A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Maccabi Haifa will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 Maccabi Haifa know it.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Pierre Cornud and Maccabi Haifa agree another 2 years.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Nobody at Maccabi Haifa will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ethane Azoulay trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Bruninho signs something — a contract at Maccabi Haifa or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Maccabi Haifa will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 Maccabi Haifa know 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 Maccabi Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Maccabi Haifa has been clear about where Seol Yung-Woo stands, which is more than many ever get.
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 Jelle Bataille is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Maccabi Haifa, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Maccabi Haifa will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes Roi Mishpati a promise
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 48 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Maccabi Haifa is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Junior Diaz and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Seol Yung-Woo 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.
Everybody at Maccabi Haifa saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 36 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Cédric Don signs something — a contract at Maccabi Haifa or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
BoardroomThe Maccabi Haifa production line keeps running
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 56 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Maccabi Haifa is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Seol Yung-Woo 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.
6 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 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 Jay Idzes is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Maccabi Haifa know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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 Maccabi Haifa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Maccabi Haifa will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Maccabi Haifa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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 Omri Glazer is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Zahi Ahmed trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Bruninho signs something — a contract at Maccabi Haifa or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Maccabi Haifa have no good answer.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Maccabi Haifa. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Maccabi Haifa will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Maccabi Haifa may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Seol Yung-Woo 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.
Nobody at Maccabi Haifa will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Maccabi Haifa is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Seol Yung-Woo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Maccabi Haifa are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Nobody at Maccabi Haifa will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Cédric Don signs something — a contract at Maccabi Haifa or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Goni Naor has written the date down.
In brief
BoardroomThe Maccabi Haifa production line keeps running
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Ofri Arad
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Seol Yung-Woo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Maccabi Haifa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Jay Idzes 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.
Squad19 Mar 2029
8 new faces, and Maccabi Haifa are still learning each other
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.
Nobody at Maccabi Haifa will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Maccabi Haifa know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ethane Azoulay trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-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.
A 2‑0 win over Bnei Sakhnin, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Words at Maccabi Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Seol Yung-Woo 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 1‑0 win over Hapoel Tel Aviv, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
1 for Jay Idzes, marked 7.82, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Yarin Levi scored, was marked 7.97, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Maccabi Haifa can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Junior Diaz and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
In brief
Player ratingsA goal and an assist for Cédric Don — 7.59
Player ratingsA goal and an assist for Bruninho — 7.90
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Maccabi Haifa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Maccabi Haifa are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 6 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
“I did not go to Hapoel Kiryat Shmona to sit and watch. I want to come back to Maccabi Haifa and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 6 matches say the rest.
58 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
6 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Maccabi Haifa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It finished 1‑0, and it was Cédric Don’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Maccabi Haifa.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Words at Maccabi Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Seol Yung-Woo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Seol Yung-Woo
5 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.
The offer from Hapoel Haifa for Guy Melamed 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.
10 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Seol Yung-Woo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad12 Feb 2029
7 new faces, and Maccabi Haifa are still learning each other
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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Maccabi Haifa people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets5 Feb 2029
$4.0M settles it between the clubs for Matheus Davó
Maccabi Netanya have accepted the money. What Maccabi Haifa do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
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.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
Deadline passes with 6 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at Maccabi Haifa 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.
$1.8M was the most the club would pay and Maccabi Netanya were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The fee is $940.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Hapoel Beer Sheva drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Add another name to the list: Hapoel Acre have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Seol Yung-Woo. The answer from Maccabi Haifa has not changed — yet.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.9M — a club that wants Shaka Mawuli Eklu enough to be asked twice.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ion Nicolăescu provided it, and the 8.60 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Maccabi Netanya is saying, and nobody at Maccabi Haifa is enjoying the guessing.
The offer from Suduva for Goni Naor 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.
7.90, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
The fee is $1.4M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Beitar Jerusalem drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Maccabi Haifa 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.
3 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.
Jay Idzes 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Maccabi Haifa people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Maccabi Haifa had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Botafogo, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Sean Goldberg had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The chase for Pedro Amador ended with $2.5M changing hands and Hapoel Beer Sheva out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Ethane Azoulay 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.
Maccabi Haifa and Hapoel Beer Sheva have settled on $2.5M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Maccabi Haifa offered $2.6M; Hapoel Beer Sheva 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Remo have kept their man, and Maccabi Haifa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer from Beitar Jerusalem for Guy Melamed 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.
The chase for Zahi Ahmed ended with $1.2M changing hands and Hapoel Beer Sheva out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The name of Seol Yung-Woo has come up in conversations Maccabi Haifa were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Show 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 Beer Sheva have accepted the money. What Maccabi Haifa do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Match6 Jan 2029
After 13 games, Maccabi Haifa finally taste it again
The first defeat in 13 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Hapoel Beer Sheva; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Maccabi Haifa have gone to Hapoel Beer Sheva 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 shirt still fits. Lior Kasa is back at Maccabi Haifa, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
$1.2M on the table at Sport Recife. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $2.8M — a club that wants Pedro Amador enough to be asked twice.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Lior Kasa has just signed for Maccabi Haifa, and for once the answer mattered.
13 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.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Maccabi Haifa have had the benefit of it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Maccabi Haifa can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Maccabi Haifa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Yarin Levi scored, was marked 7.96, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Maccabi Haifa are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Yarin Levi 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.
12 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.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.78 for the rest of it.
“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 Maccabi Haifa know it.
Hapoel Tel Aviv next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
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.
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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Eitan Benayoun could afford to be generous.
11 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.
A brace, and Cédric Don takes the afternoon — 9.46
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Cédric Don provided it, and the 9.46 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.82 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
6 goals in one match, Cédric Don on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Maccabi Haifa and Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Show was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 22 he is 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Jay Idzes has just signed for Maccabi Haifa, and for once the answer mattered.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maccabi Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Maccabi Haifa will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
8 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Goni Naor will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Maccabi Haifa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
5 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.
A 3‑1 win over Hapoel Kiryat Shmona, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Ethane Azoulay 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.
Marked 8.41 — 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.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Marked 9.49 — 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maccabi Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
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.” Eitan Benayoun kept it short after the 4‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
In brief
The dugoutPierre Cornud has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Seol Yung-Woo
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 Omri Glazer is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Maccabi Haifa, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Beitar Jerusalem in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Maccabi Haifa would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
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 Goni Naor has written the date down.
20 graduates, from a department now rated 11 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
6 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.
Pierre Cornud 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.
Match11 Nov 2028
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for Maccabi Haifa. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-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.
Player ratings13 Nov 2028
Cédric Don was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.53. 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.
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.
5 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Maccabi Haifa is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Nahuel Leiva is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The dugoutJelle Bataille has become a man the manager trusts
118Edition
The Maccabi Haifa Herald
30 Oct 2028
From our football correspondentUpbeat
Player ratings30 Oct 2028
A brace, and Cédric Don takes the afternoon — 8.49
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Cédric Don provided it, and the 8.49 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Position 3, 16 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Maccabi Haifa are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maccabi Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 23 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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Maccabi Petach Tikva tried to reorganise, Maccabi Haifa did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
1 for Yarin Levi, marked 7.85, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Maccabi Haifa can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Seol Yung-Woo 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 2‑0 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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Hapoel Kfar Saba tried to reorganise, Maccabi Haifa did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Marked 8.07 — 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.
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 Cédric Don is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Maccabi Haifa, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
“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 Maccabi Haifa will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
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 Omer Dahan has written the date down.
In brief
BoardroomThe Maccabi Haifa production line keeps running
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ion Nicolăescu provided it, and the 8.84 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Maccabi Haifa can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Maccabi Haifa is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maccabi Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Hapoel Acre will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Maccabi Haifa were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
He is 23 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.
They paid twice — for the ticket and for the journey — and got a 4-0 win for it. Away support is the truest kind precisely because nothing about it is convenient.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 4‑0, Eitan Benayoun could afford to be generous.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“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 Maccabi Haifa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Pierre Cornud and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
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 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Eitan Benayoun to a room that had heard them before.
Nobody at Maccabi Haifa will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Maccabi Haifa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout18 Sep 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 1‑2 Eitan Benayoun left the room before anybody could ask which.
Nobody at Maccabi Haifa will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“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 Maccabi Haifa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Goni Naor will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Maccabi Haifa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maccabi Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Jelle Bataille is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Maccabi Haifa know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Sean Goldberg’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Maccabi Haifa needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Maccabi Haifa. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Maccabi Haifa can pretend not to have heard.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $595.9K of what Maccabi Haifa paid for Jonathan Agyapong is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 13 arrived, 17 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 Maccabi Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A 2‑0 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.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 51 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Maccabi Haifa can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Avi Levy has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Avi Melikson 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. Eli Hemed 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. Nir Natcho is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Maccabi Haifa will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Maccabi Haifa can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Pierre Cornud 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.
6 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 67 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Maccabi Haifa is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Beitar Jerusalem pay $330.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Maccabi Haifa, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Maccabi Haifa know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Maccabi Haifa. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Maccabi Haifa will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maccabi Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The shirt still fits. Roi Mishpati is back at Maccabi Haifa, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
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 Pierre Cornud is on it.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Yonas Malede 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 82 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Maccabi Haifa and Maccabi Tel Aviv have settled on $63.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
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 Omri Glazer is on it.
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 Show has written the date down.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 89 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Show 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.
Nobody at Maccabi Haifa will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 98 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Maccabi Haifa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Beitar Jerusalem have kept their man, and Maccabi Haifa 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 Ofri Arad 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 Maccabi Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Maccabi Haifa will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Maccabi Haifa know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Silva Kani trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Maccabi Haifa have no good answer.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Ofri Arad
64 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Maccabi Haifa asked and Maccabi Petach Tikva said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Yarin Levi commits to Maccabi Haifa for another 5 years.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Ofri Arad 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.
Nobody at Maccabi Haifa will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Maccabi Haifa, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Cédric Don signs something — a contract at Maccabi Haifa or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Maccabi Haifa can pretend not to have heard.
He is going to Hapoel Beer Sheva, the club has $3.8M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Hapoel Beer Sheva pay $3.8M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hapoel Kfar Saba have kept their man, and Maccabi Haifa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Pierre Cornud 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.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Maccabi Haifa know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
In brief
BoardroomMaccabi Haifa sign 10 boys into the academy
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Hapoel Acre waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Maccabi Haifa is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Maccabi Haifa are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Ofri Arad from FCSB for $8.1M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Words at Maccabi Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cédric Don 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.
Seol Yung-Woo 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 phone has started ringing about Zohar Zasano again, and this time the name on the line is Hapoel Beer Sheva. Maccabi Haifa are listening politely and promising nothing.
7 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.
FCSB have accepted the money. What Maccabi Haifa do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Maccabi Haifa offered $13.2M; Sunderland 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Maccabi Haifa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Maccabi Haifa can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Pierre Cornud and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Words at Maccabi Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cédric Don is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody at Maccabi Haifa will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
64 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
The offer went to Sunderland this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Maccabi Haifa offered $6.7M; Hapoel Kfar Saba 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hapoel Kfar Saba have kept their man, and Maccabi Haifa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is going to Maccabi Tel Aviv, the club has $3.1M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Maccabi Tel Aviv pay $3.1M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
The fee is $1.6M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Hapoel Kfar Saba drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $7.3M — a club that wants Yoan Stoyanov enough to be asked twice.
Hapoel Tel Aviv wanted more than $11.1M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Hapoel Kfar Saba have accepted the money. What Maccabi Haifa do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
$5.2M on the table at Hapoel Kfar Saba. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Maccabi Haifa can pretend not to have heard.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nigel Lonwijk and Maccabi Haifa agree another 4 years.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Cédric Don 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 a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cédric Don was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad29 May 2028
7 new faces, and Maccabi Haifa are still learning each other
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.
Nobody at Maccabi Haifa will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Maccabi Haifa, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Maccabi Haifa know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Maccabi Haifa that is a harder question to answer.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Maccabi Haifa will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Maccabi Haifa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
16 clean sheets across a season, and the one award on the pitch nobody else is eligible for. Most keepers get through a whole career without a year like it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pedrão was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Sarel Cohen 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.
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 Cédric Don is on it.
Ethane Azoulay 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.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at Maccabi Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Goni Naor 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 Jelle Bataille is on it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nigel Lonwijk will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Maccabi Haifa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Seol Yung-Woo 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.
Nobody at Maccabi Haifa will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Maccabi Haifa would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Maccabi Haifa that is a harder question to answer.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Show trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Cédric Don
Pierre Cornud 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.
“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 Maccabi Haifa know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pedrão was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Maccabi Haifa know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Maccabi Haifa has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Maccabi Haifa. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Maccabi Haifa, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Maccabi Haifa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 Maccabi Haifa know 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 Maccabi Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words at Maccabi Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Goni Naor is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Maccabi Haifa, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The least glamorous thing a foreign signing ever does and the one that decides most of them. A player who can hear the shout behind him is a different footballer from one who cannot.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Maccabi Haifa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Maccabi Haifa know it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Jelle Bataille is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Maccabi Haifa, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Maccabi Haifa is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Nobody at Maccabi Haifa will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Maccabi Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sarel Cohen is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Maccabi Haifa have no good answer.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Maccabi Haifa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Seol Yung-Woo and Maccabi Haifa agree another 3 years.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Trivante Stewart 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Goni Naor was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I did not go to Hapoel Kiryat Shmona to sit and watch. I want to come back to Maccabi Haifa and fight for my place.” 7 appearances in 10 matches say the rest.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Goni Naor will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Maccabi Haifa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ethane Azoulay and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Yinon Faingezicht and Maccabi Haifa agree another 4 years.
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 Cédric Don is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Maccabi Haifa, and both men came out saying it was fine.
64 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maccabi Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Trivante Stewart may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Maccabi Haifa has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Maccabi Haifa that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
Position 1 on 64 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Two goals and a mark of 8.17 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Maccabi Haifa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Pierre Cornud was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 23 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ethane Azoulay, and the manager let it.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words at Maccabi Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Goni Naor 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Maccabi Haifa has been clear about where Goni Naor stands, which is more than many ever get.
In brief
SquadMaccabi Haifa are still strangers to each other
Two goals and a mark of 8.22 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Ion Nicolăescu 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 22 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.
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.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Pierre Cornud at his very best
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Maccabi Haifa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
3 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.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Maccabi Haifa, and 5 appearances in 25 say he has earned the hearing.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Eitan Benayoun on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
17 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
“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 Maccabi Haifa know it.
Marked 8.17 — 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.
24 games in 262 appearances where nobody scored at all. A keeper's career is counted in nothing happening, and none of this happened by accident.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Goni Naor 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 earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Eitan Benayoun on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
16 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nigel Lonwijk will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Maccabi Haifa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 Maccabi Haifa know it.
He is 23 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 Pedrão was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Maccabi Haifa pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
In brief
SquadMaccabi Haifa are still strangers to each other
Maccabi Haifa close the window on a squad of their own making
4 in and 5 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Slovan Bratislava is saying, and nobody at Maccabi Haifa is enjoying the guessing.
The phone has started ringing about Nigel Lonwijk again, and this time the name on the line is Hapoel Acre. Maccabi Haifa are listening politely and promising nothing.
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. 13 actions, 6.85, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hapoel Kfar Saba have kept their man, and Maccabi Haifa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Maccabi Petach Tikva left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words at Maccabi Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pedrão 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.
15 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Maccabi Haifa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
1 for Yarin Levi, marked 7.47, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
The deal with Slovan Bratislava 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.
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.
Maccabi Haifa 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.
A 2‑1 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Hapoel Raanana waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Maccabi Haifa is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Maccabi Haifa, and it is not being withdrawn.
7.98, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
$920.0K on the table at Hapoel 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maccabi Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Maccabi Haifa asked and Maccabi Netanya 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 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Maccabi Haifa have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The chase for Ion Nicolăescu ended with $6.1M changing hands and Maccabi Tel Aviv out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
$730.0K was the most the club would pay and Hapoel Tel Aviv were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Pierre Cornud 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 approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The terraces17 Jan 2028
Maccabi Haifa spend $6.1M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $6.1M for Ion Nicolăescu, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Maccabi Haifa people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Maccabi Haifa have gone to Hapoel Tel Aviv with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Pedrão 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.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 5 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
In brief
SquadGoni Naor falls out with a teammate over standards
“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 Maccabi Haifa, and it is not being withdrawn.
1 for Yarin Levi, marked 7.85, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Maccabi Haifa have had the benefit of it.
The phone has started ringing about Nigel Lonwijk again, and this time the name on the line is Hapoel Acre. Maccabi Haifa are listening politely and promising nothing.
Maccabi Haifa asked and Hellas Verona said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I watch every Maccabi Haifa game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Hapoel Haifa runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.88 for the rest of it.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Yarin Levi. 1‑0 against Maccabi Netanya, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Hapoel Kiryat Shmona are out and Maccabi Haifa go through, 1‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
The 85th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Niv Gabay decided nobody was going anywhere. Hapoel Kiryat Shmona had no time left to answer.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Zohar Zasano will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Maccabi Haifa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.73 for the rest of it.
“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 Maccabi Haifa know it.
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Maccabi Haifa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two goals and a mark of 8.63 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Maccabi Haifa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
A brace, and Yarin Levi takes the afternoon — 8.09
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Yarin Levi provided it, and the 8.09 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 Maccabi Haifa know it.
10 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
The words a physio says slowly. 26 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Seol Yung-Woo has, at Maccabi Haifa, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Pierre Cornud 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at Maccabi Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pedrão 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 watch every Maccabi Haifa game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Hapoel Haifa runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody at Maccabi Haifa will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Maccabi Haifa, another week without a signature from Seol Yung-Woo.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
Player ratingsThe pass was always on for Nahuel Leiva
Player ratingsThe one thing Yarin Levi could not do
The words a physio says slowly. 34 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.
First, on 27 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
A brace, and Cédric Don takes the afternoon — 8.59
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Cédric Don provided it, and the 8.59 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Pierre Cornud 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.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
At 23 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.
In brief
Player ratingsEthane Azoulay did the work nobody counts — 7.03
42 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Maccabi Haifa lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Zohar Zasano will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Maccabi Haifa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
1 for Ethane Azoulay, marked 7.75, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 7 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pedrão was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Beitar Jerusalem next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Nobody at Maccabi Haifa will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Words at Maccabi Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pedrão 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.
Sarel Cohen 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Maccabi Haifa has been clear about where Jonathan Agyapong stands, which is more than many ever get.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Maccabi Haifa know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Hapoel Haifa next, and one man in the Maccabi Haifa dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Maccabi Haifa has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Maccabi Haifa. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
7 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.
Match6 Nov 2027
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for Maccabi Haifa. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
“I watch every Maccabi Haifa game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Hapoel Haifa runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
He is 22 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.
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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Goni Naor 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.
6 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.
1 for Ethane Azoulay, marked 7.57, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maccabi Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Hapoel Kfar Saba will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Maccabi Haifa were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Zohar Zasano will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Maccabi Haifa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Show and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match23 Oct 2027
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Maccabi Haifa. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
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.
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.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.70 for the rest of it.
“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 Maccabi Haifa know 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 Maccabi Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Yarin Levi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.24. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Pierre Cornud was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.02. 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.
Chances created: 13. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Maccabi Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Goni Naor is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Maccabi Haifa know it.
Pierre Cornud 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 Pedrão was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Maccabi Haifa, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Maccabi Haifa told Yarin Levi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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 Omri Glazer is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Maccabi Haifa know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
1 for Yarin Levi, marked 7.65, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
3 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.
At 23 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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Maccabi Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pedrão 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yarin Levi, and the manager let it.
The dugout4 Oct 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.” Eitan Benayoun, on a 3‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Zohar Zasano will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Maccabi Haifa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Goni Naor was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 7.20. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout27 Sep 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.” Eitan Benayoun kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Cédric Don signs something — a contract at Maccabi Haifa or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Maccabi Petach Tikva moved on, Amit Arazi reports back to Maccabi Haifa, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hapoel Beer Sheva have kept their man, and Maccabi Haifa 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 Pedrão was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout20 Sep 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.” Eitan Benayoun kept it short after the 4‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Nobody at Maccabi Haifa will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
In brief
SquadThe division's best last weekend was a Maccabi Haifa man
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Hapoel Kfar Saba had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Silva Kani reports back to Maccabi Haifa with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Maccabi Netanya have kept their man, and Maccabi Haifa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Yarin Levi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at Maccabi Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pedrão 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Maccabi Haifa people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The name of Trivante Stewart has come up in conversations Maccabi Haifa were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Maccabi Haifa close the window on a squad of their own making
6 in and 20 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Maccabi Haifa can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Maccabi Haifa asked and Milton Keynes Dons said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at Maccabi Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Goni Naor 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.
“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 Maccabi Haifa, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Maccabi Haifa people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer from Maccabi Tel Aviv for Jelle Bataille 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Zohar Zasano will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Maccabi Haifa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Maccabi Haifa moved before anybody else could: a new deal for Eitan Benayoun, agreed quietly and announced loudly. Boards extend managers for many reasons; the good one is the one this looks like.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Maccabi Haifa are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Boardroom30 Aug 2027
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Maccabi Haifa
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Estudiantes have kept their man, and Maccabi Haifa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
In brief
SquadWords at Maccabi Haifa training over how hard people work
Pierre Cornud and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Cédric Don 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 Haifa asked and Dinamo Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Maccabi Haifa have made the call to Maccabi Netanya. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Maccabi Haifa know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He is going to Hapoel Beer Sheva, the club has $4.4M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Hapoel Beer Sheva pay $4.4M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Maccabi Netanya have kept their man, and Maccabi Haifa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Maccabi Haifa can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The name of Silva Kani has come up in conversations Maccabi Haifa were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cédric Don was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
10 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Maccabi Haifa are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Maccabi Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pedrão 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 easiest signature of my career.” Michael Ohana and Maccabi Haifa agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Nobody at Maccabi Haifa will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Maccabi Haifa, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Hapoel Raanana waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Maccabi Haifa is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Maccabi Haifa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Cédric Don 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.
Nobody at Maccabi Haifa will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Sarel Cohen 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 Maccabi Haifa, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Omri Glazer signs something — a contract at Maccabi Haifa or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Maccabi Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cédric Don 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.
Yarin Levi 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.
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 Jelle Bataille is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Maccabi Haifa know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Xander Severina trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Maccabi Haifa has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Maccabi Haifa people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The name of Silva Kani has come up in conversations Maccabi Haifa were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Show 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 Pedrão was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
10 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.
Nobody at Maccabi Haifa will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Maccabi Haifa would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Maccabi Haifa will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Maccabi Haifa is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cédric Don was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The phone has started ringing about Hamza Shibli again, and this time the name on the line is Bnei Sakhnin. Maccabi Haifa are listening politely and promising nothing.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Maccabi Haifa will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Hapoel Acre waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Maccabi Haifa is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maccabi Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Cédric Don 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.
30 appearances and 3 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
9 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Maccabi Haifa can pretend not to have heard.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Maccabi Haifa will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Position 3, 51 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at Maccabi Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pedrão is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Hapoel Raanana waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Maccabi Haifa is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 42 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cédric Don was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
6 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.
Nobody at Maccabi Haifa will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Maccabi Haifa will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Shakhtar keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
“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 Maccabi Haifa know it.
The phone has started ringing about Silva Kani again, and this time the name on the line is Hapoel Raanana. Maccabi Haifa are listening politely and promising nothing.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Hamza Shibli and Maccabi Haifa agree another 4 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maccabi Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.