Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Maccabi Petach Tikva asked and Southampton said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I did not go to Hapoel Beer Sheva to sit and watch. I want to come back to Maccabi Petach Tikva and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
Roie Tamam 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.
Roy Levy 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.
At 22 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Idan Dahan and Maccabi Petach Tikva agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
10 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 27 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.
Maccabi Petach Tikva and Maccabi Netanya have settled on $1.1M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Add another name to the list: Derby County have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Liran Hazan. The answer from Maccabi Petach Tikva has not changed — yet.
Hapoel Kfar Saba pay $36.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed Hindi 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.
Roy Levy 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.
Nobody at Maccabi Petach Tikva 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.
In brief
The terracesThe stands have heard the Adar Ratner talk too
The words a physio says slowly. 35 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.
The fee is $1.2M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Hapoel Tel Aviv drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The chase for Tal Archel ended with $950.0K 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 deal with Hapoel Beer Sheva 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.
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $1.2M for Yazan Nassar, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lee-Yam Dan and Maccabi Petach Tikva agree another 3 years.
Position 2, 58 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Hapoel Beer Sheva is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Add another name to the list: Maccabi Haifa have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Dan Biton. The answer from Hapoel Beer Sheva has not changed — yet.
The offer went to Maccabi Netanya this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amir Ganah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Squad31 May 2027
Matty Cudjoe 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“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 loan was meant to give him football. 3 games and 0 goals later he is back at Hapoel Beer Sheva no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their doing.
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.
The word out of the training ground is that he has been the sharpest man there all week. It is the quietest story a paper carries and it usually runs the week before somebody's run in the side begins.
Basam Za'arura 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Adar Ratner trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Adar Ratner signs something — a contract at Maccabi Petach Tikva or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Amir Ganah 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lior Shugar and Hapoel Beer Sheva agree another 3 years.
Squad3 May 2027
Matty Cudjoe 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.
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.
Nobody at Hapoel Beer Sheva 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.
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 Hélder Lopes has written the date down.
The language is arriving, the jokes are landing, and there is somebody at the next peg to talk to. None of it appears in a scouting report and all of it shows up on the pitch.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Maccabi Petach Tikva may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Basam Za'arura 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Basam Za'arura trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Roy Levy’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
Guy Mizrahi 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Amir Ganah 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 did not go to Maccabi Haifa to sit and watch. I want to come back to Hapoel Beer Sheva and fight for my place.” 7 appearances in 12 matches say the rest.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
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 Petach Tikva have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Something was said to Dan Glazer and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Maccabi Petach Tikva, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Maccabi Petach Tikva has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Maccabi Petach Tikva that is a harder question to answer.
Something was said to Roy Levy and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
5 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Adar Ratner trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Basam Za'arura 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.
0‑1 to Bnei Sakhnin, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Sagiv Peretz left the room before anybody could ask which.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Maccabi Tel Aviv in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“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 Petach Tikva can pretend not to have heard.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Maccabi Petach Tikva will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
The deal with Hapoel Beer Sheva 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 name of Guy Dezent has come up in conversations Maccabi Petach Tikva were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Marked 8.12 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
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 Petach Tikva this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Maccabi Petach Tikva have made the call to Maccabi Tel Aviv. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Maccabi Petach Tikva have made the call to Maccabi Tel Aviv. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hapoel Beer Sheva will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Lucas Ventura 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Matan Hemed left the room before anybody could ask which.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Igor Zlatanović has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Nobody at Hapoel Beer Sheva is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Hapoel Beer Sheva will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.61 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Hapoel Acre tried to reorganise, Hapoel Beer Sheva did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Half the programme played, position 2, 27 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
SquadJosías Palais falls out with a teammate over standards
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Hapoel Beer Sheva will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
1 for Roy Levy, marked 7.68, 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.
“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.
Djibril Diop 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.
Marked 8.51 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 89. Hapoel Kiryat Shmona had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
It needed Roy Levy to find the net to bring anything home at all: 3‑3 against Hapoel Kiryat Shmona, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 5 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
Hapoel Beer Sheva offered $3.8M; Beitar Jerusalem said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Hapoel Beer Sheva asked and Maccabi Haifa said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
The plan went upstairs and came back down. Nothing about that will make a headline anywhere else, and everybody who works at the training ground will remember it for years.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Hapoel Raanana in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Hapoel Beer Sheva have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Hapoel Beer Sheva has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.