Jelle Bataille 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.
Squad17 Dec 2029
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.
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.
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 needed Cédric Don to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Hapoel Beer Sheva, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutAli Mohamed is still being punished for one mistake
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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Lior Kasa has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Jelle Bataille 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.
Squad10 Dec 2029
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.
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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Maccabi Haifa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Jelle Bataille and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Dec 2029
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.
A 3‑1 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.
50 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.
“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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings26 Nov 2029
A brace, and Cédric Don takes the afternoon — 9.14
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Cédric Don provided it, and the 9.14 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
7 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.
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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.09 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Guy Melamed 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.
Squad19 Nov 2029
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 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.
“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.
Half the programme played, position 2, 31 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
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.
6 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.
Jelle Bataille 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 Cédric Don was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Itay Cohen 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.
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.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
The shirt still fits. Hasan Hilu 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.
Player ratings5 Nov 2029
Adrián Ugarriza was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.70. 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.
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.
“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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.43 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
Position 3, 22 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.
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.
Match27 Oct 2029
Another one collected away from home
5 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.
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.
Squad29 Oct 2029
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.
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.
Jelle Bataille 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.
Match20 Oct 2029
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.
Squad22 Oct 2029
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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Maccabi Haifa hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Marked 8.21 — 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.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Jelle Bataille at his very best
Player ratingsManuel Benson was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Maccabi Petach Tikva 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.
Player ratings15 Oct 2029
A brace, and Cédric Don takes the afternoon — 9.34
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Cédric Don provided it, and the 9.34 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Jelle Bataille 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.
Squad15 Oct 2029
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.
Marked 8.02 — 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Gil Revivo on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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
The dugoutGuy Melamed asks for a word with the manager
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.
Jelle Bataille and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Oct 2029
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.
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.
Player ratings8 Oct 2029
Cédric Don was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.37. 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.
“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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.97 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Roi Kehat 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.
Squad1 Oct 2029
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.
Jelle Bataille was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
6 goals 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 Hapoel Acre.
Player ratings24 Sep 2029
Cédric Don was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.77. 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.
Squad24 Sep 2029
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.
Player ratings24 Sep 2029
Xander Severina was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.34. 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.
Marked 8.09 — 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.
Jelle Bataille 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: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad17 Sep 2029
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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Maccabi Haifa hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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
The dugoutShahar Piven dropped after a run of poor form
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.
“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 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.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 13 arrived, 14 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Roi Kehat 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad3 Sep 2029
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.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Ali Mohamed 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.
Spartak Moscow have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The board have signed the man in the dugout to a longer contract, which says more than any statement of support. Stability is easy to promise and costly to keep.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Maccabi Haifa have done the hard part with FC Nordsjaelland, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Jelle Bataille 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.
Boardroom27 Aug 2029
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.
Squad27 Aug 2029
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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ben Abada is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Eli Benayoun 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Maccabi Netanya waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Maccabi Haifa is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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.
$2.8M was the most the club would pay and Maccabi Petach Tikva 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.
Jelle Bataille 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.
Squad20 Aug 2029
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.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Maccabi Haifa have made the call to FC Nordsjaelland. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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.
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.
Noam Ben-Harush was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Maccabi Haifa asked and Sporting CP said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad13 Aug 2029
Liel Deri has improved at 25, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
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.
The dugout13 Aug 2029
The manager has not finished forgetting Ali Mohamed's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Hapoel Beer Sheva waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Maccabi Haifa is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Yonatan Glazer had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Roi Kehat will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Maccabi Haifa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Roi Kehat has agreed terms with Maccabi Petach Tikva for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 34 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: FC Nordsjaelland keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Jelle Bataille 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 doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad30 Jul 2029
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 Viktoria Plzen said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Nobody 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: Tondela keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Jelle Bataille 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 Cédric Don was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Maccabi Haifa asked and Lecce 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 loan enquiry to FC Nordsjaelland: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
“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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Bernardo Jacob is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad16 Jul 2029
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 Atletico Nacional said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Roi Kehat has improved at 37, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Maccabi Haifa hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Hapoel Beer Sheva 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.
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 a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
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 Roi Kehat stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Trivante Stewart will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Maccabi Haifa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Maccabi Haifa had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Paris Saint-Germain, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Jelle Bataille 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Hapoel Kfar Saba waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Maccabi Haifa is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Peter Agba commits to Maccabi Haifa for another 4 years.
Squad25 Jun 2029
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 Stockport County said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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 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 Sunderland for Nevot Ratner 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.
“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.” Xander Severina and Maccabi Haifa agree another 4 years.
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 Gil Shechter again, and this time the name on the line is Hapoel Raanana. Maccabi Haifa are listening politely and promising nothing.
Maccabi Haifa have made the call to Stade Rennais. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The offer from Hapoel Beer Sheva for Trivante Stewart 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.
“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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Palermo is saying, and nobody at Maccabi Haifa is enjoying the guessing.
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 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.
Squad11 Jun 2029
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.
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 Bruninho is on it.
Still no offer on the table, and Shahar Piven’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Maccabi Haifa heard it as anything else.
Jelle Bataille 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Adrián Ugarriza and Maccabi Haifa agree another 2 years.
Squad4 Jun 2029
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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Lior Kasa has his answer from Maccabi Haifa; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
In brief
The dugoutPeter Agba has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Liran Hazan
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Bruninho wants continental football; whether Maccabi Haifa can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Jelle Bataille and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 May 2029
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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Maccabi Haifa heard it as anything else.
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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
22 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.
Qualification is secured, and next season the big floodlit nights are continental ones. For the players it is a stage; for the accounts it is a lifeline; for the supporters it is passports.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gil Shechter will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Maccabi Haifa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Jelle Bataille 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.
Squad21 May 2029
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.
The dugout21 May 2029
The manager has not finished forgetting Ali Mohamed's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
It 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 Adrián Ugarriza has written the date down.
31 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.
“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.
Jelle Bataille 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.
Squad14 May 2029
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.
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 Bruninho 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.
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 Adrián Ugarriza has written the date down.
41 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.
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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Maccabi Haifa hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“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 3 years.
Squad7 May 2029
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.
“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.
Loan watch7 May 2029
Lior Kasa is tired of being somebody else's player
“Another season, another badge, another dressing room to win over. I would like one pre-season at Maccabi Haifa where somebody actually looks at me.” He belongs to Hapoel Beer Sheva until the spell ends; the argument is with the club that owns 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.
Jelle Bataille and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Apr 2029
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.
“I watch every Maccabi Haifa game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Hapoel Beer Sheva runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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. Gil Shechter will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Maccabi Haifa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Jelle Bataille 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.
Squad23 Apr 2029
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.
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.
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 dugout23 Apr 2029
The manager has not finished forgetting Ali Mohamed's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
It 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.
Jelle Bataille 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.
Squad16 Apr 2029
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.
“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.
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.
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 Adrián Ugarriza has written the date down.
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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Manuel Benson and Maccabi Haifa agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Maccabi Haifa heard it as anything else.
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.
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.
“I watch every Maccabi Haifa game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Hapoel Beer Sheva 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 Nigel Lonwijk.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nigel Lonwijk trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gil Shechter will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Maccabi Haifa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Jelle Bataille and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad26 Mar 2029
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.
Squad26 Mar 2029
6 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.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
Ali Mohamed is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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. Yagel Tarshish 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.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Yonatan Glazer and Maccabi Haifa agree another 5 years.
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 have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Jelle Bataille and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Mar 2029
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.
“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.
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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
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.
Jelle Bataille 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 Cédric Don was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
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.
The dugout26 Feb 2029
Ali Mohamed is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Maccabi Haifa are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 15 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Bnei Yehuda moved on, Nigel Lonwijk reports back to Maccabi Haifa, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
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.
Guy Melamed 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 Cédric Don was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
“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.
“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 deal that would have taken Trivante Stewart to Hapoel Beer Sheva has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Maccabi Haifa with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
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.
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.
Squad12 Feb 2029
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.
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 deal that would have taken Nahuel Leiva to Hapoel Acre has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Maccabi Haifa with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 2 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.
Jelle Bataille and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Feb 2029
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.
Minute 89, against Beitar Jerusalem, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
The words a physio says slowly. 14 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
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.
“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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Maccabi Haifa heard it as anything else.
Squad29 Jan 2029
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.
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 words a physio says slowly. 22 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nahuel Leiva will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Maccabi Haifa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Jelle Bataille was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad22 Jan 2029
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.
Player ratings22 Jan 2029
Xander Severina was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.85. 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 17 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.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Cédric Don will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Maccabi Haifa escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
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.
Position 2, 43 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.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part 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.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
In brief
Transfer targetsNo thanks: Ofek Biton rejects the move
SquadCédric Don falls out with a teammate over standards
25 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.
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.
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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Maccabi Haifa have done the hard part with Hapoel Raanana, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
“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.
33 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.
Hapoel Raanana 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.
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 want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Maccabi Haifa hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“Every summer it is another club, another set of team-mates, another manager to convince. I have done all that. Now I want a pre-season at Maccabi Haifa and a proper look at me.” He remains Hapoel Beer Sheva’s player until the spell runs out — but the argument is with the club that owns him.
Two goals and a mark of 8.57 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Jelle Bataille 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.
Player ratings25 Dec 2028
Cédric Don was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.95. 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Maccabi Haifa and Hapoel Acre, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Words at Maccabi Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pierre Cornud is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maccabi Haifa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Dec 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.
Every long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and Maccabi Haifa know now that the thought has arrived.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Gil Revivo on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.86 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Maccabi Haifa did not have in the autumn.
Squad11 Dec 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.
Noam Ben-Harush was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I watch every Maccabi Haifa game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Hapoel Beer Sheva runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout11 Dec 2028
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.” Gil Revivo, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Maccabi Haifa heard it as anything else.
Jelle Bataille 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 season average of 7.30 with 13 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad4 Dec 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 17 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Jelle Bataille 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.
Squad27 Nov 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 88. Maccabi Tel Aviv had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
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.
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, 23 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.
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.
Squad20 Nov 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.
Maccabi 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.
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 is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Maccabi Haifa can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Jelle Bataille and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 Nov 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Maccabi Haifa heard it as anything else.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Hapoel Kiryat Shmona scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
“I did not go to Hapoel Beer Sheva to sit and watch. I want to come back to Maccabi Haifa and fight for my place.” 7 appearances in 22 matches say the rest.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Beitar Jerusalem kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Maccabi Haifa will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 40 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.40 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Jelle Bataille 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 Nov 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.
“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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 50 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Jelle Bataille 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.
Squad30 Oct 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.
“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.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Maccabi Haifa will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Gil Revivo after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
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.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.97 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Maccabi Haifa hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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.
Noam Ben-Harush 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.
Match21 Oct 2028
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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Gil Revivo could afford to be generous.
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.
“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.
Position 3, 15 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 first defeat in 8 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Maccabi Petach Tikva; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
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.
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.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.44 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Jelle Bataille 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.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
Cédric Don was on a different afternoon to everybody else
10.00. 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Maccabi Haifa and Hapoel Kfar Saba in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Bruninho at his very best
Hapoel Acre go through and Maccabi Haifa go home, 1‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
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.
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Player ratings2 Oct 2028
Dan Melikson, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.60
A mark of 7.60 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Jelle Bataille 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.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
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.
Hapoel Acre will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Maccabi Haifa were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Two goals and a mark of 9.25 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Bruninho provided it, and the 8.04 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
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 footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. João Paulo has, at Maccabi Haifa, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad25 Sep 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Maccabi Haifa heard it as anything else.
Jelle Bataille and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Sep 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.
8 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 98. Hapoel Beer Sheva had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
The dugout18 Sep 2028
Peter Agba is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Hapoel Kfar Saba moved on, Nahuel Leiva reports back to Maccabi Haifa, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Jelle Bataille 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Daniel Sales has just signed for Maccabi Haifa, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad11 Sep 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Shon Solomon 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. Yonatan Levy is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Itay Glazer 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.
“I did not go to Hapoel Beer Sheva to sit and watch. I want to come back to Maccabi Haifa and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Nevot Ratner
The dugoutCédric Don has become a man the manager trusts
110Edition
The Maccabi Haifa Herald
4 Sep 2028
From our football correspondentSteady
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Deadline passes with 13 signed and 18 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Maccabi Haifa heard it as anything else.
Squad4 Sep 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.
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 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.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The clubs have shaken hands with Maccabi Tel Aviv; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
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.
A new deal for the man in the dugout, and the clearest thing a board can say without calling a press conference about it. Stability is cheap to promise and expensive to deliver.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Yonatan Glazer is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The phone has started ringing about Goni Naor again, and this time the name on the line is Hapoel Acre. Maccabi Haifa are listening politely and promising nothing.
In brief
Boardroom5 academy graduates step up at Maccabi Haifa
SquadWords at Maccabi Haifa training over how hard people work
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Nahuel Leiva had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Transfer targets21 Aug 2028
$630.0K settles it between the clubs for Joel Pereira
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.
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.
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.
The offer from Hapoel Haifa for Yair Mordechai 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.
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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Peter Agba has improved at 25, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 4 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad21 Aug 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.
“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.
“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 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 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
The deal with Maccabi Tel Aviv 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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Maccabi Haifa hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Jelle Bataille 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 28 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 4 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
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 deal that would have taken Yagel Tarshish to Hapoel Kfar Saba has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Maccabi Haifa with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Jelle Bataille 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 Tel Aviv wanted more than $370.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Cédric Don has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad7 Aug 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.
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 Hapoel Kfar Saba for Yonatan Glazer 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 offer went to Maccabi Tel Aviv 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.
Jelle Bataille and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Manuel Benson has improved at 31, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
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.
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 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.
“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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Liel Deri 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.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Peter Agba has improved at 25, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
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.
“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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Niv Gabay will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Maccabi Haifa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Maccabi Haifa hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad17 Jul 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.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Zohar Zasano 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 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Bruninho wants continental football; whether Maccabi Haifa can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Jelle Bataille 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 Cédric Don 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.
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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Beitar Jerusalem is saying, and nobody at Maccabi Haifa is enjoying the guessing.
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.
Jelle Bataille and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Jul 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.
“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 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 offer went to Beitar Jerusalem 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.
“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 fee is $1.9M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Maccabi Petach Tikva drove a hard bargain; time will say who won 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.
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.
“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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Maccabi Haifa has been clear about where Sean Goldberg stands, which is more than many ever get.
Squad26 Jun 2028
5 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.
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.
Maccabi Haifa asked and Hapoel Kiryat Shmona said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Hapoel Beer Sheva did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $1.4M for Adrián Ugarriza, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Jelle Bataille 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.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Peter Agba falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 17 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Maccabi Haifa are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
In brief
The dugoutPeter Agba has become a man the manager trusts
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The offer went to Hapoel Tel Aviv this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The 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.
$460.0K on the table at Maccabi Petach Tikva. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Jelle Bataille 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.
Squad12 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 now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cambuur have kept their man, and Maccabi Haifa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Hapoel Beer Sheva waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Maccabi Haifa is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Maccabi Haifa heard it as anything else.
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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Maccabi Haifa has been clear about where Nigel Lonwijk stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
Cédric Don 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.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at Maccabi Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Peter Agba 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 Bruninho is on it.
4 appearances and 0 goals is not a season away, it is a year lost. He is back at Maccabi Haifa no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their fault.
41 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
“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.
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.
Maccabi Tel Aviv go through and Maccabi Haifa go home, 1‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 15 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Guy Melamed was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I did not go to Hapoel Beer Sheva to sit and watch. I want to come back to Maccabi Haifa and fight for my place.” 4 appearances in 16 matches say the rest.
The dugout22 May 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 1‑3 Gil Revivo left the room before anybody could ask which.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Ethane Azoulay will call it something else in private.
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.
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.
Jelle Bataille 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.
Squad15 May 2028
Manuel Benson falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I 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.
“I watch every Maccabi Haifa game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Hapoel Tel Aviv runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bruninho trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Jelle Bataille and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 May 2028
Peter Agba falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Jelle Bataille is on it.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Maccabi Haifa told Nahuel Leiva something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 41 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
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.
“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.
Squad1 May 2028
Words at Maccabi Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Peter Agba 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 dugout1 May 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Manuel Benson's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
It 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.
“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.
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.
Jelle Bataille was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad24 Apr 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.
“I watch every Maccabi Haifa game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Hapoel Beer Sheva 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.
“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.
Position 5, 41 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
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.
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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Peter Agba falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I watch every Maccabi Haifa game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Hapoel Tel Aviv runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 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.
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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Cédric Don
SquadThe training reports on Mark Golenkov are not good
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.
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.
Noam Ben-Harush was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I 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 2 appearances in 10 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 19 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.
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.
“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 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 rules permit it and it stings anyway. Cleiton has agreed terms with Bnei Sakhnin for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next 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.
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.
“Three loans in three years. At some point a club has to decide if I am their player or their asset.” The spell at Hapoel Tel Aviv continues; the message travels home.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Manuel Benson's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
27 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.
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.
“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.
Jelle Bataille 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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Maccabi Haifa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Peter Agba 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.
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.
In brief
MatchContinental football is in reach for Maccabi Haifa
35 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.
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.
Jelle Bataille 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 Cédric Don was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
43 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.
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 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 2 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
52 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.
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 87th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Cédric Don decided nobody was going anywhere. Hapoel Beer Sheva had no time left to answer.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Bruninho wants continental football; whether Maccabi Haifa can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
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.
60 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.
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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Patrick Kpozo is living that version at Maccabi Haifa, and it tends to show in the first month.
“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.
Squad28 Feb 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.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Ofir Davidzada has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Maccabi Haifa have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 68 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.
Successful dribbles: 39. 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.
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.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 41 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
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.
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.
75 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.
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.
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Hapoel Kiryat Shmona, and it could have been more.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
A brace, and Cédric Don takes the afternoon — 8.26
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Cédric Don provided it, and the 8.26 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Hapoel Acre moved on, Goni Naor reports back to Maccabi Haifa, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Marked 8.02. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Maccabi Haifa.
The dugout14 Feb 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.” Gil Revivo kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The words a physio says slowly. 83 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 3 arrived, 6 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.
91 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.
3 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Hapoel Haifa the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Maccabi Haifa will enjoy reviewing.
“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.
Jelle Bataille 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 Cédric Don was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
99 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.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Niv Gabay will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Maccabi Haifa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Hapoel Tel Aviv is saying, and nobody at Maccabi Haifa is enjoying the guessing.
Jelle Bataille 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.