Rodrigo Mosqueira 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franck Rivollier was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Manor David after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Bnei Yehuda in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Manor David kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
Dor Hebron is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 1 on the scoresheet, 7.93 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
“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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Adrián Ugarriza provided it, and the 8.98 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Rodrigo Mosqueira 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 new man at Maccabi Petach Tikva has worked with Ben Lederman before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franck Rivollier 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Ryota Oshima
Player ratingsThe game went through Ben Lederman — 7.10
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Rodrigo Mosqueira 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 Petach Tikva asked and Hapoel Beer Sheva 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 new man at Maccabi Petach Tikva has worked with Ben Lederman before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
It needed Adrián Ugarriza to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Hapoel Beer Sheva, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Maccabi Petach Tikva lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The deal that would have taken Franck Rivollier to Hapoel Beer Sheva has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Maccabi Petach Tikva with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
The new man at Maccabi Petach Tikva has worked with Ben Lederman before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ofek Melika has his answer from Maccabi Petach Tikva; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franck Rivollier was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
It needed Rodrigo Mosqueira to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Hapoel Tel Aviv, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Maccabi Petach Tikva 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 Maccabi Petach Tikva can pretend not to have heard.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Maccabi Petach Tikva have done the hard part with Maccabi Haifa, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 19 signed and 13 gone
That is the business done at Maccabi Petach Tikva until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.0M — a club that wants Amit Arazi enough to be asked twice.
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.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Maccabi Petach Tikva will quote 17 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The new man at Maccabi Petach Tikva has worked with Ben Lederman before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Maccabi Petach Tikva lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Maccabi Petach Tikva may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Successful dribbles: 27. 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.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Up for the corner, and Ben Lederman delivers — 7.91
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Ben Lederman scored, was marked 7.91, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The offer went to Maccabi Haifa 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.
Rodrigo Mosqueira 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 morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
A 3‑1 win over Maccabi Netanya, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The words a physio says slowly. 46 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 had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Racing Club, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Ofek Melika 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hapoel Beer Sheva have kept their man, and Maccabi Petach Tikva go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
The new man at Maccabi Petach Tikva has worked with Ben Lederman before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Maccabi Petach Tikva have made the call to Stade de Reims. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Robinho Junior is in the works
54 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Maccabi Petach Tikva 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 Petach Tikva, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Maccabi Petach Tikva have done the hard part with Racing Club, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Stade de Reims is saying, and nobody at Maccabi Petach Tikva is enjoying the guessing.
Maccabi Petach Tikva asked and Montevideo City Torque 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 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.
The new man at Maccabi Petach Tikva has worked with Ben Lederman before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
12 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.
62 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Maccabi Petach Tikva lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The offer from Beitar Jerusalem for Franck Rivollier 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Crvena Zvezda is saying, and nobody at Maccabi Petach Tikva is enjoying the guessing.
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.
The new man at Maccabi Petach Tikva has worked with Ben Lederman before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Maccabi Petach Tikva know it.
Stade de Reims have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The words a physio says slowly. 71 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.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Everything agreed with Crvena Zvezda, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Maccabi Petach Tikva had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Santos, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The offer from Bnei Sakhnin for Maor Erlich 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.
Rodrigo Mosqueira 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 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.
The new man at Maccabi Petach Tikva has worked with Ben Lederman before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
79 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Maccabi Petach Tikva lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Maccabi Petach Tikva have done the hard part with Maccabi Tel Aviv, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Rodrigo Mosqueira 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.
Hapoel Kiryat Shmona wanted more than $97.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Maccabi Petach Tikva asked and Hapoel Beer Sheva 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 phone has started ringing about Maor Erlich again, and this time the name on the line is Bnei Sakhnin. Maccabi Petach Tikva are listening politely and promising nothing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franck Rivollier was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 87 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $105.7K — a club that wants Ofir Benbenisty enough to be asked twice.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Maccabi Petach Tikva have done the hard part with Hapoel Tel Aviv, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
$90.0K on the table at Hapoel Kiryat Shmona. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Maccabi Petach Tikva asked and Hapoel Kiryat Shmona said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Ido Cohen 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Maccabi Petach Tikva are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
In brief
The dugoutBen Lederman back under a manager who knows him
96 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Maccabi Petach Tikva lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The deal with Hapoel Tel Aviv 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.
Maccabi Petach Tikva asked and Maccabi Netanya said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Maccabi Tel Aviv wanted more than $120.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franck Rivollier 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.
8 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Maccabi Petach Tikva have made the call to Hapoel Tel Aviv. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
Dor Hebron is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
In brief
The dugoutBen Lederman back under a manager who knows him
The dugoutAdar Ratner knocks on the manager's door
The words a physio says slowly. 104 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.
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.
The chase for Ziv Ben-Shimol ended with $660.0K changing hands and Beitar Jerusalem out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $133.5K — a club that wants Roy Nawi enough to be asked twice.
The offer went to Maccabi Tel Aviv 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.
Ziv Ben-Shimol was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $660.0K. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hapoel Haifa have kept their man, and Maccabi Petach Tikva go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Maccabi Tel Aviv have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Dor Peretz was one of the reasons people came, and $2.8M does not replace that by itself.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Maccabi Tel Aviv is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Itay Ben-Hemo 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 has re-ordered his thinking and Heitor has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Maccabi Tel Aviv is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Noam Ben-Harush and Maccabi Tel Aviv agree another 4 years.
Nobody at Maccabi Tel Aviv 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Maccabi Tel Aviv. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Somebody to talk to at the next peg, a few words of the language, and a training ground that has stopped being a foreign country. It never appears in a scouting report and it decides most signings.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Hélio Varela has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
“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 Tel Aviv, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Maccabi Tel Aviv know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Ido Shahar has written the date down.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ester Sokler will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Maccabi Tel Aviv the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
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.
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 Hélio Varela is on 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 Maccabi Tel Aviv, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dor Peretz signs something — a contract at Maccabi Tel Aviv or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Maccabi Tel Aviv. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
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.
Kyosuke Mochiyama 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 Ofek Melika trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 24 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Maccabi Tel Aviv is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
4 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
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 is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Ion Nicolăescu was the best thing in any of them.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dor Peretz signs something — a contract at Maccabi Tel Aviv or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Maccabi Petach Tikva has to find a result from somewhere.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Oren Biton and Maccabi Petach Tikva agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Mor Buskila
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Mor Buskila has come out of that comparison in the side, and Maccabi Petach Tikva have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Nobody at Maccabi Petach Tikva 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.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Hapoel Kiryat Shmona kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Maccabi Petach Tikva will be asked about the last half hour all week.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ido Cohen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Oren Biton.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Manor David chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
“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 Petach Tikva, and it is not being withdrawn.
Rodrigo Mosqueira 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.” Franck Rivollier and Maccabi Petach Tikva agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Maccabi Petach Tikva asked and Maccabi Tel Aviv said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Samuel Owusu was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.19. 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.
Marked 7.29 on 17 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Manor David could afford to be generous.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Ido Cohen 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Aviv Salem’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Maccabi Petach Tikva needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Successful dribbles: 11. 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.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Manor David after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer 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 Maccabi Petach Tikva, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Franck Rivollier is on it.
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Maccabi Petach Tikva lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two goals and a mark of 9.26 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 10 goals between Maccabi Petach Tikva and Hapoel Kiryat Shmona, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Ben Lederman was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.46. 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 36 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 is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Rodrigo Mosqueira wants continental football; whether Maccabi Petach Tikva can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Rodrigo Mosqueira 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Oren Biton’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Maccabi Petach Tikva needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
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 Tel Aviv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and José Cortés trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Gabi Kanichowsky’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Maccabi Tel Aviv needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Maccabi Tel Aviv. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Maccabi Tel Aviv know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ofek Melika has just signed for Maccabi Petach Tikva, and for once the answer mattered.
The shirt still fits. Ofek Melika is back at Maccabi Petach Tikva, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Guy Dezent and Maccabi Petach Tikva agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ido Cohen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Manor David after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The 2-goal deficit was real and so was the recovery. Rodrigo Mosqueira was at the centre of it, Bnei Yehuda were at the end of it, and everybody who left early will hear about this one for years.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Rodrigo Mosqueira provided it, and the 8.83 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Rodrigo Mosqueira 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.
Marked 8.36 — 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.
Marked 8.21 — 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.
The 2-goal deficit was real and so was the recovery. Adar Ratner was at the centre of it, Hapoel Kfar Saba were at the end of it, and everybody who left early will hear about this one for years.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Up for the corner, and Ben Lederman delivers — 7.99
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Ben Lederman scored, was marked 7.99, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Rodrigo Mosqueira 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.
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Hapoel Kfar Saba were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
A 3‑2 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Adar Ratner 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑2, Manor David could afford to be generous.
In brief
SquadIdo Cohen falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ion Nicolăescu and Maccabi Tel Aviv agree another 4 years.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Dan Glazer’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Maccabi Tel Aviv needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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 Osher Davida has written the date down.
Issouf Sissokho has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
A side in position 11 visits next. The result will not make anybody’s season and it could quietly break the shape of one, which is why the manager has been watching the video since Sunday.
6 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.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.88 for the rest of it.
Marked 8.34 — 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.
A point taken on 89 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
9 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Rodrigo Mosqueira wants continental football; whether Maccabi Petach Tikva can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Omer Shirazi 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 wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Maccabi Petach Tikva have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Mohammed Hindi’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Maccabi Petach Tikva needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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.
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.
“I am not asking anybody to be better than they are. I am asking everybody to be as good as they are, every week.” Said out loud, in front of everybody, and the room at Maccabi Petach Tikva was different afterwards.
“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 Petach Tikva, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 16 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Maccabi Petach Tikva have paid $870.0K for Rodrigo Mosqueira, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
$70.0K 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.
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $870.0K for Rodrigo Mosqueira, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Maccabi Petach Tikva asked and Maccabi Tel Aviv said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Maccabi Petach Tikva will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. José Cortés was one of the reasons people came, and $1.5M does not replace that by itself.
“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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $66.7K — a club that wants Elad Amir enough to be asked twice.
The offer went to Maccabi Haifa 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Maccabi Tel Aviv have kept their man, and Maccabi Petach Tikva go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Manor David after 0‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Maccabi Petach Tikva 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.
$130.0K was the most the club would pay and Maccabi Tel Aviv 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.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Gil Refaelov 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Lior Natcho 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. Nir David 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.
Maccabi Petach Tikva have made the call to Brasil de Pelotas. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $133.5K — a club that wants Shachar Rosen enough to be asked twice.
Maccabi Petach Tikva 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.
$120.0K on the table at Maccabi Tel Aviv. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ido Cohen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A season-long look at somebody else’s player: Roee Fucs arrives from Maccabi Haifa with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.
A new face in his position, and Dor Hebron suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Maccabi Petach Tikva have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Hapoel Acre waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Maccabi Tel Aviv is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer went to Maccabi Haifa 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Maccabi Netanya have kept their man, and Maccabi Tel Aviv go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $4.9M — a club that wants Pierre Cornud enough to be asked twice.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kristijan Belić 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Maccabi Tel Aviv heard it as anything else.
Mohamed Camara 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 Osher Davida was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Maccabi Tel Aviv asked and Boca Juniors 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 phone has started ringing about Ben Lederman again, and this time the name on the line is Hapoel Tel Aviv. Maccabi Tel Aviv are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
Maccabi Tel Aviv have made the call to Flamengo. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mohamed Camara trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.