“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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Daniel Dappa 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 Andrian Kraev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The clubs have shaken hands with Hapoel Beer Sheva; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The shirt still fits. Omer Abuhav is back at Hapoel Tel Aviv, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hapoel Kiryat Shmona have kept their man, and Hapoel Tel Aviv go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Maccabi Tel Aviv wanted more than $240.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrian Kraev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Add another name to the list: Hapoel Acre have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ben Sørensen. The answer from Hapoel Tel Aviv has not changed — yet.
Chico 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.
22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Hapoel Tel Aviv lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The offer from Maccabi Netanya for Daniel Dappa 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Hapoel Tel Aviv have done the hard part with Maccabi Petach Tikva, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
“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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Hapoel Tel Aviv heard it as anything else.
$1.1M was the most the club would pay and Hapoel Kiryat Shmona were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrian Kraev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
In brief
The dugoutMor Buskila has become a man the manager trusts
Successful dribbles: 36. 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.
“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 ratings1 Feb 2027
Up for the corner, and Roei Alkukin delivers — 7.99
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Roei Alkukin scored, was marked 7.99, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 3 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at Hapoel Tel Aviv 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.
Hapoel Tel Aviv had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Olimpia, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Andrian Kraev 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 Doron Leidner was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“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.” 0 appearances in 25 matches say the rest.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ynal Bazdog and Hapoel Tel Aviv agree another 3 years.
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.72, and 2 involvements.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Doron Leidner 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.
Hapoel Kfar Saba are out and Hapoel Tel Aviv go through, 2‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Successful dribbles: 27. 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.
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.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.91 beside his name.
At 17 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Doron Leidner 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 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Ziv Ben-Shimol 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 1‑0 win over Beitar Jerusalem, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.