Position 12 and 12 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The terraces28 Jun 2027
Supporters turn on the $400.0K sale of Elad Shahaf
He is going to Hapoel Kfar Saba, the club has $400.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
At 23 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.
Stav Nachmani 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.
$200.0K 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.
The terracesBnei Yehuda spend $900.0K on the signing the town wanted
Back issues
47Edition
The Bnei Yehuda Herald
21 Jun 2027
From our football correspondentUneasy
The terraces21 Jun 2027
The mood at Bnei Yehuda has turned into something else
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 Hapoel Beer Sheva, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Bnei Yehuda have gone to Hapoel Tel Aviv with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Michael Pistiner is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Mustapha Gbolahan 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.
At 27 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Beitar Jerusalem arrived with $1.2M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
Matan Levi has gone, the accounts have $1.2M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
The shirt still fits. Shachar Rosen is back at Bnei Yehuda, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Bnei Yehuda have gone to Maccabi Haifa with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The offer went to Maccabi Petach Tikva 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.
The chase for Itay Hemi ended with $100.0K changing hands and Hapoel Beer Sheva out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
SquadWords at Bnei Yehuda training over how hard people work
45Edition
The Bnei Yehuda Herald
7 Jun 2027
From our football correspondentUneasy
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Bnei Yehuda
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
$250.0K settles it between the clubs for Roey Magor
Maccabi Tel Aviv have accepted the money. What Bnei Yehuda do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The deal with Maccabi 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.
Stav Nachmani 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 now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Maccabi Tel Aviv have kept their man, and Bnei Yehuda go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Add another name to the list: Beitar Jerusalem have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Matan Levi. The answer from Bnei Yehuda has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilay Trost was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jonathan Agyapong and Bnei Yehuda agree another 3 years.
Position 12 and 12 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“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 Bnei Yehuda, and it is not being withdrawn.
Stav Nachmani 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 Ben Adadi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The mood at Bnei Yehuda has turned into something else
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.
Stav Nachmani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 May 2027
Ben Adadi 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 Bohdan Budko trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Mustapha Gbolahan 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 Ilay Trost was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Bnei Yehuda game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Maccabi Netanya runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
In brief
The dugoutElad Shahaf knocks on the manager’s door
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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Dan Dabbur 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ofir Levy 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Itay 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.
“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 Bnei Yehuda, and 5 appearances in 15 say he has earned the hearing.
In brief
The dugoutAlexis Martínez has become a man the manager trusts
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bnei Yehuda 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 Pedrinho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The table is being checked before the results are in, which is always the tell. Nobody at Bnei Yehuda says the word and every senior player in the building is thinking it.
SquadThe training reports on Ohad Levita are not good
39Edition
The Bnei Yehuda Herald
26 Apr 2027
From our football correspondentUneasy
The terraces26 Apr 2027
The mood at Bnei Yehuda has turned into something else
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.
Stav Nachmani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Bnei Yehuda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilay Trost 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 Rafael Assis a promise
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pedrinho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Arad Bar has written the date down.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bnei Yehuda can pretend not to have heard.
Stav Nachmani 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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Ben Adadi 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 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 Alexis Martínez 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 Bnei Yehuda, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The table has started to be checked before the results are in, and that is always the tell. Nobody at Bnei Yehuda says the word out loud, and everybody in the building is thinking it.
Position 12 and 12 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Stav Nachmani 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Shon 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Ilay Trost 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Bnei Yehuda, and 6 appearances in 12 say he has earned the hearing.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Liran Sardal trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The mood at Bnei Yehuda has turned into something else
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.
Mustapha Gbolahan 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.
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 in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Bnei Yehuda. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bnei Yehuda, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Michael Pistiner signs something — a contract at Bnei Yehuda or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Mustapha Gbolahan 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Bnei Yehuda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pedrinho 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Bnei Yehuda. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
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 Bnei Yehuda 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 Bnei Yehuda 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 Ilay Trost was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Pedrinho has been around long enough to know what the spring feels like when it goes wrong, and he can feel it. A dressing room that is frightened plays like one.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Stav Israeli trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bnei Yehuda can pretend not to have heard.
Stav Nachmani 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Bohdan Budko is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
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.
“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 Bnei Yehuda know it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bnei Yehuda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Ben Adadi 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 is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Bnei Yehuda than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bnei Yehuda, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
4 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.
1‑2 to Beitar Jerusalem, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Bnei Yehuda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilay Trost 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 dugout22 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Almog Cohen to a room that had heard them before.
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.
0‑3 against Hapoel Beer Sheva, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
“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 Bnei Yehuda, and it is not being withdrawn.
Stav Nachmani 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Ben Adadi 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.
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
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 0‑3 Almog Cohen left the room before anybody could ask which.
Nobody at Bnei Yehuda 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 clock did what Hapoel Acre would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Bnei Yehuda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Golan Beni 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Nir Melikson 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.
The goal that put Hapoel Haifa ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Bnei Yehuda equalised, 4 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
“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 Bnei Yehuda, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 4 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
$1.3M on the table at Hapoel Acre. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Mustapha Gbolahan 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Golan Beni 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Benfica have kept their man, and Bnei Yehuda go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Maccabi Netanya 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bnei Yehuda can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Maccabi Petach Tikva keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hapoel Acre have kept their man, and Bnei Yehuda go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Mustapha Gbolahan 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.
Bnei Yehuda have made the call to Feyenoord. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The deal with Maccabi Petach Tikva 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hapoel Tel Aviv have kept their man, and Bnei Yehuda go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bnei Yehuda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Bnei Yehuda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilay Trost 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 midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 10 actions, 6.87, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Something was said to Sagi Dror and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
“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 Bnei Yehuda, and it is not being withdrawn.
Stav Nachmani 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 now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Akron have kept their man, and Bnei Yehuda go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is 21 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Omer Peretz 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilay Trost was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bnei Yehuda have made the call to Benfica. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Bnei Yehuda have made the call to KAA Gent. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bnei Yehuda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The phone has started ringing about Jonathan Agyapong again, and this time the name on the line is Maccabi Netanya. Bnei Yehuda are listening politely and promising nothing.
Bnei Yehuda 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.
Bnei Yehuda 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.
It had gone 18 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
A brace, and Stav Nachmani takes the afternoon — 8.79
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Stav Nachmani provided it, and the 8.79 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raz Nahmias was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Almog Cohen on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Stav Nachmani’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Bnei Yehuda needing him to play as if none of it matters.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bnei Yehuda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Bnei Yehuda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilay Trost 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
17 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.
Position 14 and 3 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 6 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ofir Levy is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
16 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.
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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mustapha Gbolahan and Bnei Yehuda agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Mustapha Gbolahan 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Ilay Trost 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.
15 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.
“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 Bnei Yehuda, and it is not being withdrawn.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
Mustapha Gbolahan 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.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilay Trost was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Almog Cohen to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
The dugoutSagi Dror asks for a word with the manager
Stav Nachmani 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.
1‑3 to Beitar Jerusalem, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Raz Nahmias 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.
Position 13, 3 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Almog Cohen to a room that had heard them before.
Nobody at Bnei Yehuda 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 dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Stav Israeli
13 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.
Position 13 and 3 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“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 Bnei Yehuda, and it is not being withdrawn.
Stav Nachmani 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 goals in one match, Stav Nachmani on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Bnei Yehuda and Hapoel Beer Sheva.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Ilay Trost 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bnei Yehuda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ofir Solomon 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilay Trost was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Hapoel Beer Sheva next, and one man in the Bnei Yehuda dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bnei Yehuda can pretend not to have heard.
Mustapha Gbolahan 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Alexis Martínez 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Alexis Martínez is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Two goals and a mark of 8.78 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Bnei Yehuda and Maccabi Haifa in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bnei Yehuda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Ilay Trost 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
At 28 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Bnei Yehuda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilay Trost 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.
Ravve Assayag had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Maccabi Petach Tikva were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
8 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.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Bnei Yehuda can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Mustapha Gbolahan 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Yonatan Weissman 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 13 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
0‑4 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.
7 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.
At 26 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Raz Nahmias 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.
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.
Stav Nachmani 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Bnei Yehuda and Hapoel Kfar Saba, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Stav Nachmani 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Bnei Yehuda will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Bnei Yehuda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shalev Gindi 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.
Rafael Assis is 33 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.
Up for the corner, and Raz Nahmias delivers — 7.86
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Raz Nahmias scored, was marked 7.86, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The deal that would have taken Ohad Levita to Hapoel Kiryat Shmona has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Bnei Yehuda with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Mustapha Gbolahan 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Matan 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.
A goal on 90 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Ilay Trost 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.
1‑4 against Hapoel Kiryat Shmona, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
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.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 14 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed 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 Bnei Yehuda, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Beitar Jerusalem is saying, and nobody at Bnei Yehuda is enjoying the guessing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Jaguares have kept their man, and Bnei Yehuda go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Mustapha Gbolahan 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 phone has started ringing about Ohad Levita again, and this time the name on the line is Hapoel Kiryat Shmona. Bnei Yehuda are listening politely and promising nothing.
“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 Bnei Yehuda, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everything agreed with Beitar Jerusalem, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Dinamo Moscow keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cortulua have kept their man, and Bnei Yehuda go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bnei Yehuda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
8 new faces, and Bnei Yehuda are still learning each other
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.
He is going to Hapoel Kiryat Shmona, the club has $700.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Hapoel Kiryat Shmona pay $700.0K, 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.
$250.0K was the most the club would pay and Maccabi Petach Tikva 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.
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.
Elad Shahaf 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.
Bnei Yehuda have made the call to Cortulua. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
$250.0K on the table at Maccabi Petach Tikva. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bnei Yehuda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Dani Amerr has come up in conversations Bnei Yehuda were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilay Trost was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Bnei Yehuda, and it is not being withdrawn.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Bnei Yehuda have paid $130.0K for Alexis Martínez, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Stav Nachmani 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Eli Revivo 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bnei Yehuda, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Bnei Yehuda have gone to Almirante Brown with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tamir Berman was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Still no offer on the table, and Stav Nachmani’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
A loan enquiry to Defensa y Justicia: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
In brief
SquadBnei Yehuda are still strangers to each other