3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Miguel Vítor and Hapoel Beer Sheva agree another 2 years.
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 Beer Sheva this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Dan Biton 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.
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.
Player ratings4 Dec 2028
Hamode Kanaan was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.04. 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Hamode Kanaan. 2‑0 against Hapoel Kfar Saba, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 16 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
The words a physio says slowly. 136 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 84 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
0‑6 to Maccabi Tel Aviv, 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Hapoel Haifa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Oren Biton has agreed terms with Hapoel Beer Sheva for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
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 Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
151 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hapoel Haifa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hapoel Haifa will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hapoel Haifa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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 Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
2‑3 to Maccabi Petach Tikva, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Alon Turgeman 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sa'ar Fadida, and the manager let it.
Player ratings23 Oct 2028
Itay Buganim was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.51. 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.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hapoel Haifa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.46 beside his name.
Sandro Altunashvili 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 9 goals between Hapoel Haifa and Hapoel Beer Sheva, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Osher Davida 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Yagel Tarshish 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.
In brief
Player ratingsAwad Al-Nashri was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hapoel Haifa will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The fee is $410.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Maccabi Petach Tikva drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Sa'ar Fadida 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.
In brief
SquadEllis Spikner is a better footballer than he was
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hapoel Haifa will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Alon Turgeman 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.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Francisco Rabago from Hapoel Beer Sheva for $1.6M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Words at Hapoel Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Osher Davida 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.
Osher Davida 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Hapoel Haifa training over how hard people work
Sa'ar Fadida 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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Hapoel Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Osher Davida 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 hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Daniel Dappa did not need any: 8.08, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Fabian Banguero will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hapoel Haifa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Sandro Altunashvili 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 name of Oren Biton has come up in conversations Hapoel Haifa were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Osher Davida 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.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rustamjon Ashurmatov, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Daniel Dappa is the division's best young player this month
At 20 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Hapoel Haifa will try very hard not to make too much of it.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Daniel Dappa did not need any: 7.62, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The offer from Hapoel Tel Aviv for Oren Biton 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.
Sa'ar Fadida 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.
Add another name to the list: Beitar Jerusalem have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Liran Sardal. The answer from Hapoel Haifa has not changed — yet.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at Hapoel Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shai Elias 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.
Nobody at Hapoel Haifa 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.
The chase for Osher Davida ended with $3.3M changing hands and Maccabi Tel Aviv out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Player ratings17 Jan 2028
Daniel Dappa, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.74
A mark of 7.74 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Sa'ar Fadida 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 name of Oren Biton has come up in conversations Hapoel Haifa were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The terraces17 Jan 2028
Hapoel Haifa spend $3.3M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $3.3M for Osher Davida, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words at Hapoel Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Itay Buganim 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Liran Rotman. 2‑0 against Hapoel Kfar Saba, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Liran Rotman at his very best
The words a physio says slowly. 39 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hapoel Haifa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Haifa 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 Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Dario Župarić 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.