Words at Aalesund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Endre Osenbroch 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.
Marc Rochester 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Aalesund, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Aalesund would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Aalesund, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Marius Andresen signs something — a contract at Aalesund or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Aalesund have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Benjamin Machini has just signed for Aalesund, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at Aalesund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ulrik Fredriksen 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.
Mohamed Baghli 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.
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.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Aalesund has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Aalesund, and both men came out saying it was fine.
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Hapoel Kfar Saba lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Kfar Saba can pretend not to have heard.
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 Kfar Saba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Hapoel Kfar Saba are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“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 Kfar Saba, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Niv Tubul's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Still no offer on the table, and Almog Elshtein’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Hapoel Kfar Saba will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Tal Levy has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
“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 Kfar Saba can pretend not to have heard.
Everything agreed with Maccabi Netanya, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yoan Stoyanov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Hapoel Kfar Saba can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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 Kfar Saba can pretend not to have heard.
At 18 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.
Liran Shpigel and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Konadu Yiadom 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Hapoel Kfar Saba are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
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 Kfar Saba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Yoan Stoyanov 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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Hapoel Kfar Saba will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Hapoel Kfar Saba is running low.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The fee is $1.8M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Maccabi Haifa drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
1 for Ali Mohamed, marked 7.63, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Hapoel Kfar Saba will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Position 13 and 6 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Gilbert Bandama did not need any: 7.85, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Gilbert Bandama 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.
At 18 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.
Liran Shpigel 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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 39 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Hapoel Kfar Saba can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Nobody at Hapoel Kfar Saba will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Maccabi Petach Tikva in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
In brief
The dugoutGitai Sofir knocks on the manager's door
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 Kfar Saba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Konadu Yiadom 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.
There was no pressure on him and nowhere he had to be. Hapoel Kfar Saba lost a goal to a decision that took half a second and will be discussed all week.
$1.2M was the most the club would pay and Maccabi Haifa 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.
Hapoel Kfar Saba have gone to Maccabi Haifa with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Maccabi Haifa keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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 Kfar Saba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Hapoel Kfar Saba asked and Bnei Yehuda said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ori Dabbur is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Matan Glazer has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Omer Weissman is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Itay Natcho is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.