“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 The request is on a desk at Hapoel Kiryat Shmona, and it is not being withdrawn.
Silva Kani scored, and precious little else went right: 2‑3 to Bnei Sakhnin, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Ramzi Safouri 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.
47 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout3 Jan 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 2‑3 Tomer David left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
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.
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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 10 actions, 7.55, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Jubayer Bushnak 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 dugout27 Dec 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Tomer David to a room that had heard them before.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Bnei Sakhnin in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Nobody at Hapoel Kiryat Shmona 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.
A brace, and Silva Kani takes the afternoon — 8.61
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Silva Kani provided it, and the 8.61 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Hapoel Kiryat Shmona is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
A 4‑3 win over Beitar Jerusalem, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Hapoel Kiryat Shmona and Beitar Jerusalem in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Daniel, and the manager let it.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
Ramzi Safouri was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.11. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Itzik Shoolmayster 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.
In brief
SquadLiran Hazan falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Tal Archel 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 not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Hapoel Haifa defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
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 Shay Ben-David is on it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 12 combined actions and a mark of 7.72, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
A 1‑0 win over Maccabi Haifa, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The young player of the month award goes to a 21-year-old at Hapoel Kiryat Shmona who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Hapoel Kiryat Shmona, another week without a signature from Daniel.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tal Archel 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Tomer David could afford to be generous.
Maccabi Petach Tikva will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Hapoel Kiryat Shmona were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hapoel Kiryat Shmona have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yahav Afriat was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Tomer David, on a 3‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yahav Afriat will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hapoel Kiryat Shmona the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ariel Sheratzky, and the manager let it.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Yoav Koren falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Silva Kani trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout22 Nov 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.” Tomer David chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tal Archel 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.
Dor Benyamini 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 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.
Nobody at Hapoel Kiryat Shmona 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 Hapoel Kfar Saba in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Hapoel Kiryat Shmona would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tal Archel 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 dugout8 Nov 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Tomer David to a room that had heard them before.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 90th minute. Hapoel Acre will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
A brace, and Liran Hazan takes the afternoon — 8.37
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Liran Hazan provided it, and the 8.37 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Liran Hazan 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.
Marked 8.18 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Jubayer Bushnak 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.
1‑4 to Hapoel Beer Sheva, 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.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Hapoel Kiryat Shmona may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Hapoel Kiryat Shmona they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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. Tal Archel 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hapoel Kiryat Shmona have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Itzik Shoolmayster 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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Tal Archel 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Tomer David after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Liran Hazan is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Shay Ben-David is on it.
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.
Hapoel Kiryat Shmona have let the market know Gilbert Bandama can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
“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.
Next up on the road: Hapoel Tel Aviv, position 3. The supporters who go will talk about it all week and the ones who do not will check their phones at ten to five.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Stanley Amuzie and Hapoel Kiryat Shmona agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The young player of the month award goes to a 21-year-old at Hapoel Kiryat Shmona who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tal Archel 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 month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Gilbert Bandama is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ben Lederman trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
0‑4 against Maccabi Tel Aviv, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Bnei Sakhnin go through and Hapoel Kiryat Shmona go home, 1‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hapoel Kiryat Shmona have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Hapoel Kiryat Shmona is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Santos keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Ramon Tanque 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yoav Koren is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Gilbert Bandama did not need any: 7.91, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Gilbert Bandama reports back to Hapoel Kiryat Shmona with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 27 signed and 7 gone
That is the business done at Hapoel Kiryat Shmona 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.
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.
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.
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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Yoav Koren 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.
Maccabi 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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Yahav Afriat is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Hapoel Kiryat Shmona has been clear about where Belal Shahen stands, which is more than many ever get.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Jamiu Sulaimon
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Hapoel Kiryat Shmona they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Hapoel Kiryat Shmona may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Hapoel Kiryat Shmona have done the hard part with Hapoel Beer Sheva, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Internacional is saying, and nobody at Hapoel Kiryat Shmona is enjoying the guessing.
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Hapoel Kiryat Shmona have done the hard part with Persib, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Santos keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
14 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roy Harel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Hapoel Kiryat Shmona have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Position 12 and 18 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.
Hapoel Kiryat Shmona asked and Hapoel Beer Sheva said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Hapoel Kiryat Shmona will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jubayer Bushnak was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The name of Yahav Afriat has come up in conversations Hapoel Kiryat Shmona were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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. Jubayer Bushnak 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 Kiryat Shmona have made the call to São Paulo. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Hapoel Kiryat Shmona, another week without a signature from Yahav Afriat.
“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.
114 appearances across 9 seasons in one shirt. Careers like that are not built on purpose any more, and Hapoel Kiryat Shmona know exactly what they have.
Bnei Sakhnin will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Arinze Ogbonna has pre-agreed a move to Hapoel Kiryat Shmona, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
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.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Amit Glazer 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.
He is 20, and nobody at Hapoel Kiryat Shmona signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
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 Kiryat Shmona have made the call to Maccabi Petach Tikva. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Amit Glazer trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Hapoel Kiryat Shmona have done the hard part with Hapoel Tel Aviv, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bnei Yehuda have kept their man, and Hapoel Kiryat Shmona go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
10 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Ariel Sheratzky has written the date down.
A new face in his position, and Amit Glazer suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Hapoel Kiryat Shmona have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
“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.
Jubayer Bushnak 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 Omer Abuhav was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Matan Ambar and Hapoel Kiryat Shmona agree another 2 years.
A new face in his position, and Amit Glazer suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Hapoel Kiryat Shmona have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Belal Shahen has written the date down.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Shay Ben-David trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Jwan Halabi 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.
Ben Sørensen is 19, and Hapoel Kiryat Shmona have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Omer Abuhav was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gilbert Bandama trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The offer went to Hapoel Haifa this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bnei Sakhnin have kept their man, and Hapoel Kiryat Shmona go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Hapoel Kiryat Shmona told Yahav Afriat something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Roy Harel 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.
“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.
“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 Kiryat Shmona, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Hapoel Kiryat Shmona is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Hapoel Kiryat Shmona have done the hard part with Maccabi Petach Tikva, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
Naftali Balay and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Bnei Sakhnin 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 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.
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.
“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 Kiryat Shmona, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Hapoel Kiryat Shmona have made the call to Hapoel Kfar Saba. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Maccabi Petach Tikva 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 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ariel Sheratzky trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Hapoel Kiryat Shmona have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Bnei Sakhnin paid $86.0K and Hapoel Kiryat Shmona took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Jubayer Bushnak 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.
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 table is being checked before the results are in, which is always the tell. Nobody at Hapoel Kiryat Shmona says the word and every senior player in the building is thinking it.
A new face in his position, and Ramzi Safouri suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Hapoel Kiryat Shmona have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
“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.
Hapoel Kiryat Shmona asked and Hapoel 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.
Add another name to the list: Hapoel Haifa have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Or Hasin. The answer from Hapoel Kiryat Shmona has not changed — yet.
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.
Itzik Shoolmayster 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.
Hapoel Kiryat Shmona have made the call to Maccabi Tel Aviv. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gilbert Bandama signs something — a contract at Hapoel Kiryat Shmona or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Itzik Shoolmayster 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 12 and 18 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 Kiryat Shmona can pretend not to have heard.
Squad24 May 2027
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.
Jwan Halabi 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 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.
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.
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.
Something was said to Ariel Sheratzky and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
Somebody to talk to at the next peg, a few words of the language, and a training ground that has stopped being a foreign country. It never appears in a scouting report and it decides most signings.
The words a physio says slowly. 18 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hapoel Kiryat Shmona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Hapoel Kiryat Shmona, another week without a signature from Yahav Afriat.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gilbert Bandama signs something — a contract at Hapoel Kiryat Shmona or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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.
26 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.
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.
Naftali Balay and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
The words a physio says slowly. 33 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Position 12, 18 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad26 Apr 2027
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 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.
41 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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Yahav Afriat has written the date down.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
In brief
SquadYaw Ackah is training like a man with a point to make
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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
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.
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.
Ido Vayer 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.
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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Rüfət Abdullazadə is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Position 12 and 18 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.
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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Ariel Sheratzky has written the date down.
Daniel has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
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.
Ariel Sheratzky and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Hapoel Kiryat Shmona. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Matan Zelmanovics may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Hapoel Kiryat Shmona the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 18 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.92, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ramzi Safouri. 2‑1 against Hapoel Haifa, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Naftali Balay 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 dugout15 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Tomer David kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Hapoel Kiryat Shmona pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Hapoel Kiryat Shmona has to find a result from somewhere.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Tomer David to a room that had heard them before.
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.
Hapoel Haifa next, and one man in the Hapoel Kiryat Shmona dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Position 14 and 15 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 tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Hapoel Kiryat Shmona can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad1 Mar 2027
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.
Lior Kasa and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Hapoel Kiryat Shmona pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“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.
“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.
Gilbert Bandama 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.
0‑1 to Hapoel Kfar Saba, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Tomer David to a room that had heard them before.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gilbert Bandama trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Maccabi Petach Tikva next, and one man in the Hapoel Kiryat Shmona dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Lior Kasa did not need any: 7.84, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
Ido Vayer 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.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
Marked 4.66. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Hapoel Kfar Saba in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Two goals and a mark of 8.73 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It had gone 10 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Squad8 Feb 2027
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Argentino de Quilmes have kept their man, and Hapoel Kiryat Shmona go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ramzi Safouri. 2‑1 against Hapoel Acre, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
5 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutNo place for Yahav Afriat on the big day
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Hapoel Kiryat Shmona has to find a result from somewhere.
“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.
3 in and 0 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 14 combined actions and a mark of 6.94, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hapoel Haifa have kept their man, and Hapoel Kiryat Shmona go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Hapoel Kiryat Shmona has to find a result from somewhere.
Hapoel Kiryat Shmona asked and Hapoel Beer Sheva said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Naftali Balay and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Tomer David left the room before anybody could ask which.
Hapoel Kiryat Shmona have made the call to Fluminense. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“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 Kiryat Shmona, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad18 Jan 2027
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.
Bnei Sakhnin will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Jubayer Bushnak has pre-agreed a move to Hapoel Kiryat Shmona, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
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.
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout18 Jan 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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Tomer David to a room that had heard them before.
Hapoel Haifa 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 loan enquiry to Hapoel Tel Aviv: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hapoel Kiryat Shmona have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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. 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.
Ido Vayer 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.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 14 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.
Position 12 and 11 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.
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Hapoel Kiryat Shmona has to find a result from somewhere.
Gilbert Bandama 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.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
In brief
SquadNiv Gabay falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Hapoel Kiryat Shmona has to find a result from somewhere.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Tomer David after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Ovadia Darwish’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.
The words a physio says slowly. 31 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.
“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 Kiryat Shmona, and it is not being withdrawn.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Gilbert Bandama did not need any: 7.68, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Bnei Yehuda next, and one man in the Hapoel Kiryat Shmona dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
40 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Renato Santos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Position 12, 10 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Tomer David to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout14 Dec 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.
Beitar Jerusalem next, and one man in the Hapoel Kiryat Shmona dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
In brief
The dugoutYahav Afriat knocks on the manager's door
47 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.
Position 12 and 10 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Hapoel Kiryat Shmona and Maccabi Haifa, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Aviv Avraham was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.03. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
54 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.
Yaw Ackah was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 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.
It needed Gilbert Bandama to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Maccabi Petach Tikva, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
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.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Tomer David was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Hapoel Kiryat Shmona dressing room was either.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Hapoel Kiryat Shmona have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
62 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Renato Santos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Eshimitu Gomino Eya 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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Ramzi Safouri was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.10. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Itzik Shoolmayster 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.
Something was said to Renato Santos and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
70 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Jamiu Sulaimon has just signed for Hapoel Kiryat Shmona, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
Jamiu Sulaimon is 20, and Hapoel Kiryat Shmona have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Hapoel Kfar Saba in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Awajo Asefa has written the date down.
Hapoel Kiryat Shmona have let the market know Matan Zelmanovics can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
In brief
The dugoutNaftali Balay asks for a word with the manager
79 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.
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 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.
Shots: 10. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Nobody at Hapoel Kiryat Shmona 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.
In brief
Player ratingsThe afternoon ran through Aviv Avraham
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Hapoel Kiryat Shmona may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Renato Santos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.06 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Hapoel Acre scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Hapoel Kiryat Shmona, another week without a signature from Gilbert Bandama.
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hapoel Kiryat Shmona have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hapoel 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Hapoel Acre in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“Nobody outside is coming to save us.” It was short, it was not comfortable, and by all accounts the Hapoel Kiryat Shmona squad were quieter afterwards than they had been all season.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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 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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 7.21, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
17 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Naftali Balay was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
A mark of 7.58, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Tomer David was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Hapoel Kiryat Shmona dressing room was either.
Yaw Ackah 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 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Renato Santos 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 Tel Aviv next, and one man in the Hapoel Kiryat Shmona dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Shay Ben-David has written the date down.
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.
A 1‑0 win over Maccabi Netanya, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.04, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Lior Kasa is the division's best young player this month
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Hapoel Kiryat Shmona will try very hard not to make too much of it.
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.
16 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Tomer David, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
The dugoutRenato Santos asks for a word with the manager
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.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Harel Goldenberg is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Maccabi Tel Aviv left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Tomer David to a room that had heard them before.
“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.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Lior Kasa did not need any: 7.61, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Ramzi Safouri and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Renato Santos 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 particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Lior Kasa has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The goal that put Bnei Sakhnin ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Hapoel Kiryat Shmona equalised, 2 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Tomer David after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Renato Santos 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 done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Hapoel Kiryat Shmona will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
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.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Hapoel Kiryat Shmona have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 24 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Hapoel Kiryat Shmona 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.
Stanley Amuzie 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.
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.
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.
Hapoel Tel Aviv arrived with $3.9M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Nemanja Ljubisavljević has gone, the accounts have $3.9M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Everything agreed with Hapoel Tel Aviv, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout31 Aug 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 0‑4 defeat, delivered by Tomer David to a room that had heard them before.
The deal with Goianésia is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Tal Natcho has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yaw Ackah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The name of Nemanja Ljubisavljević has come up in conversations Hapoel Kiryat Shmona were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Hapoel Kiryat Shmona have done the hard part with Nasarawa United, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
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.
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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ofir Revivo 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. Ofir Atzili 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. Almog Shechter 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. Tomer Weissman 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.
“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.
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.
A loan enquiry to Athletico Paranaense: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Hapoel Kiryat Shmona have made the call to Novorizontino. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.