“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Maccabi Petach Tikva have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
He is 20, he is averaging 7.01, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Maccabi Petach Tikva can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Lucas Bonifácio 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.
Something was said to Benassi and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Maor Erlich
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Maccabi Petach Tikva are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ido Cohen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Eitan Tibi is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Torreense can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torreense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Torreense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Musa Drammeh 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
5 new faces, and Torreense are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Javi Vázquez signs something — a contract at Torreense or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Bob Omoregbe has written the date down.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Torreense the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Guy Dezent, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.79
A mark of 7.79 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
A 1‑0 win over Hapoel Kiryat Shmona, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maccabi Petach Tikva this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Omer Shirazi 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Shon David on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ido Cohen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout22 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 0‑2 Shon David left the room before anybody could ask which.
A touch he did not want, a bounce he could not have read, and his name in the wrong column. There is no consoling a man after one of these, and Maccabi Petach Tikva will not try tonight.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Maccabi Petach Tikva, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Maccabi Petach Tikva have done the hard part with Volta Redonda, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ferro Carril Oeste have kept their man, and Maccabi Petach Tikva go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Guy Dezent has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Torreense, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Lokomotiv for Benassi was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Adriel 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atlético Madrid have kept their man, and Torreense go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Torreense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alejandro Alfaro 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.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Manu Pozo at his very best
The words a physio says slowly. 25 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Leiria waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Torreense is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Adriel 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Aguilas Doradas have kept their man, and Torreense go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Goncalo Castro has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Rui Martins has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Fernando Conceicao has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.