The words a physio says slowly. 43 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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Hapoel Haifa hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Ido Shahar 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Hapoel Haifa, 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 Naftali Balay is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Willy Agada signs something — a contract at Hapoel Haifa or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Alon Turgeman has written the date down.
50 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Hapoel Haifa lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hapoel Haifa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hapoel Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 21 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.
At 27 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 4 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Hapoel Haifa, and both men came out saying it was fine.
36 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 79 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.
At 18 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.
Willy Agada 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.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Alon Turgeman has improved at 37, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
86 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hapoel Haifa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hapoel Haifa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Willy Agada and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Ido Shahar has improved at 26, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
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.
95 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hapoel Haifa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Ido Shahar 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Sali Pahima is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Shai Elias has improved at 29, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
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 Naftali Balay is on it.
102 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hapoel Haifa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hapoel Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jonathan Agyapong is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Régis N'do trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
109 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Hapoel Haifa lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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.
Willy Agada 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 Dario Župarić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
116 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Hapoel Haifa 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 Hapoel Haifa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Shareef Kayouf from Maccabi Haifa for $1.2M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
123 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Hapoel Haifa lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ido Shahar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
10 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.
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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Willy Agada signs something — a contract at Hapoel Haifa or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Yoav Gerafi has written the date down.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Hapoel Haifa, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Hapoel Tel Aviv keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Igal Bekker has, at Hapoel Haifa, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The chase for Yoav Koren ended with $790.0K 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hapoel Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Hapoel Tel Aviv paid $230.0K and Hapoel Haifa took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The terraces12 Jun 2028
Hapoel Haifa spend $790.0K on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $790.0K for Yoav Koren, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ido Shahar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Hapoel Haifa and Beitar Jerusalem have settled on $44.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The offer went to Hapoel Beer Sheva 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.
Willy Agada 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. Beitar Jerusalem have kept their man, and Hapoel Haifa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Hapoel Haifa will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Hapoel Haifa told Benjamin Abaidoo something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
In brief
The dugoutTamir Arbel knocks on the manager’s door
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Mateus Mendes has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Hapoel Haifa have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Nobody at Hapoel Haifa will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and George Diba trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Alon Turgeman was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and George Diba trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Willy Agada signs something — a contract at Hapoel Haifa 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 Hapoel Haifa. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hapoel Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dario Župarić and Hapoel Haifa agree another 2 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hapoel Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alon Turgeman signs something — a contract at Hapoel Haifa or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Naftali Balay trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Hapoel Haifa has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
“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 Hapoel Haifa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Willy Agada 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 May 2028
Words at Hapoel Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dario Župarić 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.
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 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.
Ido Shahar 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.
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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Willy Agada signs something — a contract at Hapoel Haifa or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Hapoel Haifa, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hapoel Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tamir Arbel trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Hapoel Haifa would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hapoel Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dario Župarić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Hapoel Beer Sheva will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Amir Ben-Shimon has pre-agreed a move to Hapoel Haifa, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Rasco Abassah is 20, and Hapoel Haifa have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Ido Shahar and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words at Hapoel Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dario Župarić 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.
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.
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.
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 Naftali Balay is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Willy Agada signs something — a contract at Hapoel Haifa or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hapoel Haifa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Ido Shahar 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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Dario Župarić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Bnei Sakhnin will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Reuben Acquah has pre-agreed a move to Hapoel Haifa, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Hapoel Haifa, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Willy Agada 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 Dario Župarić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Maccabi Haifa will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Michael Ohana has pre-agreed a move to Hapoel Haifa, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alon Turgeman trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alon Turgeman signs something — a contract at Hapoel Haifa or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Bruno Ramires 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Matyáš Šilhavý is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Nobody at Hapoel Haifa will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Bruno Ramires has his answer from Hapoel Haifa; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Hapoel Haifa can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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 Naftali Balay is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bruno Ramires trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Willy Agada signs something — a contract at Hapoel Haifa or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hapoel Haifa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 30 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hapoel Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Alon Turgeman will call it something else in private.
Level with 87 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Hapoel Haifa had all but put away. Hapoel Kiryat Shmona will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
The words a physio says slowly. 22 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.
5 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hapoel Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Hapoel Beer Sheva will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Hélder Lopes has pre-agreed a move to Hapoel Haifa, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Shon Abada after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
In brief
The dugoutTamir Arbel dropped after a run of poor form
The words a physio says slowly. 29 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.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Hapoel Haifa close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 2 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Willy Agada 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 Haifa ran out of time with Maccabi Haifa. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dario Župarić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Hapoel Haifa asked and Palmeiras said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
36 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Hapoel Haifa lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Maccabi Haifa have accepted the money. What Hapoel Haifa do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
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.
Ido Shahar 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 Dario Župarić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bnei Yehuda have kept their man, and Hapoel Haifa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
44 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hapoel Haifa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Maccabi Haifa have kept their man, and Hapoel Haifa 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 Hapoel Haifa 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 Shahar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
52 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hapoel Haifa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Everything agreed with Sigma Olomouc, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Bnei Yehuda is saying, and nobody at Hapoel Haifa 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 Hapoel Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 60 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Hapoel Tel Aviv is saying, and nobody at Hapoel Haifa is enjoying the guessing.
Everything agreed with Maccabi Netanya, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Willy Agada 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Player ratings10 Jan 2028
Willy Agada was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.80. 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. 67 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.
Sa'ar Fadida 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 a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Yuki Kamada is living that version at Hapoel Haifa, and it tends to show in the first month.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Maor Kandil has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Hapoel Haifa have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
It finished 1‑0, and it was Shai Elias’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Hapoel Haifa.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
Shai Elias was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.25. 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.
74 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hapoel Haifa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Sa'ar Fadida was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ido Shahar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 dugout27 Dec 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 1‑3 Shon Abada left the room before anybody could ask which.
The words a physio says slowly. 81 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.
2‑5 against Hapoel Tel Aviv, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Marked 7.80. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hapoel Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Hapoel Haifa and Hapoel Tel Aviv, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dario Župarić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
88 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hapoel Haifa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Sa'ar Fadida and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at Hapoel Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dario Župarić 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.
“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 dugout13 Dec 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 Shon Abada to a room that had heard them before.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Naftali Balay has his answer from Hapoel Haifa; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Hapoel Haifa, and both men came out saying it was fine.
95 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Hapoel Haifa lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Willy Agada 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Hapoel Haifa, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout6 Dec 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.” Shon Abada chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Tamir Arbel
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.
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.
102 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hapoel Haifa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Sa'ar Fadida was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Willy Agada. 2‑1 against Bnei Sakhnin, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Manor Hemed 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Lior Levy 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Dor Abada 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Avi Natcho is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
Willy Agada was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.16. 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.
109 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Hapoel Haifa lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hapoel Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Willy Agada. 2‑1 against Hapoel Kiryat Shmona, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
17 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words at Hapoel Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Naftali Balay 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Shon Abada on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Something was said to Itay Buganim and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
116 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Hapoel Haifa lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Hapoel Haifa can tell you which week it ends in.
200 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Hapoel Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dor Malul 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 point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Shon Abada after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The words a physio says slowly. 124 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.
Successful dribbles: 29. 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Raheem Nugraha will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hapoel Haifa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Sa'ar Fadida 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Shon Abada after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Liran Rotman is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
In brief
The dugoutDor Malul dropped after a run of poor form
131 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Hapoel Haifa lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hapoel Haifa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Hapoel Haifa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Willy Agada was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“Nobody 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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Naftali Balay 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 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.
138 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hapoel Haifa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hapoel Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
7.78, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Hapoel Haifa had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Dor Malul 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Hapoel Haifa, and both men came out saying it was fine.
145 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Hapoel Haifa lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 88th, and Hapoel Kfar Saba spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Shon Abada on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Régis N'do
The dugoutAlon Turgeman knocks on the manager’s door
152 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hapoel Haifa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Hapoel Haifa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Bruno Ramires, and the manager let it.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Rotem Hatuel 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 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
Two goals and a mark of 9.21 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hapoel Haifa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Willy Agada 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Khairin Nadim Rahim will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hapoel Haifa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hapoel Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
At 31 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.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Willy Agada's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Shon Abada after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Raheem Nugraha will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hapoel Haifa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Willy Agada and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
At 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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Shai Elias has improved at 28, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Ido Shahar 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.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hapoel Haifa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Hapoel Haifa close the window on a squad of their own making
18 in and 5 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Sa'ar Fadida was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Hapoel Haifa and Maccabi Tel Aviv in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Hapoel Haifa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hapoel Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The shirt still fits. Naftali Balay is back at Hapoel Haifa, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Ido Shahar 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.
Ido Shahar 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.
9 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Octavio Bianchi signs something — a contract at Hapoel Haifa or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Samuel Reis trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Raheem Nugraha will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hapoel Haifa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Willy Agada and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
At 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.
Sa'ar Fadida was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Hapoel Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Itay Buganim is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alon Turgeman signs something — a contract at Hapoel Haifa or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
46 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
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 Bruno Ramires has written the date down.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Hapoel Haifa, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Liran Rotman
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Hapoel Haifa is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hapoel Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Evaristo Dieguiz is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Hapoel Haifa will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Omer Bonder has moved up it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hapoel Haifa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rotem Hatuel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Octavio Bianchi signs something — a contract at Hapoel Haifa or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yaad Gonen 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 Hapoel Haifa can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Hapoel Haifa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Sa'ar Fadida 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 medical room confirms 16 days on the sidelines for Eitan Levy, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Hapoel Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rotem Hatuel 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 Rotem Hatuel
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hapoel Haifa can pretend not to have heard.
Willy Agada 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Régis N'do has improved at 26, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
9 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alon Turgeman signs something — a contract at Hapoel Haifa or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Position 5 on 46 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hapoel Haifa can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Hapoel Haifa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Ido Shahar 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.
7 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
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.
The shirt still fits. Ido Shahar is back at Hapoel Haifa, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Hapoel Haifa have done the hard part with Estudiantes, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
At 30 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.
Ido Shahar was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $3.7M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Hapoel Haifa asked and Voluntari said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
$3.7M 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.
The chase for Daniel Felczer ended with $680.0K changing hands and Hapoel Tel Aviv out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Sa'ar Fadida 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 chase for Jonathan Agyapong ended with $560.0K changing hands and Bnei Yehuda out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Sa'ar Fadida was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Slovan Liberec have kept their man, and Hapoel Haifa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Hapoel Haifa have made the call to Racing Club. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sa'ar Fadida trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The clubs have shaken hands with Bnei Yehuda; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Hapoel Haifa is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hapoel Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Hapoel Haifa than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
The registration window is open and the phone has started. Between now and the deadline this club will be linked with forty players and sign three, which is the usual ratio.
In brief
SquadSa'ar Fadida has seen what the next man earns
Alon Turgeman was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The loan was meant to give him football. 3 games and 0 goals later he is back at Hapoel Haifa no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their doing.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alon Turgeman trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Hapoel Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shai Belhassen 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Hapoel Haifa know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Hapoel Haifa will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Willy Agada 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 Sa'ar Fadida was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Hapoel Haifa. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Lior Weissman 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 Andrija Radulović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Yoav Gerafi is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Hapoel Haifa know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Position 5, 46 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Hapoel Haifa. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Through a full week of training without a reaction, and already asking for a place. Hapoel Haifa will be careful with him and he will resent every day of it.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Hapoel Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrija Radulović 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hapoel Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I did not go to Hapoel Kfar Saba to sit and watch. I want to come back to Hapoel Haifa and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
“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.
Loan watch10 May 2027
Yoav Gerafi’s loan is measured in nothing happening
8 clean sheets from 25 appearances at Hapoel Haifa. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
In brief
The dugoutItay Buganim knocks on the manager's door
Alon Turgeman was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Hapoel Haifa know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rotem Hatuel 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.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Octavio Bianchi plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hapoel Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrija Radulović 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 Bruno Ramires has written the date down.
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.
Willy Agada 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 Andrija Radulović 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Hapoel Haifa, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Position 5, 46 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
Sharpest man there all week, by every account. It is the quietest line on this page and it usually runs the week before somebody’s run in the side begins.
Alon Turgeman was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
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. Eli Peretz 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. Dor Revivo is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“I did not go to Hapoel Kfar Saba to sit and watch. I want to come back to Hapoel Haifa and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
25 appearances at Hapoel Haifa and the goals have stopped going in. Hapoel Haifa lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
He 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hapoel Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Hapoel Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrija Radulović 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.
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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Hapoel Haifa. 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Hapoel Haifa know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Hapoel Haifa. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Octavio Bianchi plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
The least glamorous thing a foreign signing ever does and the one that decides most of them. A player who can hear the shout behind him is a different footballer from one who cannot.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Hapoel Haifa may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Hapoel Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrija Radulović 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.
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.
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Hapoel Haifa that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
46 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Sa'ar Fadida has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
Alon Turgeman was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
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 watch every Hapoel Haifa game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Hapoel Kfar Saba runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dario Župarić and Hapoel Haifa agree another 2 years.
Alon Turgeman 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.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Hapoel Haifa told Dor Malul something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Willy Agada 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 Andrija Radulović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Hapoel Haifa told Octavio Bianchi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Hapoel Haifa know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 46 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hapoel Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrija Radulović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Shon Abada after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody at Hapoel Haifa will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The 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 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.
9 combined actions and 7.14. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Shon Abada, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Alon Turgeman 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Octavio Bianchi. 4‑3 against Bnei Yehuda, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Hapoel Haifa and Bnei Yehuda, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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.
Player ratingsWilly Agada was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Player ratingsAndrija Radulović was on a different afternoon to everybody else
27Edition
The Hapoel Haifa Chronicle
1 Feb 2027
From our football correspondentSteady
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Hapoel Haifa close the window on a squad of their own making
5 in and 2 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrija Radulović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Maccabi Netanya paid $100.0K and Hapoel Haifa took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The name of Adi Atzili has come up in conversations Hapoel Haifa were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“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 Hapoel Haifa, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Hapoel Kfar Saba for Roei Zikri 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 Monaco is saying, and nobody at Hapoel Haifa 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 Hapoel Haifa 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 19 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Shai Elias scored, was marked 7.86, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Alon Turgeman was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
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. Maccabi Tel Aviv have kept their man, and Hapoel Haifa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The name of Roei Zikri has come up in conversations Hapoel Haifa were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
8.01. 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.
Hapoel Haifa have made the call to Estudiantes. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hapoel Haifa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hapoel Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 21 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.
Add another name to the list: Hapoel Beer Sheva have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Régis N'do. The answer from Hapoel Haifa has not changed — yet.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Andrija Radulović. 2‑0 against Hapoel Raanana, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ofir Shechter 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Eli Solomon 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 words a physio says slowly. 33 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.43 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Hapoel Haifa will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Willy Agada 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.
A loan enquiry to Maccabi Netanya: 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
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Roei Zikri
The dugoutBruno Ramires knocks on the manager’s door
41 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Hapoel Haifa lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Willy Agada 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.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrija Radulović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
200 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Shon Abada left the room before anybody could ask which.
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 Yoav Gerafi is on it.
In brief
The dugoutBruno Ramires knocks on the manager’s door
50 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Hapoel Haifa lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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 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.
Hapoel Tel Aviv left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout21 Dec 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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Shon Abada to a room that had heard them before.
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.
59 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hapoel Haifa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Alon Turgeman 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Hapoel Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrija Radulović is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Willy Agada. 2‑1 against Maccabi Netanya, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 12 combined actions and a mark of 7.78, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Tomer 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Shon Shechter 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.
Marked 8.28 — 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hapoel Haifa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Bruno Ramires, and the manager let it.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Willy Agada's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Shon Abada after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer 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 Hapoel Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Hapoel Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrija Radulović 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 fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
8.23. 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Nobody at Hapoel Haifa will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Shon Abada after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
In brief
The dugoutDor Malul dropped after a run of poor form
A performance of 8.26 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Sa'ar Fadida was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.22. 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.
Position 3, 26 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Shon Abada could afford to be generous.
Successful dribbles: 30. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hapoel Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrija Radulović 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.” Shon Abada on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
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.
Willy Agada 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Matan Refaelov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
8.05. 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.
Maccabi Haifa held the lead for 2 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Hapoel Haifa answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
Match31 Oct 2026
After 4 games, Hapoel Haifa finally taste it again
The first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Maccabi Haifa; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
The award goes to Andrija Radulović, and nobody around here is inclined to argue with the choice.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 2‑3 Shon Abada left the room before anybody could ask which.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Yoav Gerafi is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
In brief
The dugoutYoav Gerafi has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutDor Malul dropped after a run of poor form
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 93th minute. Maccabi Petach Tikva will replay every second of the added time for a week.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Alon Turgeman was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrija Radulović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.14 — 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.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Alon Turgeman and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
The 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.
8.38. 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Shai Elias was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.20. 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.00 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 21 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.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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 dugout12 Oct 2026
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.” Shon Abada kept it short after the 4‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Two goals and a mark of 8.44 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Willy Agada 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.
8 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.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Hapoel Haifa than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
At 19 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Hapoel Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrija Radulović 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 are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
In brief
The dugoutYoav Gerafi has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Dario Župarić
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hapoel Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Shon Abada left the room before anybody could ask which.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Willy Agada has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Shai Elias’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Hapoel Haifa needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.