The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Hapoel Tel Aviv people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: DAC Dunajska Streda keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 15 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
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 Tel Aviv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
7 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.
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.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
Maccabi Petach Tikva next, and one man in the Hapoel Tel Aviv dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
In brief
MarketThe window shut and Ziv Morgan is still in the building
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Nasarawa United waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Hapoel Tel Aviv is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A brace, and Stav Toriel takes the afternoon — 8.75
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Stav Toriel provided it, and the 8.75 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Hapoel Tel Aviv have gone to DAC Dunajska Streda with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $3.9M has been paid because Nemanja Ljubisavljević is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
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 Tel Aviv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nemanja Ljubisavljević was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $3.9M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Daniel Dappa 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.
Hapoel Tel Aviv asked and Deportes Copiapó said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The offer from Maccabi Netanya for Anas Mahamid was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Dor Refaelov 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. Gil Melikson is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The plan went upstairs and came back down. Nothing about that will make a headline anywhere else, and everybody who works at the training ground will remember it for years.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Hapoel Tel Aviv are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Hapoel Kfar Saba next, and one man in the Hapoel Tel Aviv dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Hapoel Tel Aviv have gone to Hapoel Kiryat Shmona with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Maccabi Haifa keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Hapoel Tel Aviv have done the hard part with Maccabi Haifa, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Omri Levi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Hapoel Tel Aviv will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Hapoel Tel Aviv asked and Alianza Lima said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
$1.2M on the table at Maccabi Haifa. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Hapoel Tel Aviv offered $1.2M; Maccabi Tel Aviv said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Stav Toriel and Hapoel Tel Aviv agree another 5 years.
The phone has started ringing about Anas Mahamid again, and this time the name on the line is Maccabi Netanya. Hapoel Tel Aviv are listening politely and promising nothing.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Amit Hemed 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.
$940.0K on the table at Maccabi Tel Aviv. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Andrian Kraev 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Hapoel Tel Aviv can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Still no offer on the table, and Emmanuel Boateng’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.