“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Hapoel Beer Sheva, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
“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 Beer Sheva, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
The terracesThe press have found their man in Hamode Kanaan
“I did not go to Bnei Yehuda to sit and watch. I want to come back to Hapoel Beer Sheva and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 17 matches say the rest.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hapoel Beer Sheva have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I did not go to Bnei Yehuda to sit and watch. I want to come back to Hapoel Beer Sheva and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Hapoel Beer Sheva have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
The terraces27 Sep 2027
The crowd stays with them
7 of the 31 senior squad came off to the sort of reception a club has to earn. Support like that is not unconditional, but this week it was not asked to be.
The deal that would have taken Yoav Koren to Hapoel Haifa has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Hapoel Beer Sheva with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Hapoel Beer Sheva have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Ryota Noma is 36 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Iyad Mohamed and Hapoel Beer Sheva agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“I did not go to Hapoel Kfar Saba to sit and watch. I want to come back to Hapoel Beer Sheva and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
“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 Beer Sheva, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
“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 Beer Sheva can pretend not to have heard.
41 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Hapoel Beer Sheva has been clear about where Eliel Peretz stands, which is more than many ever get.
“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 Beer Sheva, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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 Beer Sheva, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Hapoel Beer Sheva know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Hapoel Beer Sheva pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Hapoel Beer Sheva have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Hapoel Beer Sheva know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Hapoel Beer Sheva spent the window trying to move Ofir Marciano on and nobody came. He trains with a squad that has already told him he is not part of it, and both sides now wait for the next one.
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Dan Biton keeps the shirt for now, at Hapoel Beer Sheva's convenience rather than his own.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Every debut is a small story about the future: Lior Shugar, 19 years old, off the academy pitches and into the first team. The parents in the stand will keep the programme.
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Hapoel Beer Sheva has to find a result from somewhere.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Kings Kangwa and Hapoel Beer Sheva agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“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 Beer Sheva, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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 Beer Sheva can pretend not to have heard.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Lucas Ventura and Hapoel Beer Sheva agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.