The Maccabi Petach Tikva Chronicle
Squad21 Aug 2028
Francisco Borda damages knee ligaments — 80 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 80 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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Guy Dezent is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Market21 Aug 2028
Hapoel Kfar Saba come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Maccabi Petach Tikva did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Ryota Noma in a row with a teammate
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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Ryota Noma has improved at 37, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Loan watch21 Aug 2028
Eden Levy counts the days
“I watch every Maccabi Petach Tikva game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Maccabi Tel Aviv runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
In brief
- Market Hapoel Raanana are about to pick up the phone
- Market Maccabi Petach Tikva put Desailly up for sale
- Market Liam Atzmi leaves for nothing