The offer from Hapoel Kfar Saba for Itay Solomon 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.
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.
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Maccabi Petach Tikva will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad10 Aug 2048
Itay Solomon 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ritsu Yamane and Maccabi Petach Tikva agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The name of Adi Natcho has come up in conversations Maccabi Petach Tikva were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yonatan Abada will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Maccabi Petach Tikva the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Guy Glazer is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad13 Jul 2048
Itay Solomon 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Maccabi Petach Tikva they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Itay Solomon 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 name of Eli Weissman has come up in conversations Maccabi Petach Tikva were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
Hapoel Raanana are out and Maccabi Petach Tikva go through, 2‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 0 on the scoresheet, 7.25 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
14 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Guy Glazer did not need any: 7.62, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Maccabi Petach Tikva is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Gil Weissman and Maccabi Petach Tikva agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Guy Glazer 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.
The offer from Maccabi Netanya for Itay Solomon 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Maccabi Petach Tikva have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Maccabi Petach Tikva they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
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.
Match24 Aug 2047
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Maccabi Petach Tikva. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.