49 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hapoel Kfar Saba lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Amit Lemkin 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 had been thinking. Yoan Stoyanov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Hapoel Kfar Saba can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“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 Kfar Saba, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Hapoel Kiryat Shmona in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Hapoel Kfar Saba has to find a result from somewhere.
Amit Lemkin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Yoan Stoyanov 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.
Marked 6.53 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Hapoel Kfar Saba, and it is not being withdrawn.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Hapoel Kfar Saba is running low.
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.
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 Kfar Saba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Masato Yuzawa is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Hapoel Kfar Saba can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hapoel Kfar Saba can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hapoel Kfar Saba have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Amit Lemkin was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yoan Stoyanov 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 music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout25 Oct 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 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Tal Levy to a room that had heard them before.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
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 Kfar Saba 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 Yoan Stoyanov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout18 Oct 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.” Tal Levy chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Amit Lemkin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Masato Yuzawa falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Roy Harel, and the manager let it.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Gitai Sofir'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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Maccabi Petach Tikva in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Amit Lemkin signs something — a contract at Hapoel Kfar Saba or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yoan Stoyanov 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.
Yoyo Aviv 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 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.
13 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Hapoel Raanana were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
1-5, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
Amit Lemkin 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 Kfar Saba and Hapoel Tel Aviv in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Yoan Stoyanov 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.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
12 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.
6 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hapoel Kfar Saba have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Amit Lemkin 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 Masato Yuzawa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“I did not go to Bnei Yehuda to sit and watch. I want to come back to Hapoel Kfar Saba and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Hapoel Kfar Saba had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Maccabi Haifa, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yoan Stoyanov 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.
Hapoel Kfar Saba asked and Maccabi Haifa said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 Kfar Saba, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 28 signed and 11 gone
That is the business done at Hapoel Kfar Saba until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
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 Kfar Saba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Yoan Stoyanov 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.
Hapoel Kfar Saba asked and Katsina United said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Hapoel Kfar Saba has to find a result from somewhere.
0‑3 against Hapoel Tel Aviv, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hapoel Kfar Saba have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Kfar Saba can pretend not to have heard.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
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 Kfar Saba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yoan Stoyanov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Hapoel Kfar Saba know it.
15 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Hapoel Kfar Saba, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Hapoel Kfar Saba is running low.
“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 Kfar Saba, and it is not being withdrawn.
The name of Gilbert Bandama has come up in conversations Hapoel Kfar Saba were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yoan Stoyanov 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.
Yoyo Aviv 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Konadu Yiadom
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Hapoel Kfar Saba lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hapoel Kfar Saba can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hapoel Kfar Saba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Hapoel Kfar Saba are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“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 Kfar Saba, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Niv Tubul'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.
Still no offer on the table, and Almog Elshtein’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
The words a physio says slowly. 27 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Hapoel Kfar Saba people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The chase for Amit Cohen ended with $830.0K changing hands and Maccabi Netanya out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Amit Lemkin 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 the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $830.0K for Amit Cohen, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
34 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Hapoel Kfar Saba 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 Kfar Saba, and it is not being withdrawn.
Amit Lemkin 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 Yoan Stoyanov 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. Hearts of Oak have kept their man, and Hapoel Kfar Saba go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The name of Glenn Alvin has come up in conversations Hapoel Kfar Saba were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
12 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“I did not go to Bnei Yehuda to sit and watch. I want to come back to Hapoel Kfar Saba and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
Katsina United have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
41 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Hapoel Kfar Saba lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $95.9K of what Hapoel Kfar Saba paid for Yaad Gonen is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Hapoel Kfar Saba have done the hard part with Nasarawa United, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Amit Lemkin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Konadu Yiadom 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.
48 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hapoel Kfar Saba lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Kfar Saba can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to Maccabi Netanya; Hapoel Kfar Saba go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yoan Stoyanov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Hapoel Kfar Saba asked and Barau said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Sacha Deighton 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 not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Hapoel Kfar Saba told Konadu Yiadom something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Hapoel Kfar Saba will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Tal Levy has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
“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 Kfar Saba can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yoan Stoyanov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Hapoel Kfar Saba will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Bnei Sakhnin did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $350.0K for Abed Yassin, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
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 Kfar Saba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Glenn Alvin has come up in conversations Hapoel Kfar Saba were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Hapoel Kfar Saba is running low.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 30 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Kfar Saba can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have shaken hands with Bnei Sakhnin; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Yoyo Aviv has just signed for Hapoel Kfar Saba, and for once the answer mattered.
$410.0K was the most the club would pay and Hapoel Haifa were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hapoel Kfar Saba will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Kfar Saba can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to Hapoel Beer Sheva; Hapoel Kfar Saba go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Maccabi Tel Aviv have kept their man, and Hapoel Kfar Saba go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Hapoel Kfar Saba have gone to Hapoel Haifa with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
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 Kfar Saba 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 Yoan Stoyanov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sacha Deighton and Hapoel Kfar Saba agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“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 Kfar Saba, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Hapoel Kfar Saba have done the hard part with Hapoel Beer Sheva, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Kaishin Sekiguchi is living that version at Hapoel Kfar Saba, and it tends to show in the first month.
Amit Lemkin 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.
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 $1.5M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Konadu Yiadom was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Kfar Saba can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hapoel Kfar Saba 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 Yoan Stoyanov 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 Kfar Saba. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Niv Vaknin keeps the shirt for now, at Hapoel Kfar Saba's convenience rather than his own.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Liran Shpigel 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Yoan Stoyanov falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alon Demol, and the manager let it.
The dugout24 May 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Niv Tubul'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.
“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 Kfar Saba, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Ali Mohamed 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.
Squad17 May 2027
Konadu Yiadom falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Sahar Hershkovich is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Hapoel Kfar Saba. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“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 Kfar Saba, and it is not being withdrawn.
Amit Lemkin 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.
Squad10 May 2027
Yoan Stoyanov 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“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 Kfar Saba, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gilbert Bandama signs something — a contract at Hapoel Kfar Saba or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Tal Levy has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Amit Lemkin 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 had been thinking. Yoan Stoyanov 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Hapoel Kfar Saba are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Yoan Stoyanov's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
“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 Kfar Saba, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Maor Erlich has been around long enough to know what the spring feels like when it goes wrong, and he can feel it. A dressing room that is frightened plays like one.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Hapoel Kfar Saba is running low.
Position 13 and 14 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hapoel Kfar Saba can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Konadu Yiadom 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Hapoel Kfar Saba, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Niv Tubul'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.
In brief
The terracesThe stands have heard the Gilbert Bandama talk too
“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 Kfar Saba, and it is not being withdrawn.
Liran Shpigel 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 Yoan Stoyanov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Razi Abu Hamdan trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Hapoel Kfar Saba 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.
“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 Kfar Saba can pretend not to have heard.
At 20 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.
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 Kfar Saba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Something was said to Maor Erlich and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Omer Korsia 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Hapoel Kfar Saba can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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 Kfar Saba can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Liran Shpigel and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Konadu Yiadom 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Hapoel Kfar Saba are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Position 13 and 14 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Hapoel Kfar Saba, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Ali Mohamed 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Yoan Stoyanov 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 dugout29 Mar 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Niv Tubul'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.
“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 Kfar Saba can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Amit Lemkin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Yoan Stoyanov 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.
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.
Something was said to Omri Shamir and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Hapoel Kfar Saba has to find a result from somewhere.
0‑3 to Maccabi Netanya, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 14 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
“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 Kfar Saba, and it is not being withdrawn.
Amit Lemkin and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Hapoel Kfar Saba are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Konadu Yiadom was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Hapoel Kfar Saba has to find a result from somewhere.
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.
Amit Lemkin was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yoan Stoyanov 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 stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“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 Kfar Saba can pretend not to have heard.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Hapoel Kfar Saba can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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 Kfar Saba 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 Yoan Stoyanov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad1 Mar 2027
A last season at home is what Júlio César is after
It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
“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 Kfar Saba can pretend not to have heard.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Razi Abu Hamdan was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Konadu Yiadom 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.
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Amit Arazi will call it something else in private.
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 Kfar Saba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Yoan Stoyanov 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.
“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 Kfar Saba, and it is not being withdrawn.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Sacha Deighton has, at Hapoel Kfar Saba, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yoan Stoyanov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Hapoel Kfar Saba asked and Hapoel Kiryat Shmona said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Hapoel Kfar Saba will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Hapoel Kfar Saba is running low.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The fee is $1.8M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Maccabi Haifa drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
1 for Ali Mohamed, marked 7.63, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Hapoel Kfar Saba will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Hapoel Kfar Saba have done the hard part with Maccabi Haifa, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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: Yoan Stoyanov from Hapoel Beer Sheva for $2.6M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Hapoel Kfar Saba asked and Bnei Sakhnin said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Hapoel Kfar Saba will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
$2.6M settles it between the clubs for Yoan Stoyanov
Hapoel Beer Sheva have accepted the money. What Hapoel Kfar Saba 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Amit Lemkin and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bnei Sakhnin have kept their man, and Hapoel Kfar Saba go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
A point taken on 89 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 41 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Issa Karakodio is living that version at Hapoel Kfar Saba, and it tends to show in the first month.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Júlio César. 1‑0 against Hapoel Raanana, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 48 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 93th minute. Hapoel Acre will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Two goals and a mark of 8.14 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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 Kfar Saba, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Razi Abu Hamdan 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: Gilbert Bandama. 3‑2 against Hapoel Acre, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Hapoel Kfar Saba asked and Maccabi Tel Aviv said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
In brief
Player ratingsDan Kaduri ran the middle of the pitch — 6.70
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Hapoel Kfar Saba will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Position 14 and 6 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
7.61, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Razi Abu Hamdan 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 64 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
At 20 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.
Amit Lemkin 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 door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
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 1‑4 defeat, delivered by Tal Levy to a room that had heard them before.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sarel Cohen 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 team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Hapoel Beer Sheva.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Hapoel Kfar Saba will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Amit Lemkin 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.
Position 13, 6 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hamza Shibli, and the manager let it.
The dugout14 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 Tal Levy left the room before anybody could ask which.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Omer Korsia 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.
Nobody at Hapoel Kfar Saba is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Hapoel Tel Aviv in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Hapoel Kfar Saba will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
0‑3 to Maccabi Tel Aviv, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
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 Kfar Saba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout7 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 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Tal Levy to a room that had heard them before.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Omer Korsia is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Hapoel Kfar Saba will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear 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 Sahar Hershkovich is on it.
In brief
The dugoutNiv Tubul is still being punished for one mistake
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Hapoel Kfar Saba will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Position 13 and 6 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Gilbert Bandama did not need any: 7.85, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Gilbert Bandama has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
11 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Hapoel Kfar Saba has to find a result from somewhere.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 93 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
0‑3 to Hapoel Kiryat Shmona, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Hapoel Kfar Saba can tell you which week it ends in.
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 Kfar Saba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sarel Cohen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hapoel Kfar Saba will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Konadu Yiadom 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Hapoel Kiryat Shmona in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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 Kfar Saba, and both men came out saying it was fine.
0‑3 against Beitar Jerusalem, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Razi Abu Hamdan 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.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Konadu Yiadom 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.
Position 14 and 3 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
The young player of the month award goes to a 20-year-old at Hapoel Kfar Saba who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Amit Lemkin 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Konadu Yiadom 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.
16 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Tal Levy after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Something was said to Sahar Hershkovich and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Maccabi Petach Tikva kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Hapoel Kfar Saba will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Amit Lemkin 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.
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Konadu Yiadom 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.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
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.
Liran Shpigel 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 happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 39 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Hapoel Kfar Saba can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Nobody at Hapoel Kfar Saba 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Maccabi Petach Tikva in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
In brief
The dugoutGitai Sofir knocks on the manager's door
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Gilbert Bandama, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.83
A mark of 7.83 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
At 20 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.
Liran Shpigel 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 Konadu Yiadom was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
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 Kfar Saba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Konadu Yiadom 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 was no pressure on him and nowhere he had to be. Hapoel Kfar Saba lost a goal to a decision that took half a second and will be discussed all week.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Tal Levy after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Hapoel Raanana next, and one man in the Hapoel Kfar Saba dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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.
“If we are going to be beaten, let it not be because somebody in here could not be bothered.” He stood up and said it in front of everybody, which is a thing a squad remembers about a man for years.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gilbert Bandama signs something — a contract at Hapoel Kfar Saba or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Hapoel Kfar Saba offered $370.0K; Hapoel Tel Aviv said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
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 Kfar Saba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Konadu Yiadom 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 dugout14 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 1‑3 Tal Levy left the room before anybody could ask which.
Hapoel Acre next, and one man in the Hapoel Kfar Saba dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Nobody at Hapoel Kfar Saba is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 17 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Hapoel Kfar Saba offered $1.1M; Maccabi Netanya said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.1M — a club that wants Maor Levi enough to be asked twice.
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.
Gilbert Bandama, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.65
A mark of 7.65 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The offer went to Maccabi Netanya this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Maccabi Tel Aviv wanted more than $1.0M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.3M — a club that wants Sagiv Jehezkel enough to be asked twice.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hapoel Kfar Saba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
14 combined actions and 6.76. 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.
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: Amit Lemkin from Hapoel Tel Aviv for $870.0K, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Hapoel Kfar Saba have done the hard part with Hapoel Tel Aviv, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Hapoel Kfar Saba have gone to Maccabi Tel Aviv with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Konadu Yiadom was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The plan went upstairs and came back down. Nothing about that will make a headline anywhere else, and everybody who works at the training ground will remember it for years.
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.
Hapoel Tel Aviv next, and one man in the Hapoel Kfar Saba dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
A season-long look at somebody else’s player: Sahar Hershkovich arrives from Bnei Yehuda with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Hapoel Kfar Saba have done the hard part with Bnei Yehuda, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
$650.0K was the most the club would pay and Maccabi Haifa were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Razi Abu Hamdan 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 had been thinking. Konadu Yiadom 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 competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Konadu Yiadom keeps the shirt for now, at Hapoel Kfar Saba's convenience rather than his own.
$1.2M was the most the club would pay and Maccabi Haifa were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Hapoel Kfar Saba have gone to Maccabi Haifa with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Maccabi Haifa keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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 Kfar Saba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Hapoel Kfar Saba asked and Bnei Yehuda said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ori Dabbur is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Matan Glazer 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. Omer Weissman is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Itay Natcho is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The offer went to Maccabi Haifa this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Konadu Yiadom and Hapoel Kfar Saba agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Razi Abu Hamdan was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Konadu Yiadom 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.
12 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.