Samu 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Nadav Niddam has improved at 26, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 4 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
The first defeat in 5 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Beitar Jerusalem; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
“I watch every Maccabi Netanya game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Hapoel Raanana runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matheus Davó 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. FC Copenhagen have kept their man, and Maccabi Netanya go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Samu 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Dor Weissman has his answer from Maccabi Netanya; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Maccabi Petach Tikva next, and one man in the Maccabi Netanya dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
23 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Maccabi Netanya lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Netanya, and it is not being withdrawn.
The chase for Yoni Ferber ended with $1.1M changing hands and Hapoel Tel Aviv out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nadav Niddam and Maccabi Netanya agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Nadav Niddam 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dor Hugi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Maor Levi is on it.
38 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Maccabi Netanya lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Maccabi Netanya have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The deal with Maccabi Haifa is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The fee is $620.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Hapoel Acre drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Nadav Niddam has improved at 26, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
The words a physio says slowly. 49 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The clubs have shaken hands with Hapoel Acre; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: River Plate keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
At 20 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.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
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 Netanya this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
76 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Maccabi Netanya lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Aziz Ouattara 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.
8 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denis Kulikov 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.
3 appearances and 0 goals is not a season away, it is a year lost. He is back at Maccabi Netanya no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their fault.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Maccabi Netanya. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
101 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Maccabi Netanya lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Saba Khvadagiani will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Maccabi Netanya the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Aziz Ouattara 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.
“I did not go to Bnei Sakhnin to sit and watch. I want to come back to Maccabi Netanya and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 17 matches say the rest.
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.
Sharpest man there all week, by every account. It is the quietest line on this page and it usually runs the week before somebody’s run in the side begins.
He came through the session, took part in everything and finished it smiling. Maccabi Netanya will not rush him, and he will spend the next fortnight trying to rush them.
The words a physio says slowly. 86 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Dor Hugi 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.
13 clean sheets from 20 appearances at Bnei Yehuda. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Maccabi Netanya know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Wylan Cyprien’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Maccabi Netanya can pretend not to have heard.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Tomer Zarfati is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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 Maor Levi is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Maccabi Netanya. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
13 clean sheets from 20 appearances at Bnei Yehuda. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maor Levi 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.
He goes off to be somebody else’s player for a fortnight. Maccabi Netanya lose him for the window and would like him returned in the condition he left.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Liran Sardal has written the date down.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Maccabi Netanya know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dor Peretz trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Matheus Davó has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
Aziz Ouattara 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Grigory Morozov and Maccabi Netanya agree another 2 years.
1 appearances, 0 clean sheets, and a goalkeeper no further forward than the day he left. Whether that belongs to him, to the club that borrowed him or to the people who arranged it is the argument Maccabi Netanya will have this month.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Maccabi Netanya know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Maccabi Netanya have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
A 1‑0 win over Hapoel Kfar Saba, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
13 clean sheets from 20 appearances at Bnei Yehuda. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Saba Khvadagiani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Maccabi Netanya will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Maccabi Netanya can pretend not to have heard.
Aziz Ouattara 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nadav Niddam and Maccabi Netanya agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saba Khvadagiani 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Maccabi Netanya will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Nadav Niddam 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Saba Khvadagiani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Maccabi Netanya will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Aziz Ouattara 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saba Khvadagiani 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Guy Peretz after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Karem Jaber’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Maccabi Netanya needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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 Maccabi Netanya this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Johnbosco Samuel Kalu. 2‑0 against Hapoel Acre, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
Marked 8.11. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Maccabi Netanya.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Dolev Haziza was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.01. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“I watch every Maccabi Netanya game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Persebaya runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 Netanya this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Bnei Yehuda next, and one man in the Maccabi Netanya dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Maccabi Netanya had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Corinthians, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Aziz Ouattara 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.
Maccabi Netanya asked and Flamengo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Eitan Abada has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Nir Natcho 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Dor Weissman 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. Ben Melikson is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
His past walked in ahead of him. Players who have been where he has been get a hearing in a dressing room before they have earned one, and he has it for as long as his form does.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Maccabi Netanya have no good answer.
In brief
The dugoutIbrahim Tanko knocks on the manager’s door