Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kelvin Abrefa will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Maccabi Haifa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Maccabi Haifa can pretend not to have heard.
10 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.
Liran Shpigel 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.
Squad18 Feb 2036
Words at Maccabi Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rudy Matondo 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 most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Maccabi Haifa will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Maccabi Haifa, and it is not being withdrawn.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Maccabi Haifa have lost him in all but the paperwork.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ilay Ben-Simon provided it, and the 9.01 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Uroš Sremčević has, at Maccabi Haifa, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Boardroom4 Feb 2036
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Maccabi Haifa
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Maccabi Haifa have 4 straight wins of it.
Boardroom4 Feb 2036
Deadline passes with 5 signed and 6 gone
That is the business done at Maccabi Haifa 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.
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Maccabi Haifa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Bnei Yehuda waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Maccabi Haifa is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Haifa, and it is not being withdrawn.
3 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rudy Matondo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Haifa are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Maccabi Haifa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Maccabi Haifa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
7.89, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Maccabi Haifa can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Liran Shpigel 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Maccabi Haifa training over how hard people work
1 for Liran Shpigel, marked 7.82, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Maccabi Haifa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Malik Odeyinka 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 Rudy Matondo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“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 Haifa are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Hapoel Tel Aviv scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
“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 Haifa, and it is not being withdrawn.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Nevot Ratner has, at Maccabi Haifa, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad24 Dec 2035
Words at Maccabi Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rudy Matondo 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 club 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 it has been tried.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Cédric Don. 1‑0 against Maccabi Netanya, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ilay Ben-Simon provided it, and the 8.78 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Maccabi Haifa can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Maccabi Haifa is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
3 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.
Malik Odeyinka 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.
Squad10 Dec 2035
Words at Maccabi Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rudy Matondo 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mehdi Puch will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Maccabi Haifa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Maccabi Haifa can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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 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 Rudy Matondo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lee Han-Beom 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 Cédric Don’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Maccabi Haifa needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Two goals and a mark of 8.73 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Maccabi Haifa can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Maccabi Haifa is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad5 Nov 2035
Words at Maccabi Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lee Han-Beom 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.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of 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 Maccabi Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Tochukwu Nnadi 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.
Squad29 Oct 2035
Words at Maccabi Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rudy Matondo 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Malik Odeyinka. 2‑0 against Maccabi Petach Tikva, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
12 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Maccabi Haifa can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Maccabi Haifa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Or Israelov is living that version at Maccabi Haifa, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lee Han-Beom 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 Maccabi Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A 2‑0 win over Hapoel Kfar Saba, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
“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 Haifa know it.
Hapoel Raanana will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Maccabi Haifa were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
“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 Haifa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Shakur Mohammed will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Maccabi Haifa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Adem Mustafić has, at Maccabi Haifa, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad8 Oct 2035
Rudy Matondo 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Bismark Edjeodji has just signed for Maccabi Haifa, and for once the answer mattered.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Maccabi Haifa is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Malik Odeyinka 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.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Maccabi Haifa know which stage they are at.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The offer from Hearts of Oak for Emmanuel Essiam 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.
“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 Haifa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Malik Odeyinka 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 new man at Maccabi Haifa has worked with Liran Shpigel before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Squad16 Jul 2035
Oh Hyeon-Gyu 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.
Nobody at Maccabi 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.
Done, and with games to spare. Next season has floodlit nights against clubs from other countries in it, and the accounts have a line they did not have last year.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Maccabi Haifa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Everybody at Maccabi Haifa saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 34 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
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.
Emmanuel Essiam 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.
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $133.4M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
The new man at Maccabi Haifa has worked with Liran Shpigel before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“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 Haifa know it.
Tochukwu Nnadi 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 Malik Odeyinka was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
The new man at Maccabi Haifa has worked with Liran Shpigel before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
“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 Haifa know it.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Erawan Garnier is living that version at Maccabi Haifa, and it tends to show in the first month.
Victor Boniface and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Apr 2035
Words at Maccabi Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Malik Odeyinka 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 manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
The new man at Maccabi Haifa has worked with Liran Shpigel before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
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 Cédric Don is on it.
In brief
The dugoutLee Han-Beom asks for a word with the manager
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Maccabi Haifa will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Position 3, 61 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Maccabi Haifa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Tochukwu Nnadi 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 Malik Odeyinka was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Haifa know it.
The new man at Maccabi Haifa has worked with Liran Shpigel before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Maccabi Haifa, another week without a signature from Terem Moffi.
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Maccabi Haifa will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Victor Boniface 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 Malik Odeyinka was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The new man at Maccabi Haifa has worked with Liran Shpigel before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Mevale Koné has his answer from Maccabi Haifa; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Maccabi Haifa lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Maccabi Haifa will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom2 Apr 2035
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Maccabi Haifa
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Malik Odeyinka 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 tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Maccabi Haifa can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
The new man at Maccabi Haifa has worked with Liran Shpigel before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
The words a physio says slowly. 29 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Maccabi Haifa will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alhassan Yusuf will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Maccabi Haifa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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 new man at Maccabi Haifa has worked with Liran Shpigel before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Boardroom26 Mar 2035
89% of the income goes out in wages at Maccabi Haifa
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.
36 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Maccabi Haifa lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Maccabi Haifa will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Maccabi Haifa can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Maccabi Haifa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Maccabi Haifa hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Victor Boniface 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Maccabi Haifa training over how hard people work
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Maccabi Haifa will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 61 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Two goals and a mark of 8.90 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Maccabi Haifa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Idan Toklomati. 2‑1 against Bnei Sakhnin, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The new man at Maccabi Haifa has worked with Liran Shpigel before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Maccabi Haifa will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Out, 0‑3 to Hapoel Tel Aviv, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
0-3, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Maccabi Haifa can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Maccabi Haifa will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kingsley Olufade provided it, and the 8.60 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alhassan Yusuf will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Maccabi Haifa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Maccabi Haifa can pretend not to have heard.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Maccabi Haifa can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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 Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Maccabi Haifa will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Maccabi Haifa have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Hapoel Kiryat Shmona for Idan Toklomati 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.
“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 Haifa, and it is not being withdrawn.
5 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.
7.51, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Hapoel Kfar Saba moved on, Léo Ataíde reports back to Maccabi Haifa, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Victor Boniface 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Maccabi Haifa training over how hard people work
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Maccabi Haifa will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Maccabi Petach Tikva will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Maccabi Haifa were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Maccabi Haifa can pretend not to have heard.
Two goals and a mark of 8.97 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Maccabi Haifa have lost him in all but the paperwork.
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.
Boardroom5 Feb 2035
Deadline passes with 3 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Maccabi Haifa 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.
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 Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 92 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Maccabi Haifa can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Maccabi Haifa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Maccabi Haifa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
3 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.
“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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Emmanuel Essiam has just signed for Maccabi Haifa, and for once the answer mattered.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Idan Toklomati. 2‑0 against Hapoel Kfar Saba, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Maccabi Haifa will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Maccabi Haifa can pretend not to have heard.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Maccabi Haifa have lost him in all but the paperwork.
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 Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Jan 2035
Words at Maccabi Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Malik Odeyinka 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.
Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Maccabi Haifa will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Position 2, 36 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 87th, and Maccabi Netanya spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
15 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“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 Haifa 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 Malik Odeyinka was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Kingsley Olufade 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.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Going 2 down does something to a side, and what it usually does is finish them. Not here. Maccabi Haifa rebuilt the afternoon goal by goal, and Maccabi Netanya had no answer to any of it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Maccabi Haifa will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.29 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
14 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.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 11 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
“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.
Malik Odeyinka 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.
In brief
SquadA move Amit Ohana would have made for nothing
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Niv Eliasi
8 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.
Position 2, 27 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
12 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Maccabi Haifa can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Idan Toklomati was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Malik Odeyinka 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.
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 borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Maccabi Haifa can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Nobody at Maccabi 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.
1 for Tochukwu Nnadi, marked 7.72, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Maccabi Haifa is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
4 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
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 Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Tochukwu Nnadi. 1‑0 against Hapoel Haifa, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Miliano Jonathans was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
6 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Maccabi Haifa can pretend not to have heard.
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 7.85 for the rest of it.
Marked 7.97. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
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 Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Maccabi Haifa and Bnei Yehuda, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Idan Toklomati was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Léo Ataíde will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Maccabi Haifa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Malik Odeyinka and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Oct 2034
Words at Maccabi Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Idan Toklomati 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 Haifa know it.
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Miliano Jonathans has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Maccabi Haifa.
Boardroom16 Oct 2034
98% of the income goes out in wages at Maccabi Haifa
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 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.
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.
“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 Haifa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Hapoel Raanana will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Maccabi Haifa were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Malik Odeyinka provided it, and the 8.54 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Maccabi Haifa will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Idan Toklomati 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 Maccabi Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Jay Idzes