The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Maccabi Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cédric Don is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Yarin Levi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Jelle Bataille is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Maccabi Haifa know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Xander Severina trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Maccabi Haifa has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Maccabi Haifa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Maccabi Haifa can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Maccabi Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cédric Don is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Peter Agba was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Zohar Zasano and Maccabi Haifa agree another 4 years.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Pedrão is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Cédric Don signs something — a contract at Maccabi Haifa or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Cédric Don and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Kenji Gorré has written the date down.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Maccabi Haifa that is a harder question to answer.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Silva Kani trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
3 goals in 22 games at Beitar Jerusalem — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Maccabi Haifa updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 51 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Successful dribbles: 31. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Maccabi Haifa know it.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Cédric Don falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Bnei Sakhnin scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Nobody at Maccabi Haifa will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Position 3, 50 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Maccabi Haifa is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Maccabi Haifa know it.
Bruninho was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Guy Melamed and Maccabi Haifa agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Cédric Don was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.15. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cédric Don was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 6.79 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Eitan Benayoun was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Maccabi Haifa dressing room was either.
Nobody at Maccabi Haifa will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Peter Agba and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Eitan Benayoun left the room before anybody could ask which.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Peter Agba trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Maccabi Haifa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Maccabi Haifa know it.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Pedrão and Maccabi Haifa agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Cédric Don falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I did not go to Hapoel Tel Aviv to sit and watch. I want to come back to Maccabi Haifa and fight for my place.” 6 appearances in 23 matches say the rest.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Maccabi Haifa will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cédric Don was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Peter Agba, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Eitan Benayoun left the room before anybody could ask which.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kenji Gorré trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Maccabi Haifa know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Maccabi Netanya next, and one man in the Maccabi Haifa dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
6 matches without defeat, and then Hapoel Haifa. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Ali Mohamed was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.14. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Minute 90, against Hapoel Haifa, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Eitan Benayoun chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Maccabi Haifa can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 11 signed and 4 gone
That is the business done at Maccabi Haifa until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
$560.0K was the most the club would pay and Maccabi Tel Aviv were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cédric Don was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Maccabi Haifa asked and Gimnasia La Plata said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Yair Mordechai has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
Maccabi Haifa have gone to Maccabi Tel Aviv with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Maccabi Petach Tikva waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Maccabi Haifa is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Maccabi Haifa asked and Hapoel Beer Sheva said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
$1.5M on the table at Hapoel Acre. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.6M — a club that wants Ange Messi enough to be asked twice.
Maccabi Haifa had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Flamengo, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.