There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Hapoel Haifa will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Sa'ar Fadida and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 May 2028
Words at Hapoel Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Liran Shpigel 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 Hapoel 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Shai Elias signs something — a contract at Hapoel Haifa 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 Bruno Ramires has written the date down.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hapoel Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Liran Shpigel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Stav Toriel and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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 Tamir Arbel is on it.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Hapoel Haifa would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Andrés Tovar trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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 The request is on a desk at Maccabi Tel Aviv, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Mohamed Camara 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. Dany Mota 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.
“I did not go to Hapoel Haifa to sit and watch. I want to come back to Maccabi Tel Aviv and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
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 bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Hapoel Haifa will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Sa'ar Fadida 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.
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 Itay Buganim 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 Hapoel Haifa, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Hapoel Haifa know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Hapoel Haifa will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hapoel Haifa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Sa'ar Fadida 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 Naftali Balay was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Hapoel 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.
“For the first time in years I am picked because somebody wants me in the team.” Maccabi Petach Tikva suits him; the awkward conversation belongs to Hapoel Haifa, and the summer will force it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Maccabi Tel Aviv have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Tel Aviv, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Maccabi Tel Aviv heard it as anything else.
Mohamed Camara 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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Dany Mota 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Maccabi Tel Aviv, and 3 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Hapoel Haifa will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Maccabi Tel Aviv were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings6 Sep 2027
A brace, and John Kennedy takes the afternoon — 8.48
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. John Kennedy provided it, and the 8.48 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Maccabi Tel Aviv may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Maccabi Tel Aviv close the window on a squad of their own making
12 in and 15 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Maccabi Haifa moved on, Orlando Mosquera reports back to Maccabi Tel Aviv, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Mohamed Camara 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.
At 19 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dany Mota was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Maccabi Tel Aviv will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Maccabi Tel Aviv have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Osher Davida 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.
“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 Tel Aviv know it.
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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Maccabi Tel Aviv. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.