Marked for Saar Elkayam
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market21 Jan 2036
“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 The request is on a desk at Beitar Jerusalem, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad21 Jan 2036
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Beitar Jerusalem can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad21 Jan 2036
Maor Erlich 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.
Transfer targets21 Jan 2036
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hapoel Kiryat Shmona have kept their man, and Beitar Jerusalem go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match19 Jan 2036
Hapoel Beer Sheva left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Market21 Jan 2036
Add another name to the list: Hapoel Acre have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Eli Refaelov. The answer from Beitar Jerusalem has not changed — yet.
Boardroom21 Jan 2036
No fees may be paid for anybody, whatever the squad needs. Every rumour about this club until it lifts is a rumour about a deal that cannot be done.
Squad21 Jan 2036
Words at Beitar Jerusalem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saar Elkayam 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 dugout21 Jan 2036
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match29 Dec 2035
A 0‑4 beating by Maccabi Tel Aviv was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Boardroom31 Dec 2035
Pressure builds in the Beitar Jerusalem boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad31 Dec 2035
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The dugout31 Dec 2035
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Beitar Jerusalem may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market31 Dec 2035
Nir Natcho hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Beitar Jerusalem can pretend not to have heard.
Squad31 Dec 2035
Omri Levi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 Dec 2035
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Saar Elkayam was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom31 Dec 2035
Nobody left the Beitar Jerusalem dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout31 Dec 2035
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑4 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Dec 2035
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout10 Dec 2035
Itay Ehud keeps the receipts
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Beitar Jerusalem may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad10 Dec 2035
Omri Levi in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Beitar Jerusalem this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Dec 2035
Gaku Furuhashi arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Gaku Furuhashi has, at Beitar Jerusalem, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad10 Dec 2035
Words at Beitar Jerusalem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saar Elkayam 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.
Match8 Dec 2035
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 87. Bnei Yehuda had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Boardroom10 Dec 2035
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.
Match10 Dec 2035
Half the programme played, position 6, 20 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Squad10 Dec 2035
14 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market19 Nov 2035
Nir Natcho hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Beitar Jerusalem can pretend not to have heard.
Squad19 Nov 2035
“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 Beitar Jerusalem know it.
Squad19 Nov 2035
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.
Squad19 Nov 2035
Words at Beitar Jerusalem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mees Hilgers 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.
Squad19 Nov 2035
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and Beitar Jerusalem now know that too.
The dugout19 Nov 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to El Yam Kancepolsky, and the manager let it.
The dugout19 Nov 2035
Jonas Peinhart asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market19 Nov 2035
The clock does Mees Hilgers’s negotiating for him
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Beitar Jerusalem could ask drops and the wages Mees Hilgers can ask rise.
The dugout19 Nov 2035
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 El Yam Kancepolsky is on it.