Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Maccabi Tel Aviv will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Maccabi Tel Aviv, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Sagiv Abada has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maccabi Tel Aviv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Maccabi Tel Aviv now.
Squad7 Jul 2031
Amir Ganah 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Maccabi Tel Aviv can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Maccabi Tel Aviv will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Maccabi Tel Aviv, and it is not being withdrawn.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Salim Fago Lawal has, at Maccabi Tel Aviv, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
“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 Tel Aviv hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amir Ganah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Nicholas Opoku has his answer from Maccabi Tel Aviv; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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 Tel Aviv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Maccabi Tel Aviv heard it as anything else.
Squad5 May 2031
Amir Ganah 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.
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 Kamaldeen Sulemana is on it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Maccabi Tel Aviv, another week without a signature from Wallison.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Maccabi Tel Aviv know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The coaching staff have set Liam Hermesh something separate to do. Whether it is a weakness being addressed or a strength being sharpened, nobody outside the building will know until it shows up on a Saturday.
68 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Maccabi Tel Aviv can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Davy Gui 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Assaf Tzur signs something — a contract at Maccabi 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.