Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gil Cohen 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Beitar Jerusalem told Nana Antwi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gil Cohen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Beitar Jerusalem the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gil Cohen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Cauã Ávila 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gil Cohen trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Miguel Silva signs something — a contract at Beitar Jerusalem or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Anrie Chase 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Tomer Yosefi 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 system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
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 Gil Cohen trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Beitar Jerusalem know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Position 4, 51 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Red Bull Salzburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Markus Ulmer has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Peter Ulmer 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. Christoph Lainer 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Dejan Sabitzer has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
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.
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 Damir Redžić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Miguel Silva 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.
“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 Beitar Jerusalem know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gil Cohen 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.
Nobody at Beitar Jerusalem 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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Stefan Lainer 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dominik Schmid was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is the quietest kind of dressing-room problem and the one that lasts longest, because nobody has done anything anyone can be disciplined for. 2 players sit outside all 4 groups entirely, which is the detail that tends to matter.
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 Stefan Lainer is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Red Bull Salzburg know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Red Bull Salzburg, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“For the first time in years I am picked because somebody wants me in the team.” Beitar Jerusalem suits him; the awkward conversation belongs to Red Bull Salzburg, and the summer will force it.
Position 4 on 51 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gil Cohen 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.
“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; Beitar Jerusalem are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Beitar Jerusalem told Luka Gadrani something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Martín Ramos 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.
“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 Red Bull Salzburg know it.
Nobody at Red Bull Salzburg 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.
5 goals in 17 games at Lausanne-Sport — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Red Bull Salzburg updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Beitar Jerusalem have received the call every well-run club eventually receives — somebody bigger has noticed Uri Refaelov. Saying no is easy; keeping him convinced is the actual work.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.37 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Omer Atzili and Beitar Jerusalem agree another 2 years.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Beitar Jerusalem can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomer Yosefi 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.
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Beitar Jerusalem lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Beitar Jerusalem they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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; Beitar Jerusalem are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Anrie Chase 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gil Cohen 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Beitar Jerusalem lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.02 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
At 22 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gil Cohen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Anrie Chase was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.08. 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.
Yehonatan Ozer 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.
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Beitar Jerusalem lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
A brace, and Tomer Yosefi takes the afternoon — 8.63
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Tomer Yosefi provided it, and the 8.63 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Kairat have kept their man, and Beitar Jerusalem go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gil Cohen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Tomer Yosefi and Beitar Jerusalem agree another 4 years.
A point taken on 86 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Dan Glazer will call it something else in private.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Red Bull Salzburg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Justin Omoregie has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Red Bull Salzburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcel Moswitzer 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.
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 Dominik Schmid is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Red Bull Salzburg, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Red Bull Salzburg would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
The words a physio says slowly. 58 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.
Anrie Chase 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pedrinho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Anrie Chase's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
It needed Yarden Shua to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Hapoel Beer Sheva, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Uri Refaelov after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The words a physio says slowly. 72 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 Hapoel Acre waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Beitar Jerusalem is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Beitar Jerusalem had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Kairat, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Beitar Jerusalem this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Beitar Jerusalem asked and Hapoel Tel Aviv said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Maccabi Netanya left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Gil Cohen 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
87 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Beitar Jerusalem lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Beitar Jerusalem this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Maccabi Tel Aviv next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Gil Cohen 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.
A mark of 7.74, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Uri Refaelov, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
The dugoutAnrie Chase has become a man the manager trusts
“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; Beitar Jerusalem are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Gil Cohen 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.
A point taken on 89 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
The first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Maccabi Haifa; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Something was said to Anrie Chase and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Nana Antwi 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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.99 for the rest of it.
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Miguel Silva's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Uri Refaelov on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Yarden Shua’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Beitar Jerusalem needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Hapoel Acre will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Beitar Jerusalem were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.03 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Marked 9.32 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nana Antwi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 7.40, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Beitar Jerusalem told Anrie Chase something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Dor Micha’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Beitar Jerusalem needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Anrie Chase 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.
“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 Beitar Jerusalem know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nana Antwi 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.
It needed Jasond González to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Hapoel Tel Aviv, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.90 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Beitar Jerusalem 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.
Nana Antwi 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.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Uri Refaelov, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
That is the business done at Beitar Jerusalem 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Sivasspor is saying, and nobody at Beitar Jerusalem is enjoying the guessing.
Anrie Chase 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nana Antwi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Beitar Jerusalem than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Maccabi Haifa have kept their man, and Beitar Jerusalem go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nana Antwi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Beitar Jerusalem have made the call to Sivasspor. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Gil Cohen has his answer from Beitar Jerusalem; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The plan went upstairs and came back down. Nothing about that will make a headline anywhere else, and everybody who works at the training ground will remember it for years.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Hapoel Kiryat Shmona in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Beitar Jerusalem would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Maccabi Haifa paid $600.0K and Beitar Jerusalem took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Anrie Chase 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.
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
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 Beitar Jerusalem that is a harder question to answer.
$4.4M on the table at Cremonese. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Omer Atzili and Beitar Jerusalem agree another 2 years.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. San Lorenzo have kept their man, and Beitar Jerusalem go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Beitar Jerusalem this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Beitar Jerusalem will quote 16 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nana Antwi 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.
24 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
A loan enquiry to Red Bull Salzburg: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Beitar Jerusalem, and both men came out saying it was fine.