in May 2005. The club, based in Central Anatolia, have a small stadium with a capacity of just 18,000 people. At the age of 35, this was Bülent's first ever managerial role, having retired from playing professional football two years earlier.

2006–07 season

In 2006–07, Bülent's first season in charge, he led them to an over-achieving 7th-place finish, finishing on 48 points. He also led Sivas to the group stage of the Turkish Domestic Cup, also known as the Fortis Cup.

2007–08 season

The 2007–08, season saw Sivas lead the table until January 2008, having amassed a fantastic home record. The first half of the season saw them play 10 home games, winning all 10, scoring 20 goals and conceding only three. British press had picked up on this 'surprise team' with many wondering if they will be able to break the stronghold of the dominant 'Istanbul Big Three', Galatasaray, Fenerbahçe and Beşiktaş, and become only the fifth club to win the league. However, the second half of the season saw them drop points and they finished in a 'disappointing' 4th place, with 73 points. Through their league position, the qualified for the 2nd Round of the, now defunct, UEFA Intertoto Cup; the first time in the club's history that they participated in a European Competition. They…

Bülent has stated that his managerial influence has come from Brazilian 1994 World Cup manager Carlos Alberto Parreira, whom he worked under while playing for Fenerbahçe S.K. In a 2009 interview, Uygun is quoted as saying:

“My father was a wrestling coach. He told me that my career as a soccer player would end in 15 years. He advised me to think like a coach at all times. So when I was a player, I always looked at the game with the eyes of a coach. I took the good bits from Parreira, Osieck, Fatih Terim and all of the other coaches with whom I had worked. I viewed every training session as an experiment. After I quit playing, I watched more than 100 matches in Europe. I attended the training courses and read the best books about it. And I developed my own system, which I call "TürBülent"” The computer program he devised called "TürBülent", is a training system sees players alternate between performance-enhancing fitness binges and prolonged rests, the idea being that form-sapping fatigue can be meticulously scheduled against breaks in the fixture calendar. He is known to be very strict with his players, and has previously spoken of banning his players from drinking alcohol and partying at nightclubs. He credits some of Sivasspor's success to this.