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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hapoel Kfar Saba have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Hapoel Kfar Saba they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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 Kfar Saba 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 Konadu Yiadom was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
35 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hapoel Kfar Saba can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Júlio César 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Niv Vaknin 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 music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Tomer Peretz to a room that had heard them before.
The words a physio says slowly. 37 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hapoel Kfar Saba have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
A season average of 6.53 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Hapoel Kfar Saba know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Hapoel Kfar Saba can tell you which week it ends in.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Shon David 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.
29 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Hapoel Kfar Saba has to find a result from somewhere.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 33 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Niv Vaknin is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 32 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at Hapoel Kfar Saba 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.
Júlio César 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.
28 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
0‑3 against Hapoel Tel Aviv, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Hapoel Kfar Saba will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 Hapoel Kfar Saba, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Hapoel Kfar Saba will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
At 23 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Victor Ntokon will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hapoel Kfar Saba the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Victor Ntokon 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 Hapoel Kfar Saba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Hapoel Kfar Saba asked and All Boys said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Noam Cohen’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Hapoel Kfar Saba needing him to play as if none of it matters.
In brief
The dugoutYuval Kretzo knocks on the manager's door
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hapoel Kfar Saba will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. El Yam Kancepolsky is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The deal with Hapoel Tel Aviv is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $330.0K has been paid because Elad Shahaf is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Abed Yassin 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Itay Buganim has improved at 26, 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.
Hapoel Kfar Saba asked and All Boys said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Hapoel Kfar Saba have made the call to All Boys. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Hadar Fuchs
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hapoel Kfar Saba will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Hapoel Kfar Saba, and it is not being withdrawn.
Hapoel Kfar Saba and Bnei Yehuda have settled on $330.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
At 23 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.
Abed Yassin 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 had been thinking. Konadu Yiadom 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.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Tomer Peretz has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hapoel Kfar Saba can pretend not to have heard.
$1.4M was the most the club would pay and Maccabi Haifa 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Hapoel Kfar Saba have done the hard part with Parana, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Maccabi Haifa have kept their man, and Hapoel Kfar Saba go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Noam 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.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Ethane Azoulay's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Yali Zohar 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 has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“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 Hapoel Kfar Saba, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Hapoel Kfar Saba is running low.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Abed Yassin 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.
Hapoel Kfar Saba asked and Nautico 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Yonatan David 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Adi Hemed is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ori Shechter is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
In brief
SquadWords at Hapoel Kfar Saba training over how hard people work
“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 Hapoel Kfar Saba, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hapoel Kfar Saba have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Hapoel Kfar Saba have gone to Hapoel Haifa 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.
At 23 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Júlio César and Hapoel Kfar Saba agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“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 Hapoel Kfar Saba know it.
Hapoel Kfar Saba asked and Maccabi Haifa said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bnei Sakhnin can pretend not to have heard.
Daniel Paraschiv 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 20 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.
Hapoel Kfar Saba paid $340.0K and Bnei Sakhnin took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Bnei Sakhnin have made the call to Fluminense. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Bnei Sakhnin have made the call to Flamengo. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Nobody at Bnei Sakhnin 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 dugout7 Jun 2027
Max Grechkin 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.
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Eden Atzili clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
The offer went to Hapoel Beer Sheva this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Hapoel Beer Sheva wanted more than $1.9M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Hapoel Kfar Saba have paid $340.0K for Abed Yassin, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Yali Zohar is a Hapoel Kfar Saba player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Yali Zohar has, at Hapoel Kfar Saba, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Daniel Paraschiv 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Johan N'Zi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
4 appearances and 0 goals is not a season away, it is a year lost. He is back at Bnei Sakhnin no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their fault.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Bnei Sakhnin 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 Ahmed Salman trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Dan Glazer 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 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 watch every Bnei Sakhnin game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Maccabi Netanya runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody at Bnei Sakhnin 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bnei Sakhnin, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bnei Sakhnin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Bnei Sakhnin 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 dugout10 May 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Max Grechkin'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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bnei Sakhnin have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Dan Glazer 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 Mohamed Abo Fani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The bid was some way short and Bnei Sakhnin did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
A brace, and Matty Cudjoe takes the afternoon — 8.50
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Matty Cudjoe provided it, and the 8.50 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Bnei Sakhnin close the window on a squad of their own making
7 in and 3 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.
Bnei Sakhnin offered $590.0K; Beitar Jerusalem said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Dan Glazer 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Bnei Sakhnin training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Abo Fani 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Maccabi Haifa have kept their man, and Bnei Sakhnin 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 Ori Dahan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.03 — 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Abed Yassin has his answer from Bnei Sakhnin; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Nobody at Bnei Sakhnin 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Artur Miranyan trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Max Grechkin’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Bnei Sakhnin needing him to play as if none of it matters.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Bnei Sakhnin can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Ori Dahan 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 is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Gil Shechter after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Bnei Sakhnin has been clear about where Jubayer Bushnak stands, which is more than many ever get.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Hapoel Beer Sheva? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ori Dahan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bnei Sakhnin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
94% of the income goes out in wages at Bnei Sakhnin
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
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.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Gil Shechter was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Bnei Sakhnin dressing room was either.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Maccabi Netanya? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Nobody at Bnei Sakhnin 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.