Marked for Nir Natcho
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.
Back issues
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market15 Oct 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.
Boardroom15 Oct 2035
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.
Squad15 Oct 2035
Words at Beitar Jerusalem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Carlos Romero 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.
Squad15 Oct 2035
Maor Erlich and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom15 Oct 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.
Market15 Oct 2035
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Lior Mashansky has his answer from Beitar Jerusalem; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Market15 Oct 2035
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Beitar Jerusalem, another week without a signature from Jude Soonsup-Bell.
The dugout15 Oct 2035
Beckham Baker 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.
The dugout15 Oct 2035
Roei Blejer gets it from the manager
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom26 Feb 2035
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Beitar Jerusalem is running low.
Match24 Feb 2035
2‑6 to Maccabi Haifa, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad26 Feb 2035
A fracture rules Aviel Zargari out for 69 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Beitar Jerusalem will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market26 Feb 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 dugout26 Feb 2035
“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.
The dugout26 Feb 2035
This is not rotation. Samuel Akere has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Beitar Jerusalem is pretending otherwise.
Squad26 Feb 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.
Squad26 Feb 2035
Mees Hilgers 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.