22 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.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Daniel Dappa did not need any: 7.91, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“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; Hapoel Tel Aviv are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
He is 20, he is averaging 7.00, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Roy Korine 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Hapoel Tel Aviv, and 6 appearances in 25 say he has earned the hearing.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Shon Atzili on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Out, 0‑1 to Beitar Jerusalem, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows 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 Hapoel Tel Aviv can pretend not to have heard.
Position 2, 34 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.
“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.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
Daniel Dappa, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.60
A mark of 7.60 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ramiro Ruiz Rodríguez 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 nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hapoel Tel Aviv can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Hapoel Tel Aviv they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Roy Korine has agreed terms with Beitar Jerusalem for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ramiro Ruiz Rodríguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Andrian Kraev was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.04. 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.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 15 matches without defeat is a foundation Hapoel Tel Aviv did not have in the autumn.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
A brace, and Daniel Dappa takes the afternoon — 8.66
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Daniel Dappa provided it, and the 8.66 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 Hapoel Tel Aviv, and 5 appearances in 19 say he has earned the hearing.
At 20 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.
20 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Hapoel Tel Aviv can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ramiro Ruiz Rodríguez 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 Hapoel Tel Aviv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I did not go to Maccabi Petach Tikva to sit and watch. I want to come back to Hapoel Tel Aviv and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 21 matches say the rest.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Shon Atzili after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
In brief
Player ratingsThe one thing Daniel Dappa could not do
19 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Position 2, 24 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.
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.
Hapoel Beer Sheva 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.
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 Bnei Yehuda; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
13 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Dor Benyamini 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.
Daniel Dappa is 20, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
Nobody at Hapoel Tel Aviv 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 Stav Toriel signs something — a contract at Hapoel Tel Aviv or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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 Tel Aviv, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Bnei Yehuda next, and one man in the Hapoel Tel Aviv dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Hapoel Tel Aviv has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ramiro Ruiz Rodríguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 20 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Hapoel Tel Aviv will try not to make too much of it.
Roy Korine 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 watch every Hapoel Tel Aviv 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Shon Atzili could afford to be generous.
In brief
Player ratingsDaniel Dappa beats them one at a time
18 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.
First, on 20 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
Daniel Dappa, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.69
A mark of 7.69 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
1 for Andrian Kraev, marked 7.92, 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 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Roei Alkukin has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Daniel Dappa. 2‑0 against Maccabi Tel Aviv, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Amit Lemkin and Hapoel Tel Aviv agree another 4 years.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Daniel Dappa did not need any: 7.68, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“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 Tel Aviv know 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 Hapoel Tel Aviv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
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.” Shon Atzili, on a 3‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ramiro Ruiz Rodríguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Daniel Dappa has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
SquadA Hapoel Tel Aviv teenager takes the young player award
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roei Alkukin 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 Hapoel Tel Aviv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Hapoel Tel Aviv, and 3 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Daniel Dappa is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
In brief
Player ratingsThe one thing Daniel Dappa could not do
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hapoel Tel Aviv have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
14 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Hapoel Tel Aviv offered $1.4M; Maccabi Netanya 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel Boateng 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 1‑0 win over Maccabi Haifa, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Something was said to Assaf Tzur and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“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 Tel Aviv, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Hapoel Beer Sheva wanted more than $2.0M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Roy Korine 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 did not go to Maccabi Netanya to sit and watch. I want to come back to Hapoel Tel Aviv and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 7 matches say the rest.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Shon Atzili chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
14 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take 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 Tel Aviv, and it is not being withdrawn.
A new deal for the man in the dugout, and the clearest thing a board can say without calling a press conference about it. Stability is cheap to promise and expensive to deliver.
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.
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel Boateng 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 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 Tel Aviv, and it is not being withdrawn.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Hapoel Tel Aviv will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The offer from Hapoel Raanana for Mor Buskila 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emmanuel Boateng was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Hapoel Tel Aviv 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 42 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
A season average of 7.05 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Hapoel Tel Aviv know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Hapoel Tel Aviv 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 Hapoel Tel Aviv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Douglas Owusu is on it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hapoel Tel Aviv have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 50 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emmanuel Boateng was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Roy Korine is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Stav Toriel signs something — a contract at Hapoel Tel Aviv or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hapoel Tel Aviv will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Maccabi Petach Tikva have kept their man, and Hapoel Tel Aviv go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ramiro Ruiz Rodríguez 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.
Omri Levi 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Hapoel Tel Aviv, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Hapoel Tel Aviv have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 Tel Aviv, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Hapoel Kiryat Shmona for Tal Archel 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.
Shahar Piven 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
7 new faces, and Hapoel Tel Aviv are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Emmanuel Boateng trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Hapoel Tel Aviv have no good answer.
Position 3, 56 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.
The offer from Maccabi Petach Tikva for Omri Levi 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.
He is 19, he is averaging 7.05, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Hapoel Tel Aviv offered $180.0K; Maccabi Petach Tikva 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.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Levante have kept their man, and Hapoel Tel Aviv 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 Hapoel Tel Aviv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
7 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Mor Buskila
He is 19, he is averaging 7.05, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
$1.1M on the table at Hapoel Raanana. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The offer went to Bnei Yehuda 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.
The phone has started ringing about Chico again, and this time the name on the line is Maccabi Haifa. Hapoel Tel Aviv are listening politely and promising nothing.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.2M — a club that wants Matan Levi enough to be asked twice.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Hapoel Tel Aviv will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
Not a month, not a run of form — a whole season of being the best 19-year-old anybody in this division could put on a pitch. This is the honour that gets mentioned for the rest of his career.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Hapoel Tel Aviv have had the benefit 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 Hapoel Tel Aviv, and it is not being withdrawn.
Shahar Piven 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 did not go to Maccabi Haifa to sit and watch. I want to come back to Hapoel Tel Aviv and fight for my place.” 6 appearances in 18 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Hapoel Tel Aviv know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Yaad Gonen has his answer from Hapoel Tel Aviv; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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. Hapoel Tel Aviv 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 Hapoel Tel Aviv, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A few words of the language, a friend at the next peg, and a training ground that has stopped feeling foreign. Nothing measurable, and everything visible on Saturdays.
Squad10 May 2027
Assaf Tzur is training like a man with a point to make
Nobody has promised him anything and he has not asked. The coaching staff have noticed, which at this stage of a season is the only thing that matters.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hapoel Tel Aviv have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
He is 19, he is averaging 7.05, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Emmanuel Boateng trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Omri Levi is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Hapoel Tel Aviv know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Daniel Dappa is the division's best young player this month
At 19 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Hapoel Tel Aviv will try very hard not to make too much 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 Hapoel Tel Aviv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Hapoel Tel Aviv told Marcus Coco something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“I did not go to Maccabi Haifa to sit and watch. I want to come back to Hapoel Tel Aviv and fight for my place.” 6 appearances in 11 matches say the rest.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Daniel Dappa is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
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.
At 21 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.
Nobody at Hapoel Tel Aviv 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.
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Hapoel Tel Aviv would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
He goes off to be somebody else’s player for a fortnight. Hapoel Tel Aviv lose him for the window and would like him returned in the condition he left.
“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 Tel Aviv, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 56 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
A season average of 7.05 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Hapoel Tel Aviv know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
“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 Tel Aviv know it.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Hapoel Tel Aviv and Hapoel Raanana in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
12 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Hapoel Tel Aviv can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
50 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.
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 Tel Aviv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Shon Atzili could afford to be generous.
Out, 0‑2 to Maccabi 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Hapoel Tel Aviv can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Roy Korine 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 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.
1 appearances, 0 clean sheets, and a goalkeeper no further forward than the day he left. Whether that belongs to him, to the club that borrowed him or to the people who arranged it is the argument Hapoel Tel Aviv will have this month.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
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.
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.
At 19 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.
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.
A performance of 8.06 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
Andrian Kraev 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.
“I did not go to Maccabi Petach Tikva to sit and watch. I want to come back to Hapoel Tel Aviv and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 26 matches say the rest.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
Hapoel Tel Aviv ran out of time with Hapoel Beer Sheva. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
The young player of the month award goes to a 19-year-old at Hapoel Tel Aviv who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
$950.0K settles it between the clubs for Marco Wolff
Hapoel Beer Sheva have accepted the money. What Hapoel Tel Aviv do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“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
Hapoel Tel Aviv close the window on a squad of their own making
0 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.
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.
Hapoel Tel Aviv asked and Beitar Jerusalem said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Daniel Dappa. 1‑0 against Bnei Sakhnin, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Hapoel Kiryat Shmona will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Hapoel Tel Aviv were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
The offer from Olympiacos for Stav Toriel 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.32 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Borneo waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Hapoel Tel Aviv is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Tel Aviv can pretend not to have heard.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Maccabi Haifa have kept their man, and Hapoel Tel Aviv go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Daniel Dappa has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
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.
“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 Netanya, and it is not being withdrawn.
Maccabi Netanya had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Internacional, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Nadav Niddam 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. Quadri Adediran 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 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 Tel Aviv, and it is not being withdrawn.
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 Tel Aviv will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Add another name to the list: Maccabi Netanya have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Omri Altman. The answer from Hapoel Tel Aviv has not changed — yet.
Hapoel Tel Aviv asked and Universitatea Craiova 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 Hapoel Tel Aviv can pretend not to have heard.
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.
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 Tel Aviv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“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 Hapoel Tel Aviv, and 1 appearances in 18 say he has earned the hearing.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Emmanuel Boateng trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Shon Atzili chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other 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 Hapoel Tel Aviv, and it is not being withdrawn.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Daniel Dappa did not need any: 7.61, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
1 for Chico, marked 5.89, 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.
At 18 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Hapoel Tel Aviv can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Daniel Dappa has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Assaf Tzur: 3 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
12 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
A brace, and Daniel Dappa takes the afternoon — 8.63
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Daniel Dappa provided it, and the 8.63 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Position 3, 26 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.
1 for Andrian Kraev, marked 7.54, 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 Hapoel Tel Aviv they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
In brief
MatchDaniel Dappa among the goals in a wild afternoon
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 7.82 for the rest of it.
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.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 16 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Douglas Owusu commits to Hapoel Tel Aviv for another 5 years.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Stav Toriel was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.12. 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.
In brief
SquadDaniel Dappa is the division's best young player this month
SquadA place in the month's best eleven for Assaf Tzur
Two goals and a mark of 8.46 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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 Tel Aviv know it.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Daniel Dappa. 2‑0 against Hapoel Beer Sheva, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Shon Atzili on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Chances created: 10. Nothing on the scoresheet and everything in the match: the pass before the pass, over and over, until the defence stopped guessing right.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.55, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
A brace, and Stav Toriel takes the afternoon — 8.46
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Stav Toriel provided it, and the 8.46 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“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 Hapoel Tel Aviv, and 1 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
He is 20, and nobody at Hapoel Tel Aviv signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Or Israelov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hapoel Tel Aviv the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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 Tel Aviv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Tel Aviv, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Roy Korine is on it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Bnei Yehuda in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Hapoel Tel Aviv know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
4 goals in 6 games at Saba — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Hapoel Tel Aviv updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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.
“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 Hapoel Tel Aviv, and 5 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
The captaincy has been taken off Andrian Kraev. Hapoel Tel Aviv will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
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 Shahar Piven is on it.
Maccabi Netanya next, and one man in the Hapoel Tel Aviv dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Level with 88 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Hapoel Tel Aviv had all but put away. Bnei Sakhnin will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
“I watch every Hapoel Tel Aviv game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Maccabi Petach Tikva runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
“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.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Hapoel Tel Aviv have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Hapoel Tel Aviv they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Hapoel Tel Aviv can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
The dugout19 Oct 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.” Shon Atzili, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
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 Tel Aviv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Hapoel Tel Aviv know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
“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 Tel Aviv know it.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Daniel Dappa is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Shon Atzili was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Hapoel Tel Aviv dressing room was either.
Nobody at Hapoel Tel Aviv 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.
Hapoel Kfar Saba are out and Hapoel Tel Aviv go through, 5‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Douglas Owusu did not need any: 7.66, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“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 Tel Aviv know it.
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Daniel Dappa. 1‑0 against Hapoel Haifa, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Yoni Ferber was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.06. 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
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 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Hapoel Tel Aviv know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Maccabi Haifa next, and one man in the Hapoel Tel Aviv dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
11 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Hapoel Tel Aviv have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The bid was some way short and Hapoel Tel Aviv did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Hapoel Tel Aviv close the window on a squad of their own making
13 in and 5 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Douglas Owusu 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.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
Maccabi Netanya offered $2.1M; Hapoel Haifa 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 12 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Maccabi Netanya 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $2.1M — a club that wants Liran Rotman enough to be asked twice.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hapoel Tel Aviv have kept their man, and Maccabi Netanya go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Nadav Niddam 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 used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Dolev Haziza’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Maccabi Netanya needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bakary Konaté trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Maccabi Netanya would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
The offer from Maccabi Haifa for Emmanuel Boateng 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A brace, and Stav Toriel takes the afternoon — 8.40
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Stav Toriel provided it, and the 8.40 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Hapoel Tel Aviv asked and Maccabi Netanya said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Daniel Dappa has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 4‑0, Shon Atzili could afford to be generous.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Hapoel Beer Sheva waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Hapoel Tel Aviv is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $1.4M has been paid because Ramiro Ruiz Rodríguez is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
$1.2M on the table at Maccabi Haifa. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Hapoel Tel Aviv asked and Pacos de Ferreira said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Omri Levi 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.
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad17 Aug 2026
5 new faces, and Hapoel Tel Aviv are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.