The clubs have shaken hands with Hapoel Haifa; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
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.
4 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Maccabi Tel Aviv have kept their man, and Hapoel Kiryat Shmona go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amit Lemkin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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.
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.
Hapoel Kiryat Shmona 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jwan Halabi and Hapoel Kiryat Shmona agree another 3 years.
“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 Kiryat Shmona know it.
Ramzi Safouri 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Yaw Ackah 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: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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 Avi Levy left the room before anybody could ask which.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yaw Ackah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Nemanja Ljubisavljević 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.
Position 9, 14 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Avi Levy after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Ten men and a goalkeeper behind him, and it still finished in the net. He knew before anybody told him, and nobody at Hapoel Kiryat Shmona needed to.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Denny Gropper'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.
13 combined actions and 6.85. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yaw Ackah 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 run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Hapoel Kiryat Shmona have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Avi Levy after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Yahav Afriat 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.
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.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
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 Kiryat Shmona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yaw Ackah 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.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ramzi Safouri. 1‑0 against Maccabi Petach Tikva, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Amit Lemkin did not need any: 8.21, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
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 Kiryat Shmona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A 3‑1 win over Hapoel Kfar Saba, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
At 21 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Avi Levy on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Nemanja Ljubisavljević 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.
20 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Yaw Ackah falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Daniel wants continental football; whether Hapoel Kiryat Shmona can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Something was said to Jwan Halabi and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Yahav Afriat’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Hapoel Kiryat Shmona needing him to play as if none of it matters.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Amit Glazer signs something — a contract at Hapoel Kiryat Shmona or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Hapoel Raanana, and it could have been more.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
A brace, and Ramzi Safouri takes the afternoon — 9.47
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ramzi Safouri provided it, and the 9.47 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Amit Glazer and Hapoel Kiryat Shmona agree another 4 years.
Ramzi Safouri 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. Yaw Ackah 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 dugout9 Nov 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.” Avi Levy kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“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 Kiryat Shmona, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Two goals and a mark of 9.02 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rüfət Abdullazadə was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Ramzi Safouri had Hapoel Kiryat Shmona level again within 4 minutes, and Hapoel Acre never got to play with a lead at all.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Avi Levy on a 3‑2 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
In brief
The dugoutAviv Avraham asks for a word with the manager
The words a physio says slowly. 21 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
6 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Hapoel Kiryat Shmona can tell you which week it ends in.
Nemanja Ljubisavljević 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. Yaw Ackah 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 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
In brief
The dugoutAviv Avraham knocks on the manager’s door
The words a physio says slowly. 30 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 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.
Nemanja Ljubisavljević 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. Denis Kulikov is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yaw Ackah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yahav Afriat, and the manager let it.
The dugout19 Oct 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 0‑2 Avi Levy left the room before anybody could ask which.
38 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Hapoel Kiryat Shmona lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Hapoel Kiryat Shmona may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Yaw Ackah and Hapoel Kiryat Shmona agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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 is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Hapoel Kiryat Shmona told Nevot Ratner something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The words a physio says slowly. 46 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
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.
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.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Hapoel Kiryat Shmona can tell you which week it ends in.
Aviv Avraham 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 Yaw Ackah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Hapoel Kiryat Shmona game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Bnei Yehuda runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
54 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hapoel Kiryat Shmona lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Out, 0‑1 to Maccabi Petach Tikva, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Nemanja Ljubisavljević 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 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 Rüfət Abdullazadə was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Avi Levy after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Successful dribbles: 34. 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Avi Levy after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Jwan Halabi
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Denny Gropper’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Hapoel Kiryat Shmona needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ovadia Darwish trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Santos is saying, and nobody at Hapoel Kiryat Shmona is enjoying the guessing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cruzeiro have kept their man, and Hapoel Kiryat Shmona go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yaw Ackah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hapoel Kiryat Shmona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Hapoel Kiryat Shmona can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Avi Levy after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
“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 Kiryat Shmona can pretend not to have heard.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 22 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The deal with Santos is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hapoel Kiryat Shmona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Hapoel Kiryat Shmona asked and Gimnasia La Plata said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yaw Ackah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Hapoel Kiryat Shmona will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 11 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Nemanja Ljubisavljević 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. Rüfət Abdullazadə 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 were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Avi Levy after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Hapoel Kiryat Shmona have made the call to Santos. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Hapoel Kiryat Shmona are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Cruzeiro keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Nemanja Ljubisavljević 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. Ramzi Safouri 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.
Maccabi Netanya have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Hapoel Tel Aviv have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Tomer Dabbur and Hapoel Kiryat Shmona agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It is the quietest way a club tells you what its ambitions are. The money was asked for, the money was refused, and the people who work there every day now know exactly where they stand.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Beitar Jerusalem have kept their man, and Hapoel Kiryat Shmona go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Hapoel Kiryat Shmona are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mor Siman-Tov 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 new face in his position, and Nemanja Ljubisavljević suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Hapoel Kiryat Shmona have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
A season-long audition: Maccabi Tel Aviv still own him, but the shirt and the minutes are Hapoel Kiryat Shmona's to give. A loan is a bet both clubs believe they are winning.
Everything agreed with Bnei Yehuda, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Atlético Tucumán keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Nemanja Ljubisavljević 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. Audax Italiano have kept their man, and Hapoel Kiryat Shmona go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ben Dabbur 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 David 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. Tomer Revivo is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Adi Weissman has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nemanja Ljubisavljević and Hapoel Kiryat Shmona agree another 4 years.
Ramzi Safouri 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. Hapoel Tel Aviv have kept their man, and Hapoel Kiryat Shmona 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 Kiryat Shmona will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Still no offer on the table, and Nemanja Ljubisavljević’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.